Sony 24-70mm F/4 Vario-tessar T Fe Oss Interchangeable Full Frame Zoom Lens Review

In summary

Suitable for shooting portraits, landscapes and general photography, this lens is a natural 'walk-around' partner for the α7 cameras, partly considering of its size but too considering information technology has been designed for high-performance cameras. It's likewise a better performer on cameras with 36 x 24mm sensors than with APS-C models (we tested it on both).

This lens is worth because if you plan to buy an α7 torso since bundling it with a photographic camera should exist cheaper than ownership the lens on its own. Weatherproof sealing will be advantageous to photographers who exercise a lot of outdoor shooting and the relatively fast f/iv maximum aperture provides potential for depth-of-field control and shooting in low low-cal levels.

Just it'south not super-fast "" and the zoom range isn't all that long, although the 70mm setting is fine for portraiture. Serious photographers will need to complement this lens with a telephoto zoom like Sony's seventy-200mm F4 G OSS lens if they want to embrace sports and wildlife shooting.

Full review

Sony's first total-frame E-mountain Carl Zeiss zoom lens, the Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/iv ZA OSS lens is quite different from the SELP1650 16-50mm f/three.v-5.half-dozen. While both lenses embrace a 'standard' zoom range, the Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/4, being relatively large and heavy, is a amend partner for the α7R camera we used for this review. Notwithstanding, it can besides be used on Eastward-mount cameras with smaller sensors where it covers the 35mm equivalent of 36-105mm.

Side view of the Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/iv ZA OSS lens. (Source: Sony.)

The Zeiss branding implies a fairly high price tag, although it's comparable with equivalent lenses from the leading DSLR manufacturers. For the price you go decent build quality and a relatively fast f/four maximum aperture beyond the zoom range. This lens is also atmospheric condition-sealed, which adds to its value.

The optical pattern is moderately circuitous, with 12 elements in 10 groups, among them five aspherical elements and ane ED (extra-low dispersion) element. A proprietary T* coating is practical to lens elements to minimise reflections that cause flare and ghosting.

The lens is supplied with forepart and terminate caps and a petal-shaped lens hood (ALC-SH130). A soft carrying pouch is as well included.

Who's it for?
Suitable for shooting portraits, landscapes and full general photography, this lens is a natural 'walk-effectually' partner for the α7 cameras, partly because of its size but also because it has been designed for loftier-performance cameras. Information technology's too a improve performer on cameras with 36 ten 24mm sensors than with APS-C models (we tested it on both).

This lens is worth considering if y'all plan to buy an α7 body since bundling it with a camera should be cheaper than buying the lens on its own. Weatherproof sealing will be advantageous to photographers who do a lot of outdoor shooting and the relatively fast f/4 maximum aperture provides potential for depth-of-field command and shooting in low calorie-free levels.

Just it's not super-fast "" and the zoom range isn't all that long, although the 70mm setting is fine for portraiture. Serious photographers will demand to complement this lens with a telephoto zoom similar Sony'southward lxx-200mm F4 G OSS lens if they want to cover sports and wildlife shooting.

Build and Ergonomics
Overall build quality is very good, with a high percent of metal blend in the barrels and a very solid metal mounting plate. It looks and feels superior to the relatively calorie-free aluminium kit lenses for Sony's APS-C Due east-mountain cameras.

The focusing and zoom rings are close together, with the leading edge of the focusing ring approximately 13 mm behind the front of the lens. This ring is 14 mm wide and covered with a finely-ridged grip band.

Focusing is electronically controlled and driven past a linear stepping motor. It's well implemented and supports fine adjustments but isn't quite as fast equally a mechanical focus control and doesn't provide much tactile feedback.

An almost identical ribbing also covers well-nigh of the zoom band, which is roughly 27 mm wide. The trailing edge of this ring is un-ridged and carries indicator marks for the 24mm, 35mm, 50m and 70mm focal lengths. These line up against a white marker on the non-moving department of the lens barrel.

Both rings on the review lens turned smoothly and, although there's no lock, there was no zoom creep when the lens was carried facing downwards. Zooming from 24mm to 70mm extends the inner barrel by approximately 30 mm.

Behind the zoom ring the lens butt remains directly for 18 mm earlier stepping inwards for the final 20 mm that leads to the lens mount. The characteristic cinnabar-coloured ring surrounds the barrel simply in front of the mounting point.

Stabilisation is built into this lens, enabling it to be used on cameras without Steadyshot Inside technology. It provides between two and three f-stops of shutter speed compensation.

With a minimum focusing distance of only 40cm, this lens isn't platonic for close-up shooting. In practice, zooming in to 70mm extended the minimum focus distance a little, although the smaller angle of view and higher magnification fabricated it easier to frame pocket-sized subjects. The f/4 maximum aperture at 70mm provided some telescopic for isolating subjects from the background, although nowhere almost as much every bit an f/2.eight lens would provide.

Operation
Subjective assessment of JPEGs straight out of the photographic camera showed them to be color rich and detailed, particularly with shots taken in bright, sunny conditions. With flatter lighting, the more subdued colour saturation indicated by our Imatest tests became evident, although overall sharpness was maintained in the centre of image frames.

Imatest showed this lens to be capable of meeting expectations for the 20-megapixel sensor on the a5000 body with both JPEG and ARW.RAW files but JPEGs taken with the much college-resolution α7R  photographic camera couldn't quite achieve the expected resolution. This is a big enquire for whatever camera and lens combo and hasn't adversely affected our ratings for the lens.

1 factor that has affected our ratings was edge softening, which was very noticeable with the α7R at apertures wider than f/5.6 for all focal length settings. (The a5000 cropped away the periphery of the image frame, resulting in much less edge softening.) The graph below shows the Imatest results for the aperture ranges for each focal length setting.

From the graph yous can see that resolution is generally high in the centre of the frame from f/4 through to f/viii, after which it declines slowly but steadily due to the influence of diffraction. Just the edges of the frame remain soft at all focal lengths.
Similar other Sony lenses, this lens has been designed for use with cameras that provide automated corrections for rectilinear distortions, vignetting and chromatic aberration. Consequently, nosotros used raw files to assess operation in these areas and constitute the post-obit:

Distortion  not corrected in the camera is significant and ranges from serious barrel distortion at 24mm to slight pincushion baloney at 35mm with a progressive increase in pincushion distortion at 50mm and 70mm. With automobile-corrected JPEGs, very little distortion tin exist seen.

Vignetting non corrected in the camera produces noticeable corner darkening at 24mm. This is reduced progressively for longer focal lengths and autumn-off is relatively slight at 70mm. With auto-corrected JPEGs, vignetting is effectively negligible.

Lateral chromatic aberration was generally very low in both machine-corrected JPEGs and uncorrected ARW.RAW files. Nosotros don't run into this equally a problem for this lens. The results of our Imatest tests are shown in the graph below.

Flare resistance was more often than not excellent, thank you to the well-designed lens hood and superior anti-reflection coatings. This is a potent point of this lens.

Bokeh was also variable and smoother with the a5000 body than the α7R. Out-of-focus backgrounds with that photographic camera tended to show traces of outlining and tonal transitions weren't as shine equally most photographers would wish for.

Autofocusing speed is largely dictated by the camera and the selected focusing fashion. We've covered these aspects of performance in our review of the α7R camera.

Decision
While photographers who piece of work with raw prototype files volition probably find this lens unsatisfactory, everyday shooters who take only JPEGs volition probably observe information technology meets their needs for a reasonably fast 'walkaround' lens. The issues are particularly significant for landscape and architectural photographers who require shots to exist sharp corner-to-corner.

Since we cater more for the raw shooters than snapshooters, we're unable to rate the functioning of this lens as highly as some reviewers would have. There aren't many lenses in Sony'due south East-mount range and owners of α7 cameras have few other choices in this focal length range, aside from the Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.half dozen OSS (SEL2870), which doesn't cover such a wide angle of view. The larger, heavier and faster Sony 24-70mm f/ii.viii ZA Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar T* (SAL-2470Z) lens could exist used with an adapter, although information technology'due south more than expensive and lacks stabilisation.

SPECS

Motion picture bending: 84 to 34 degrees on 35mm format cameras (61-23 degrees with APS-C sensors)
Minimum aperture: f/22
Lens structure: 12 elements in 10 groups (including 5 aspherical elements and ane ED element)
Lens mounts: Sony Due east-mountain
Diaphragm Blades: 7 (circular discontinuity)
Focus drive: Linear stepping motor
Stabilisation: Optical SteadyShot
Minimum focus: forty cm
Maximum magnification: 0.2x
Filter size:   67 mm
Dimensions (Diameter 10 L): 73 ten 94.5 mm
Weight:  426 grams
Standard Accessories: Front end and end caps, petal-shaped lens hood, soft carrying pouch

TESTS

Based on JPEG files taken with the Sony α7R.

Based on JPEG files taken with the Sony α5000.

SAMPLES

Vignetting at 24mm; ARW.RAW file.

Vignetting at 35mm; ARW.RAW file.

Vignetting at 50mm; ARW.RAW file.

Vignetting at 70mm; ARW.RAW file.

Rectilinear distortion at 24mm; ARW.RAW file.

Rectilinear baloney at 35mm ARW.RAW file.

Rectilinear baloney at 50mm; ARW.RAW file.

Rectilinear baloney at 70mm; ARW.RAW file.

24mm focal length, ISO 100, i/160 2d at f/11.

35mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/160 2d at f/11.

50mm focal length, ISO 100, one/160 2d at f/xi.

70mm focal length, ISO 100, one/160 second at f/xi.

Shut-upward at 24mm α7R; ISO 100, ane/800 second at f/4.

Close-up at 70mm α7R; ISO 100, 1/500 second at f/6.3.

Close-upwardly at 70mm α5000; ISO 100, 1/1250 2d at f/4.

Bokeh at 70mm α7R; ISO 100, 1/1250 2d at f/iv.

Flare at 24mm α7R; ISO 100, i/125 second at f/11.

70mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/400 second at f/11.

Crop from the above image showing minimal coloured fringing.

70mm focal length, ISO 100, i/200 2nd at f/13.

70mm focal length, ISO 100, one/160 second at f/11.

37mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/400 second at f/8.

Additional paradigm samples can exist found with our review of the Sony α7R camera.

Rating

RRP: AU$1499; The states$1200

• Build: nine.0
• Treatment: viii.v
• Epitome quality: eight.five
• Versatility: 8.five

Purchase

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Source: https://www.photoreview.com.au/reviews/mirrorless-lenses/mirrorless-lenses-full-frame/sony-vario-tessar-t-fe-24-70mm-f-4-za-oss-sel2470z-lens/

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