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Features

The Best Lenses for the Sony a7r V (Primes Edition)

Chris Gampat
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05/05/2023
5 Mins read
Hillary Grigonis The Phoblographer Sony 35mm f14 Review-3875

There are some fantastic lenses for the Sony a7r V. But only a few are weather resistant, focus quickly, and provide incredible image quality. Of course, Sony users often demand the most clinically perfect lenses they can get their hands on. So we’re rounding up the best lenses for the Sony a7r V. And guess what? They’re all primes!

How We Chose the Best Lenses for the Sony a7r V for Those Who Love Primes

Here’s some insight into how we chose the best lenses for the Sony a7r V:

  • Our ethics don’t let us speak on products we haven’t fully reviewed within these style of roundups. Luckily, we’ve reviewed all of Sony’s lenses. And these truly are the best lenses for the Sony a7r V if you’re looking for primes.
  • The best lenses for the Sony a7r V are weather resistant (at least the ones featured in this roundup).
  • There’s a big emphasis on sharpness here more than anything.
  • The Sony 55mm f1.8 is no slouch! You’ll be amazed at how sharp this little lens still is despite its age.
  • In this list of the best lenses for the Sony a7r V, you can bet you’ll get great autofocus speed.
  • Be sure to also check out our guide to Sony FE lenses. Also check out our Sony a7r V review.

Sony 50mm f1.2 G Master

PROS

  • Fast to use on both the Sony a7r III and the Sony a7r IV
  • Weather sealing
  • Nice render
  • Very sharp
  • Wow, Sony actually listened to us and allowed a little bit of flare in. Bravo!
  • I think over $2,000 is a fair price
  • Pretty lightweight

CONS

  • A few autofocus issues with strong backlighting
  • Two different hard function buttons are a bit odd
  • Still has a render that’s nowhere as gorgeous as Canon’s

What We Think

In our review, we state:

The Sony 50mm f1.2 G Master is a pretty great lens. I don’t see a reason to upgrade beyond the 55mm f1.8 if you own it already. If you’re a Canon camera owner, there’s also no reason to jump ship. But if you love the 50mm field of view and want the bokeh, spring for this lens.

Buy It

Pick it up at Amazon or Adorama

Sony 55mm f1.8

PROS

  • Sharp images
  • Creamy bokeh
  • Weather-sealed
  • Smooth & large focusing ring

CONS

  • Lens hood adds a good amount of length to the front
  • No depth of field scale

What We Think

In our review, we state:

Sony has some of the best color rendition around, and if you manage to get everything right in the camera, you’ll have little to worry about in post-production. The 55mm skews warm in most cases, but if that’s not your thing you can always fix it later. Also, the lens encourages chimping because you’ll want to see what you just took.

Buy It

Pick it up at Amazon or Adorama

Sony 135mm f1.8 G Master

Pros

  • Excellent image quality
  • Preferred focal length for portraiture
  • Dust and moisture resistant
  • Sturdy magnesium alloy construction
  • Lighter than most 135mm lenses on the market

Cons

What We Think

In our review, we state:

Bokeh-hungry photographers will find lots to love about the Sony 135mm f1.8 G Master. Thanks to its 11 bladed circular aperture design, the 135mm G Master is capable of producing beautifully creamy bokeh that helps to isolate your subjects from the rest of the frame. When shooting wide open, the bokeh will sometimes be oval in appearance. Photographers with a preference for more circular bokeh balls will want to stop the 135mm G Master down slightly to achieve that effect.

Buy It

Pick it up at Amazon or Adorama

Sony 14mm f1.8 G Master

PROS

  • Weather sealed
  • Great colors
  • You can focus really close and get nice bokeh
  • Autofocus is fast
  • Small
  • Lightweight

CONS

  • It’s almost $1,600
  • Shooting with this lens really did feel soulless. 

What We Think

In our review, we state:

The Sony 14mm f1.8 G Master isn’t innovative in that it’s a fast wide-angle. Sigma has done this kind of lens for a long time now. Instead, it’s innovative in how lightweight and small Sony made it. Plus, it focuses incredibly fast. More importantly, this lens was made from the ground up for mirrorless cameras.

Buy It

Pick it up at Amazon or Adorama

Sony 35mm f1.4 G Master

PROS

  • Lighter than competing lenses
  • Fits in the palm of my hand
  • Spectacular images
  • Weather-sealed
  • De-click aperture ring

CONS

  • Pricey
  • Some photographers won’t like the bokeh.

What We Think

In our review, we state:

With the wide-angle and wide aperture, bokeh balls are oblong towards the edges when the light source is close to the camera. This isn’t necessarily a goof on Sony’s part, but a result of the extreme angle that the light has to bend to enter such a wide aperture. This almost mimics a bit of the swirly bokeh of older lenses, even though the background itself doesn’t appear to twist. The cat’s eye bokeh is most obvious close to the camera, still present from a few feet away, and barely there at longer distances. In short, you’ll notice it in the foreground, but less so in the background.

Buy It

Pick it up at Amazon or Adorama

Sony 24mm f1.4 G Master

Pros

  • Compact and lightweight
  • Weather sealed
  • Superb image quality
  • Outstanding edge to edge sharpness, even when shooting wide open
  • Dreamy, circular bokeh
  • Impressive minimal focus distance of 0.79 feet (0.24 meters)

Cons

  • Slight color fringing (easily mitigated in post processing)

What We Think

In our review, we state:

In terms of sharpness, Sony knocked it out of the park when designing the 24mm f1.4 G Master. Areas in focus are consistently tack sharp, with no discernible degradation in sharpness when moving towards the corners of the image.

Buy It

Pick it up at Amazon or Adorama

The Phoblographer’s various product round-up features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear we’ve fully reviewed in these roundups. If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

a7r v autofocus best lenses G Master image quality lenses sony Sony 135mm sony 14mm sony 24mm sony 35mm Sony 50mm Sony a7r V
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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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