A local ice desert from Kyoto Uji, I ate it at Kyoto Nijo castle.
More typical one is ice with green tea sauce and my friends had it. It is not very expensive , reasonably price, I think it was 600yen.
Now we all know Sony is the best consumer camera lens manufacture in the world(updated 2).
As I predicted a year ago, long before the never learn anything obtuse SAR crap ever came up with it, the Sony FE24mmf1.4GM lens is just announced.
And it is a really good lens as I also predicted a year ago.
It is sensationally small, cheap for what it is, extremely good for what it is, and most importantly this FE24mmf1.4GM makes the f1.4 FE line completed at least similarly amazing the FE50mmf1.4ZA replaced with the new GM version of it.
Sony has commented many times when we asked about the actual relationship between ZA vs GM designations, the GM is the successor of the ZA, Sony does not want to pay license fee to Zeiss to produce a lens they designed themselves and it is not a great business model in many ways since many people think all great ZA line lenses are designed by Zeiss (actually Sony designed all) and their own G or simple FE lenses are just simply a bit inferior version of ZA.
And Nikon fanboys talk about it as a weakness of Sony system in general that Sony desperately needs Zeiss and KM to make a decent lens.
But the new GM lens lineup just completed with the 24mm f1.4GM have just proved all of us wrong, Sony has great lens engineers of its own and Sony does not need Zeiss, Tamron or KM to produce any lens Sony wants to make.
This new tiny 24mm f1.4 lens has 3 ED elements and 2 XA glass element and Nano AR coating, this means it would be really good in resolution, flare control, CA and durability in the field, etc.
And it has amazing direct drive SSM focusing system, this means the AF is super fast and accurate.
And the most amazing part of all of this thing is it costs only 1399 USD. The mediocre Nikon AF-S24mmf1.4G costs more than 2k USD. The Canon version costs more than 1.7k USD and it is a decade old lens design.
So this is a bargain lens and has effectively killed many people's desire to go Nikon or Canon lens-less mirrorless 'SYSTEM'.
I am sure many Batis 25mm f2 suddenly popping up for sale online tonight. Many recent Batis 25mm buyers regretting their impulsive decision, as I did with my Batis 135mmf2.8APO(I should have got the Sigma instead)....
I think I'll sell my Loxia 25mm f2.4 and Sony FE55mm f1.8 to get the FE24mmf1.4GM as soon as it's out here..in the first week of next month(October).
I cannot wait testing it in a beautiful fall mountain.
I really think this amazing 24mm f1.4 GM will give a bit pause for many of people who have been considering about the Nikon Z.
Now Sony has 49 FE lenses and there are many more coming in the next year and I know most of these will be cheaper less costly f1.8 primes and f4 zooms. So now we can safely say the E mount will be the new FF standard. Nikon's new Z launch and similar Canon R launch does not change the E mount dominance in FF league since these two potentially great camera systems lack almost all needed lenses at the launch.
Many of CN fans say it's fine they can just adapt our F or EF lenses. It may work for some of them albeit some serious functionality penalty(such as extremely slow AF or no EXIF)...... but eventually a new system requires a full set of great lenses to back it up, the annoying adapter solution does not really work well. It works initially and we have been there with the E mount and m43, so we know its merits and demerits very well, but if they really need to get most out of the new Nikon Z or the Canon R system, they need a proper set of the native lenses. CN fanatics called Sony E mount as a lens-less system so long, but now Sony has developed arguably the most desirable lens system ever in FF class.
At least for wide angle shooter like us, Sony E mount is the best mount system, no doubt about that now.
The E mount has the best wide lens lineup by far and it will not change for many years unless Canon or Nikon bravely decide to welcome Zeiss, Voigtlander, Sigma, Tamron, Samyang, Laowa and others into developing some wide lenses for their new lens-less mount system.
I think Canon will do that, but Nikon has no courage to do it , they do not want others play this game in their field.
This means Nikon will not get the lenses like the new Voigtlander 21mm f3.5 ,the 40mmf1.2 SL, the Zeiss 135mm f2.8 APO or the Voigtlander 110mm f2.5 APO Macro.
Now, Sony with 49 native lenses and the E mount lens catalog is growing rapidly. And we all know the Panasonic SL mount camera with 8k shooting ability will be announced in a few days, and I think it will be a historically important camera announcement as it will be the first 8k/4k fullframe body with a respectable lens catalog at the very launch.
So I think it is now safe to guess it will be Panasonic vs Sony , not Canon vs Sony vs Nikon any more.
And I am sure the FE24mmf1.4GM is a true gamechanger, an incredible feat of lens design. It is sharp wideopen across the frame and sharp throughout the available F stops, and it is almost as small as the Batis 25mm f2.
UPDATE: The future of the Sony Zeiss brand, many people question about this issue and many Nikon fanboys still criticize Sony for being unable to produce decent lenses for FF even after the series of GM line lenses announced.
So I guess they will never admit Sony actually is a better lens producer designer than Nikon or Zeiss now, and I give up convincing them......
But we had a chance to attend a short presentation of one of chief Sony lens designers in Yokohama recently, and it tells us clearly how confident they are about their lens design team now. And we think we have learned something interesting from his presentation and I would like to talk about that a bit.
IMHO, now, it is safe to say Sony has one of the best lens design teams in the world at least for consumer camera lens(so-called ILC lenses), maybe only second to Leica. And their GM branded lenses are now very highly regarded, and almost all reviewers rate these better than the CN equivalents.
The 85mm f1.4GM is really a fantastic lens, it is a much better lens than the Batis 85, let alone the similar CN ones for their D-SLRs. It has immediately become a living legend of the ILC lens world.
So I think it is time for them to get rid of Zeiss blue badge and make it more reasonable.
I think Sony knows Sony needs to do this better than any one else, thus all their recent highend lenses are GM not ZA. I think there will be no more Zony coming , actually I think they have been already working on this and slowly but surely replacing their ZA lenses with the GM equivalents of these.
So we haven't seen any ZA designated lens from Sony since about July 2016.
As I said in my previous write up here , Naokai Miyagawa of Sony, who designed the FE55mm f1.8ZA or the FE50mmf1.4ZA, the FE24-70mm f2.8GM(I believe), recently gave us a short presentation in which he told us how they became the no1 consumer ILC lens maker in the world and why he thinks his lens design team is the no1 in the world(at least in camera lens field).
He basically said something like below:
"Nikon, Zeiss may be a Mclaren of camera, but just like Mclaren cannot design highly fuel efficient consumer cars like Toyota or Renault that runs almost 25km a litter, Nikon Zeiss cannot design a small but great high quality 35mm Fullframe lenses. Designing an industrial monster lens almost without any budget restriction or size restriction, is not the same as designing a good high quality and highly portable lens for a 35mm FF camera system for highly budget minded (say 2k) highend consumer camera market."
He also said his team is always hiring new people from all over the world, a few from Germany, a few from Singapore and HK, a few from Osaka and Tokyo, a few from London, etc. And he believes his lens design team is the most international and liberal one in the world. Also, they are still working closely together with KM and it will continue to be a good relationship.
From KM, they've got the Nano AR coating, and one of their young engineers invented the exceptionally durable fluorine coating.
He says only Sony's fluorine coating lasts more than a decade and durable enough to be cleaned with a cheap glass cleaning paper.
So Sony definitely does not need Zeiss or their T* coating to sell their GM class lenses, which are already better than any of Zeiss or CN consumer lenses(meaning their lenses for 35mm class camera).
I know still many Zeiss fanboys and Sigma fanboys say their Otus or Art are better, but they are massive and if Sony are ignoring the balance portability and AF, they can also make a similar lens, but most mainstream shooters do not want anything huge like Sigma 85mm f1.4 Art regardless of its amazing resolution. I also hate people compare the Otus 85mm f1.4 to the Sony GM, Sony costs only 1.6k US, while much less versatile Otsus costs more than 4k US.
For me the 4k price can be acceptable if it is really really good , but the size is not, I hate the Otus or Art sized lenses, and I know so do many other logical people.
I mean the resolution difference between the Otus/Art 85 vs the GM 85 is negligible and can be only detectable in the far corners. In real world image extreme corner quality is usually not very important. So I think the GM series primes hit a huge homerun...........
I mean no normal sized portable lenses beat the GM including the best Nikon and the Zeiss glass for their D-SLR mount.
UPDATE2: I think the 24mm f1.4GM is a perfect lens to make a great three lens kit with the FE24-105mmf4GOSS and FE85mmf1.4GM.
The 24mm f`.4GM solves all the FE24-105mmf4G IQ related issues at the 24mm widest end of the zoom.
But I am still debating against it since I already have 3 other lenses cover 24mm FL; the Loxia 25mm f2.4, the FE16-35mmf2.8GM and Batis 25mmf2.
To be honest the Batis 25mm f2 is a lousy lens with lots of odious CA in the edges and every contrast area of any image made with it, but the current resell value of the Batis is so bad that I will lose about 800US immediately as sell mine.
And the FE16-35mm f2.8GM is really sharp and fantastically corrected for comma at 21-24mm range, so I am not sure the GM makes real sense for me. I think it must be sharper than the FE16-35mm f2.8GM , FE24-70mmf2.8GM and the Loxia 24mm f2.4 at 24mm f2.8 and on to justify its place in my bag.
So I may not buy it soon but I will buy it eventually since I like 24mm FL and I do need a AF capable 24mm prime in addition to my 16-35mm and 24-70mm f2.8 zooms.
In case I get the GM this time(already preordered it)before this December, I will sell my Batis 25mm f2 and FE24-70mmf2.8GM, but I will not sell my Loxia 25 and FE16-35mmf2.8GM.
Another good news for me and I think many others looking for a good 35mm prime is that a Sony rep I personally know told me I should retry the FE35mm f1.4ZA because the latest ones are really good as they found more reliable manufacturing process for that type of lens after the 85mm GM and they have applied that " more reliable manufacturing process" for that lens production. So I tried it at Sony Fukuoka and Osaka, they are indeed better than my previous one I had in 2016.
So I really want to buy one of these very soon. To me a fast 35mm prime and 85mm prime are very important and if I have to get that the 35mm Distagon now, I think I will have to cancel my 24mm f2.4GM preorder now.
But I think I will eventually get all these primes. I just hate almost all of my Batis lenses except the 85mm Batis.
Sure, the 135mm Batis is technically a great lens but I find the rendering extremely boring. The 25mm f2 is a really terrible lens , one of the worst Zeiss branded lens (it is suspected to be a Tamron and there is the identical patent filed by them).
The 18, I actually liked it but I did not think it is better than my FE16-35mm f2.8GM at 18mm. So I guess I am not interested in Batis any more, I will still buy Loxia series but I do not find Batis anything really special, it was a good series when Sony did not have anything like the FE85mm f1.4GM, the 50mm f1.4 ZA, the FE24mm f1.4GM or the Sigma 135mm f1.8 Art.
But now, it is not a very interesting series to me.
The 40mm f2CF Batis seems to be also a very disappointing lens. It is not sharper than the FE35mm f2.8 and the FE35mm f2.8 is about 600 US cheaper.
