Last time, I talked about the most versatile lenses of all time for traveling "16-35mm f4." Today, we are moving onto a focal length that I think all traveling photographers should have as their kits, which is the "24mm f1.4." I'm using today the "Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM" for the review gear. As you can see, it's a prime lens with a very wild aperture. I thought it is coming really handy when you are carrying two different lens types while traveling. A zoom lens can do multiple extra focal lengths, and the other can be specific for portrait and night photography.

The things that come with the prime lens are mainly made for doing the portraits, which means wide aperture and super crispy photo quality. I thought I don't need a wide aperture lens until one day I have a chance to try on the 35mm f1.4. I was amazed by the bokeh and how it smoothes out the background, and after that, I can't go back with my f4 lens.

I usually do portrait on this lens because it was what it made for (even though most people recommend 35mm for portrait), but because it is 24mm, still wide enough for doing the scenery photo. It has been a blessing to travel with this lens; even though it cannot beat the wide-angle on the 16-35mm, it can still do something different and exciting.

Portrait

As the name tells everything, the prime lens, which is made for portrait, usually came with a wild aperture, so you can expect how smooth the background can be. Most people recommend using the 35mm or above to do the portrait, and Yes, that is such a good suggestion because the portrait comes naturally and easily to do. The 24mm gets a little bit tricky while shooting the portrait, you need some practice to get the right angle you want, but I love how you still can fit more objects in the background with the smooth blurry effects.

I noticed from a prime lens that, holy moly, the image looks super sharp, especially it still looking good in the f1.4. I love how it can capture my eyes from a distance, and the shapes of this lens make the eyes pops. People say the eyes are the window of the soul. This lens captured the eyes definitely makes your portrait look high quality, so I’m immensely enjoying doing portrait in this lens.

Scenery

As part of the wild angle lens families, you won't be disappointed by the 24mm. It might be a little bit tight than the classic 16mm but still wide enough for most of the scenery you see while traveling. The downside with a prime lens is you definitely lose the versatility of selecting the different focal lengths compared to the zoom lens. It might not be versatile than the 16-35mm, but my experience with only bringing this lens on the trip is still enough for everything. With the extra apertures this lens carrying, I can have more lowlight ability for scenery/nighttime photography than my 16-35mm f4 lens. Also, the wide aperture can make a separation of the subject and background. If you want to achieve that artistic look, I think the extra apertures is your need.

I don't have many pictures to show you the scenery I took on this lens because I thought were kinda boring to offer you compared to the scenery King, the 16-35mm. As I said, it doesn't have the same versatility on the 16-35mm. I do portrait mainly on the 24mm, though. But still, a good lens and wide enough for the sceneries while traveling.

***Kaohsiung City. 24mm f1.4 | 24mm f8 1/400 sec ISO 100***

***Field of daisies. 24mm f1.4 | 24mm f2 1/8000 sec ISO 100***

***24mm f1.4 | 24mm f1.4 1/800 sec ISO 100***

Low Light

As a prime lens, you definitely can be looking forward to its low light ability. Comes with an f1.4 wild aperture, which makes it a King of the low-light performance lens. The bokeh will not disappoint you for sure. I’m glad this lens doesn’t do the lemon/oval kinda looking bokeh, some Sony lens does have that, especially on the Zeiss series lens, but this lens is performed flawlessly bokeh (all the GM lens do though). The image quality will sometimes turn slightly not sharp while you on the big aperture, especially under f2.8, but this lens stays strong even in f1.4, making me very happy. I really can’t find any problems with this lens with low light. It is just a fantastic lens for sure.

***24mm f1.4 | 24mm f1.4 1/25 sec ISO 100***

If you have already read my older post about “What are the best lenses for traveling or everyday use,” you definitely know that this lens performs very well in shooting the Milky Way. When this lens first came out in 2018, Sony focused heavily on astrophotography. They even hold a trip to invite many photographers and YouTubers to review it (what a time, ugh). The result was so good. Last year, I was fortunate enough to finally experience my first Milky Way and understand why you need a wild aperture lens to achieve a professional look.

***24mm f1.4 | 24mm f1.4 20 sec ISO 2000***

Before buying this lens, I thought I can do well with astrophotography on my 16-35mm f4 lens, but it turns out why the tutorial says you need a lens at least have f2.8. The reason for it was because if you want to get the sharp and capture as many stars as you can, you need to make sure the shutter won’t open for too long. If you set your shutter speed too slow, the star trail will start to appear. It won’t make the stars look sharps (unless you want to do the star trail style), so the wide aperture lens comes in handy in this situation.

Conclusion

I'm genuinely recommending you if you have the budget consider a prime lens to be your travel kits. I don't know about other brands, but the Sony 24mm f1.4 GM are pretty light and small compared to most of the prime lens on the markets. To lighten our gear bag on the go, it is not a pressure carrying it, at least from my experience taking it on a 3 hours hiking trip. I'm still shocked by how sharp the images on this lens are, it's not getting too sharp to make you uncomfortable, but how clear the image can looks, especially how it captures the eyes so beautifully. For me, this lens are mainly focused on low light and portrait. For scenery, it might be a bit boring compared to the 16-35mm but still get the jobs done perfectly. I really don't have anything bad to say about this lens. Even though I am trying to find anything I don't like on this lens, it turns out I can't, lol.

24mm f1.4 | One Lens Dairy

Portrait

Scenery

Low Light

Conclusion

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