My name is Oliver Wallner and I am a Sony Europe Imaging Creator based in Vienna, Austria. I have been passionate about photography since 2007, chasing new perspectives and compositions of my beautiful city, mostly at night. I strive to frame the big city lights and subtle detail of the streets, and for this, sharpness and beautiful bokeh of my lenses is crucial.

To express my style of photography I spend countless hours walking the streets of Vienna and it is essential to have a combination of a light setup with excellent lens quality. My usual kit consists of fast, wideangle Sony G Master lenses coupled with my Alpha 7 IV, so I was very excited to expand my range with the new 50mm f/1.4 GM.

My current go-to lenses are the 24mm f/1.4 and 35mm f/1.4 Sony G Masters – both incredible lenses that are perfect for my work. When I first put the 50mm f/1.4 on my Alpha, it felt at home, being very similar in size and weight as the other 2 lenses, with the same solid, quality feel. It is bitingly sharp from centre to edge – even wide open – and offers exceptional colour and contrast.

With the focal length being slightly longer than I usually use, it was interesting to see how the narrower field-of-view gave me different framing options, and being able to get close to subjects meant I was able to fill the frame easily. It’s a great focal length for street photography and I liked the natural perspective that the lens gave me.

Around 90% of my photography happens at night, so dealing with low-light is second nature. It’s one of the reasons I moved to wide aperture prime lenses – having an aperture of f/1.4 means that I don’t have to push the ISO so high (although my Alpha 7 IV can handle crazy high ISO without any issues).

But if I’m being honest, what I love about shooting wide open with fast aperture lenses is the incredible bokeh you get, especially with the G Master lenses. I always thought the look that the 24mm and 35mm gave me was unbeatable, but I couldn’t believe how the 50mm performed. The object in focus stayed incredibly sharp and the background seemed to melt away into the softest, most beautiful bokeh. The contrast remains high and the definition, even in the out-of-focus areas is superb.

Even though most of my work is stills-based, I do shoot video, and of course the fast aperture here is extremely useful for the low-light street scenes. Being so compact, I had no issues working with a gimbal, and in fact, found it very easy to switch between lenses with them being so similar in size and weight.

I always thought that I’d found my perfect kit with the 24mm and 35mm G Masters, but luckily I’ve managed to find a corner of my bag to carry the 50mm f/1.4. It’s coming with me on every future shoot, believe me.