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9 Budget Friendly But Good Sony FE Mount Lenses (Under $600)

Chris Gampat
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02/21/2019
4 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Rokinon 50mm f1.4 AF FE lens review product images 5

If you’re looking for cheap but really good lenses for Sony FE cameras, then you’re in the right spot.

Here’s the good news: we’ve tested loads and loads of lenses for Sony E mount; and you can see some in our database right here. And then there’s better news: we’ve scoured through our reviews index to pick and choose some of the best lenses for the money if you’re looking for entry level lenses and budget lenses. If you’re searching for an affordable wide angle prime, then we’ve found one! Want a portrait lens? We’ve got more than one for you!

Rokinon 35mm f2.8 AF

Pros

  • Sharp image quality
  • Good bokeh
  • Focuses pretty much as closely as the Sony version. It isn’t as accurate in low lighting or as fast though.
  • Affordable

Cons

  • Weather sealing would have been nice but I understand why it isn’t there.
  • Focus motors can be a bit loud at times with later cameras.

Check out our full review

Buy Now $278: Amazon

 

Sony 28mm f2 FE

Pros

  • Very sharp at any aperture
  • Beautiful bokeh
  • Nice, small size
  • Lightweight
  • Pretty affordable

Cons

  • No weather sealing (EDIT we are wrong about this)
  • Metal build on the exterior, though almost hollow feeling because it’s so lightweight.

Check out our full review

Buy Now $423: Amazon

 

Sony 85mm f1.8 FE

Pros

  • Great image quality
  • Fast focusing with the Sony a7r II and in good lighting it will focus quickly with the Sony a7
  • Nice feel; though not as great as the G Master 85mm f1.4 lens.
  • Weather resistance built in
  • Compact size

Cons

  • Honestly, not a darn thing.

Check out our full review

Buy Now $573: Amazon

 

Lensbaby 85mm f1.8

Pros

  • Fantastic build quality
  • Super smooth focusing
  • Clicked apertures
  • 12 aperture blades
  • Lightweight
  • When stopped down this lens becomes super sharp
  • Muted colors to help counter the tons of saturation that Sony tends to output

Cons

  • Wish it were still just a bit sharper wide open
  • I personally wanted more lens flare

Check out our full review

Buy Now $573: Amazon

 

Rokinon 20mm f1.8 FE

Pros

  • A budget friendly lens with excellent performance
  • Smooth focusing
  • Feels nice

Cons

  • Big on the Sony E mount lineup of cameras
  • Though this won’t be a con to lots of people, it’s a very standard lens that is very clinical in its image creation. Personally, I need some character that helps me to create photos that don’t look like everyone else’s.
  • Why no depth of field scale?

Check out our full review.

Buy Now $449: Amazon

 

Lensbaby 35mm f2.8 Burnside

Pros

  • Solid aluminum construction means the lens can withstand considerable abuse during field use
  • Buttery smooth focus ring
  • Dreamy bokeh quality
  • Vignette Control is an interesting way to dial in your vignette and bokeh quality in camera

Cons

  • Lack of weather sealing
  • The front lens cap is of the pressure fit design, so forgetful or accident prone photographers should take care to put it away in a secure location while shooting with this lens
  • Clicked aperture ring means this lens may not be suitable for video shooters

Check out our full review

Buy Now $499: Amazon

 

Lensbaby Velvet 56mm f1.6

 

Pros

  • Very sharp when stopped down
  • Beautiful metallic build quality
  • Nice clicked aperture
  • Buttery smooth manual focus
  • Great colors, especially for skin tones
  • Small sizes that reminds me of very vintage lenses

Cons

  • Only full stop aperture settings
  • No effective depth of field scale
  • Very, very soft wide open to the point of sometimes not knowing if something is in focus or not
  • Not too sure about the $499.95 price point.

Check out our full review

Buy Now $449.95: Amazon

 

Rokinon 50mm f1.4 AF

Pros

  • Contrasty images
  • Sharp photos
  • Beautiful bokeh
  • Metal feeling build on the exterior
  • Autofocus that works pretty darned well

Cons

  • Autofocus isn’t as fast as Sony’s
  • Really wish it had weather sealing, but the price point isn’t really for that
  • Pretty big

Check out our full review

Buy Now $549: Amazon

 

Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f4

Pros

  • Great colors! Not super saturated either!
  • Great sharpness when used carefully
  • Focusing so close that you’re touching the subject is kind of insane
  • Due to the really close focusing feature, you can get get some awesome bokeh from this lens
  • Fantastic metal built quality
  • Very fun!
  • Built in perspective control with lens shift is a really awesome feature
  • Very affordable
  • Design of the focusing scale forces you to be very careful.

Cons

  • Lens hood gets in the way when shifting the lens, but you kind of need to expect that.
  • Front element tends to get dirty. For that reason it’s best used with a UV filter, that’s not necessarily a con but more like something extra to remember
  • Some may complain that it’s “only f4” but that doesn’t matter much.

Check out our full review

Buy Now $497: Amazon

 

35mm 50mm 85mm Bokeh budget Laowa lensbaby lenses price review Rokinon sharpness sony
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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