{"id":6153,"date":"2016-02-04T19:51:07","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T00:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=6153"},"modified":"2024-09-05T16:15:50","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T21:15:50","slug":"review-zeiss-fe-24-70mm-f4-za-oss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-zeiss-fe-24-70mm-f4-za-oss\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Zeiss FE 24-70mm f\/4 ZA OSS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Zeiss FE 24-70mm f\/4 was one of the lenses announced at the beginning of the full-frame E-mount system, and it’s had a rather mixed reputation. I’ve seen reports ranging from excellent to terrible regarding the optical quality of this lens, and I’ve been curious to test it for myself.  Over the past week or so, I’ve finally had a chance to put the 24-70mm f\/4 through its paces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The Zeiss FE 24-70mm f\/4 ZA OSS on the A7 II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Zeiss FE 24-70mm f\/4 features the same design language as the other Zeiss branded Sony E-mount lenses, with a smooth metal exterior finished with a matte black paint with a silky feel that hints at the premium nature of the Zeiss lenses. The lens features some weather sealing, but lacks a gasket at the lens mount, so I’d be careful when shooting in rain, as the chance for intrusion of water into the camera is definitely there. However, you should be able to withstand some stray water drops on the lens. The broad zoom ring moves smoothly and without any sticking points.  It’s moderately damped, but moves more freely than the heavily damped gearing of the FE 16-35mm.  My review copy was well worn, however, so it’s possible the zoom mechanism has loosened over time.  In any case, while I prefer a bit more damping on the zoom ring, it’s still smooth and precise, and works quite well in everyday use.  The focus ring has the same fine ribbing as the zoom ring and likewise moves smoothly and with a subtle damping.  Overall, the lens works well and feels nice in use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The Zeiss 24-70mm f\/4 with its included lens hood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Zeiss 24-70mm f\/4 comes with a good sized petal-style lens hood with a hybrid metal and plastic construction.  The hood provides adequate shading of the front element and reverses for storage when not in use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 24-70mm is a bit larger than some other mirrorless zooms due to the full-frame coverage required, but it stays relatively lightweight and while it’s only slightly smaller in dimension than the 16-35mm, it feels like a bigger difference than perhaps it genuinely is.  The lens handles quite well on the Mark II bodies in the A7 lineup, and I’d imagine it would feel just fine on the original body style as well.  It’s not a compact lens, but the overall package remains reasonable in size and still a nice reduction from a full-frame DSLR kit with a similar lens. For comparison, Canon’s 24-70mm f\/4 comes in at around a half-inch larger in diameter and 170g heavier than the relatively lightweight 430g of the Zeiss 24-70mm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 24-70mm, like almost all standard zoom lenses, changes length during zooming, and is longest at the 70mm focal length setting.  The inner lens tube is solid and there were no creaks or wobbles, even at full extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The Zeiss 24-70mm f\/4 at 24mm (left) and 70mm (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Autofocus and Image Stabilization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The FE 24-70mm f\/4 has a moderately quick and very quiet autofocus motor. It’s not the fastest lens in the autofocus department, but it does the job in the majority of situations.  Like a lot of Sony lenses with slower apertures, I experienced some hunting and inability to lock when focusing in dim light, and I found myself taking extra care with manual focusing, especially when shooting night shots outdoors.  For indoor portraiture, I found it best to switch over to the A7 II’s excellent Eye AF capability, which seemed to do a better job indoors than just a single focus box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Zeiss<\/a>
Zeiss 24-70mm f\/4 ZA OSS on the A7 II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The lens comes with an optical image stabilizer (the OSS, or Optical SteadyShot in the lens name), and I found it to work fairly well.  I was able to handhold shots down to around 1\/5s at 24mm and around 1\/15s at 70mm with fairly consistent results.  This is in the neighborhood of 2.5 to 3 stops of extra handholdability when using the image stabilization.  The OSS will work in concert with the in-body IS featured in the Mark II bodies, where the lens will correct for two axes of shake while the IBIS will correct the other three.  This can result in correction of shake that the lens can’t correct, though depending on the way your hand-shake manifests itself, the dual stabilization may offer little to no benefit over the lens stabilization alone. It’s a welcome addition to the lens, especially for those with the original A7 series of cameras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n


As I mentioned in the introduction, the FE 24-70mm has had very mixed reviews since it was released over two years ago, and a lot of people view the lens as sub-par optically.  It’s quite likely that there is an excessive level of sample variation, and as such, reviewers generally can only report on how the lens they used was able to perform.  In my case, I felt that the negative reputation of the 24-70mm was overblown, though there are definitely points of criticism to be had.  Let’s try to get to the bottom of the optical properties of this lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharpness<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Overall, I found the FE 24-70mm to produce images with rather good image sharpness over most of the frame.  The central 2\/3 of the frame is impressively sharp right from f\/4, though the edges and corners go soft at f\/4, especially at 24mm.  However, stopping down brings the edge sharpness up, and the corners are decently sharp through most of the zoom range, but both the edges and corners suffer some at the 24mm end. 24mm does seem to be the weak point of this lens, with some residual edge and corner softness even at f\/11 and f\/16.  However, I still thought it was good enough at 24mm to be useful. Overall, while it isn’t a perfect lens by any means, I found the 24-70mm delivered good resolution in most situations, and I felt it was better than the poor performance many others have reported with the lens. For a full size image of the shot below, Click here<\/a> and click the green arrow at the bottom of the screen to view at 100%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Columbus<\/a>
Columbus in the Morning – Sony A7 II with Zeiss FE 24-70mm f\/4 ZA OSS @ 70mm, f\/11, 1s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bokeh<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Being an f\/4 lens that maxes out at 70mm, the Zeiss 24-70mm isn’t going to produce huge amounts of blur in most situations, but it will produce some subject separation when used for portraits or close up items. The 24-70mm unfortunately doesn’t produce the most pleasing bokeh.  Of course, close up, the degree of blur will eliminate most of the major problems with the blur, but at more normal distances, the background blur rendered by the lens is quite busy, with harsh edges and onion ring centers to specular highlights.  It’s not a major concern in a lens like this, but it’s still a bit of a let down.  The image below was taken at 70mm and f\/4.  Click here<\/a> for a 100% crop of the out of focus areas to see how the blur looks up close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bench<\/a>
Bench – Sony A7 II with Zeiss FE 24-70mm f\/4 ZA OSS @ 70mm, f\/4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One thing the 24-70mm has in spades is the excellent color and contrast for which Zeiss has become known. Contrast is rich and vibrant with plenty of pop, even at wide apertures.  Likewise, colors are saturated and help to bring the scene to life. The excellent color and contrast really help give the images from the 24-70 a very nice kick, and ultimately, the rendering of the scene is very nice.  Overall, I really liked the look of the images from this lens, despite the fact that it has some notable optical flaws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the flaws is lateral chromatic aberration control, which shows up at the corners, especially at the wide end.  This can be cleaned up quite well in postprocessing with minimal impact, however. Longitudinal CA didn’t pose a problem in my test shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distortion, Flare and Vignetting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Like a lot of mirrorless lenses, the 24-70mm relies fairly heavily on software correction to correct distortion, which is a bit disappointing in a lens at this price point. JPEG files and RAW files that use the profiles included in RAW converters like Adobe Lightroom will correct the distortion to negligible amounts (at minor detriment to image sharpness at the edges). Natively, the lens exhibits pronounced barrel distortion at 24mm that evens out rather quickly around 28-30mm before producing worsening pincushion distortion for the rest of the zoom range.  The pincushion distortion at 70mm is rather significant, and really requires correction if there are straight lines anywhere near the edges of the frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Arch<\/a>
Arch – RAW without profile corrections. Note the high pincushion distortion and vignetting – Sony A7 II with Zeiss FE 24-70mm f\/4 ZA OSS @ 70mm, f\/5.6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, uncorrected images show fairly notable vignetting at wide apertures that eases a bit upon stopping down. Regarding flare control, the 24-70mm did perform fairly well against bright light.  Some small bright flare ghosts can be induced in some circumstances, but image contrast remains strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at image quality overall, the Zeiss 24-70mm is a good lens.  It is, however, not a great lens.  It’s got excellent contrast and color, and produces images that are sharp over most of the zoom range and image circle. On the other hand, it has some native aberrations in the form of high distortion, some vignetting and CA as well as mediocre bokeh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pros<\/h4>\n\n\n\n