{"id":6550,"date":"2016-05-05T18:55:47","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T23:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=6550"},"modified":"2024-09-05T16:15:21","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T21:15:21","slug":"review-sony-fe-24-70mm-f2-8-gm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-sony-fe-24-70mm-f2-8-gm\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Sony FE 24-70mm f\/2.8 GM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Early this year, Sony announced three new members of a new lens line, the “G Master” line, to denote top end professional grade lenses. Two of them are the key pro-grade zoom lenses that are essential to high-end systems: the 24-70mm f\/2.8 and the 70-200mm f\/2.8, while also releasing a fast portrait prime in the 85mm f\/1.4.  Today I’m looking at the new standard zoom, the 24-70mm f\/2.8 G Master (GM).  After the good, but not great performance of the slower FE 24-70mm f\/4, hopes are very high that Sony has crafted a truly exceptional zoom lens this time around.  It’s a big, heavy and expensive lens that retails for a shade under $2,200, but will the performance justify the cost and size? Let’s find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The Sony 24-70mm f\/2.8 GM on the Sony A7 II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

The FE 24-70mm f\/2.8 is, to put it mildly, big. It’s larger and heavier than Canon’s 24-70mm f\/2.8L II and nearly the same size as Nikon’s 24-70mm f\/2.8G.  Tipping the scales at a hair under 2 lbs and measuring over 5 inches long, the 24-70mm GM is a beast of a lens. For those who are shooting professionally and need the speed in their standard zoom, it’s just part of the package, but the weight is noticeable and sometimes awkward.  The base of the lens leaves enough clearance to keep the grip clear, so overall handling is fine, but if you’re carrying this in your hands all day long, you will begin to tire of it.  Still, none of this is unexpected. There’s no free lunch with speed, and for the optical quality needed to perform well on today’s bodies, size is simply part of the cost of doing business with a lens such as this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Like<\/a>
Like most standard zooms, the 24-70mm GM extends during zooming<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In line with its cost and target market, the 24-70mm f\/2.8 is very robustly constructed.  A mix of very high-end plastics and metals make up the exterior construction, and tolerances are very tight.  It’s a very dense and very solid lens, with absolutely no flex anywhere on the lens, even when extended to 70mm.  The inner lens tube extends around 2 inches towards the long end of the focal range, and there’s no wobbling, even at full extension.  The zoom and focus rings are very well damped and feel extremely solid.  This is a lens that feels like a professional tool.  The lens is sealed against dust and moisture, and unlike earlier Sony lenses with weather sealing, there is a small foam rubber gasket at the lens mount. Unfortunately, it’s so short that it actually doesn’t make contact with the face of the lens mount, thus making it completely useless in practice.  Why can’t Sony design a proper mount gasket?  Still, gasket aside, the lens is impeccably assembled and wonderfully solid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Autofocus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The FE 24-70mm GM has a quick and quiet focus motor.  In most situations, the focus locked very quickly and surely, with excellent accuracy.  I did have some misses when shooting at very small apertures, however, where the camera would get confused with the deep depth of field and focus too closely, simply due to the way Sony focuses while stopped down.  I still don’t know why Sony doesn’t do what every other manufacturer in the world does and focus wide open and stop down when making the exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The 24-70mm f\/2.8 is professionally built, but big<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Continuous Autofocus is plenty fast enough to keep up with the demands of event shooting at wider apertures, and while this sort of lens isn’t geared towards sports action, in good light, I think that it would track quite well on the newer bodies in these situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One very nice feature on the 24-70mm f\/2.8 is the close focus ability.  The lens focuses as close as 0.38m, with a maximum magnification of around 1:4, which is quite good for a non-macro lens. This enables close up photography for flowers, large insects like butterflies and other detail type shots.  It definitely makes the lens a more versatile thing to have in your bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Image Quality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With a price tag over $2,000 and the long-held desire for a fast standard zoom for the FE system, hopes are extremely high for this lens in the image quality department.  Thankfully, in the most important areas, Sony has really knocked it out of the park with this lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It’s tough to make a zoom lens that goes from wide to telephoto that is truly excellent from edge to edge.  It’s even harder to make one that’s exceptional right from an f\/2.8 maximum aperture. However, the Sony 24-70mm f\/2.8 GM is just such a lens.  Starting from wide open, the lens produces excellent resolution across the image frame right from wide open.  Stopping down just a bit brings even the extreme corners up to very sharp territory.  This is one impressively sharp optic, and one that really gives prime-like sharpness throughout its focal range. Amazingly, this sharpness is there both at closer focus distances and at infinity, even wide open. I was seriously impressed every time I looked at the images out of this lens.There’s not a whole lot more to say here, as it’s simply outstanding. Click here for a full size sample<\/a> of the image below to see the resolution at 24mm, and click the green arrow at the bottom to view at full size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"City<\/a>
City Under the Bridge – Sony A7 II with Sony 24-70mm f\/2.8 GM @ 24mm, f\/11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The fast f\/2.8 aperture allows the 24-70mm GM to create a fair bit of background blur, and for the most part, the quality of the bokeh is very good.  When focused close up, the bokeh is very creamy, and while it’s not quite as smooth at further focus distances, it’s still quite good.  Specular highlights are predominantly even, with just a hint of a bright outline, and while there’s a fair bit of contrast in blurred backgrounds, the overall look is very pleasing.  While faster prime lenses will create more blur, the 24-70mm is fast enough and with nice enough bokeh to be an outstanding option for portraiture or general event photography, which is one of the primary uses of just such a lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dandelion<\/a>
Dandelion – Sony A7 II with Sony 24-70mm f\/2.8 GM @ 70mm, f\/2.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Contrast, Color and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The 24-70mm f\/2.8 GM shows very nice contrast at all apertures and throughout the focal range.  It consistently produces images with great clarity and a very pleasing and somewhat punchy contrast curve.  Color is also excellent.  While not quite as rich as the color the Zeiss lenses typically render with their T* coating, the color out of the 24-70mm GM is natural with good saturation and a relatively neutral color response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most standard zooms have a tough time controlling lateral chromatic aberration, but in my photos, it was all but invisible at all focal lengths.  I was actually quite surprised to see essentially nothing when zooming in to 100%, and had to double-check that I hadn’t enabled CA correction in Lightroom.  It’s not fully perfect here, though, as the background can show just a hint of longitudinal chromatic aberration with a very slight bluish fringe behind the focus point and a faint magenta fringe in front.  Still, even here the performance is excellent. Very well done by Sony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lower<\/a>
Lower Falls Reflected – Sony A7 II with Sony 24-70mm f\/2.8 GM @<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

The 24-70mm GM shows a fairly typical tendency for standard zooms with regards to distortion, with moderate barrel distortion at the wide end that quickly switches to pincushion distortion as you move towards the telephoto end.  In both cases, the distortion is visible, but it’s in line with other lenses of this type, and is easily corrected by the built-in profile for the lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was generally overcast during my time shooting with the 24-70mm f\/2.8, but I did take a few test shots into the sun, plus a handful of night shots, and the lens does a nice job with regards to flare performance. Contrast is well maintained and ghosting is limited to a handful of relatively small green orbs. One very nice feature with bright light sources is the beautiful stars that are created by the 9 bladed aperture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One area where the 24-70mm GM does falter a bit is with vignetting.  The lens shows visible vignetting throughout the focal range that’s fairly noticeable wide open and never fully disappears, even when stopping down.  I generally prefer a bit of light falloff towards the edges (and I add it to many shots), but for those who want their lenses to produce even illumination, they’ll need to correct the vignetting in post.  The profile included in Lightroom and other RAW converters does a good job of quickly correcting the vignetting with a single click.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the performance of the 24-70mm f\/2.8 GM is exceptional. It’s the finest standard zoom lens I’ve had the pleasure to use (though I don’t have experience with Canon and Nikon’s latest).  It’s exceptionally sharp with great color and contrast, decent bokeh and good control of CA.  It’s a pricey lens, but you get what you pay for.<\/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