You recently switched to Sony or just looking for a new lens to add to your camera bag? I am going to tell you all the pros and cons of getting the Sony 70-200 f4 and why I chose to have it in my camera bag.
Price
As I am writing this review the Sony 70-200 f4 is going for around 1000 euros, which is an almost 500 euros drop from its original price. I got mine at the end of 2019 during a Black Friday sale for around 1100 euros. Being a full-frame and a Sony lens it is considered to be on the cheap side (not counting 3rd party lenses), but still has a great price to quality ratio.
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Specs
The Sony 70-200 f4 G OSS is considered the little brother of the GM f2.8 version with almost half the weight (840g compared to the 1450g of the GM version) as well as being shorter and narrower (175mmx80mm vs 200mmx88mm for the GM). If this is going to be your first such lens, the 840g might come as a bit heavy, but trust me, it makes a huge difference compared to the GM after a couple of hours shooting.
The filter diameter is 72mm, which is the same as some of the most popular lenses for Sony (e.g. 85mm f1.8, Tamron 27-85mm f2.8, etc.) which means if you might make it work just with a single set of filters.
The minimal focus distance is 1-1.5m with AF and 1-1.35m with MF, which falls just a bit short of the GM version, but it is still possible to achieve amazing background separation.
The widest the aperture can be opened is F4. If you are coming over from a crop body, I know F4 might sound too dark, slow and you have no expectation regarding bokeh, but let me tell you those are all things you don’t have to worry about. If you pair this lens with a nice full-frame body (most can handle higher ISO really well, not only because FF can do that better than crop bodies) you won’t have to worry about slowness and darkness of the lens. Regarding the bokeh part from comparison tests with the GM, the difference is not that big. You can still get amazing bokeh and background blur with this lens.
Original background separation test shot. Focus point is at around 4 meters, background is at 15 meters from the camera. Shot at 200mm F4
Croped image.
Build quality
This lens is built like a tank. Full metal construction with rubber zoom and focus rings. It comes as well with a variety of extras on it - switches for your focusing modes - AF to MF and a focus range switch, an optical stabilization switch, and a mode switch. On top of all those switches, you have the three programmable buttons that you would expect from most sony lenses.
Something I always appreciate in a zoom lens is to have an internal zoom (if you don’t know what that means - the lens doesn’t extend and all the moving parts stay inside the lens housing). This helps a lot with the weather and dust resistance as well as it makes it not so obvious when you zoom in on something (e.g. during a wedding).
One thing that surprised me and that gave it even more of a premium feel was the fact that the lens hood had some kind of soft material on the inside. Usually, lens hoods are just plastic on the inside.
It is also worth mentioning that the lens comes with a tripod mount which is also metal like the lens and really sturdy. This will help from putting too much stress on your cameras lens mount, as we all know Sony cameras are relatively small, so they don’t have the material strength to handle bigger lenses.
Image Quality
Although it is almost 3 years older than the GM version it doesn’t fall back that much in terms of image quality. When stopped down to around f8 actually both lenses perform similarly. In terms of distortion and vignetting, they perform almost the same.
With 35.5 p-pix on a Sony a7R2 compared to the 37.5 p-pix from the GM, although labeled as G in my mind it performs well enough to rival an earn a GM badge. Sharpness even on a 24mgpixel body such as the a7M3 will allow you to produce amazing large prints. Shots I’ve taken with this exact combo were used for A0 posters and they were flawless.
This is actually a 60% cropped of the original and it was used for printing out the posters.
This should not be afiliated with any type of political views. The photo won a photography contenst and it wasn’t made specifically for that.
Versatility
When it comes to the versatility of this lens, possibilities are almost endless. You can use it for street photography, portraits, product photography, wildlife (especially if you have a high megapixel body like the R series and use crop mode, you can even go bird shooting with this lens), car photography, sports, event photography, travel photography, etc., you can even use it for videos as well (the stabilization from the lens plays really well with the IBIS from Sony). Below I’ve gathered just a few examples of all of the above-mentioned types of photography that I used the 70-200 G for.
Conclusion
This is an amazingly performing lens, that will not hurt your budget as well as your back due to it’s lightweight compared to other lenses in this range. I would recommend it to all newly switching to Sony, people who are on a budget, people who are just starting out as well as seasoned photographers. Not to mention the perks of how all your non-photographer friends will look at you when you pull “one of those professional white lenses”. Just a must-have in your camera bag.