Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II Assessment

Introduction

Ease of Use

Weighing in at 1045g, the aluminium alloy bodied Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II is 435g / 29% lighter than the unique model, a outstanding achievement on condition that it’s nearly an identical in measurement to its predecessor.

Consequently, in use it feels a lot better matched to a small physique just like the Sony A7R IV digital camera that we examined it with, as proven within the images under. Whereas becoming a vertical battery grip would nonetheless assist with the general steadiness, it is not as essential as with the Mark I lens.

Whereas you should use it on a smaller APS-C physique just like the Sony A6000 collection of cameras, it will not steadiness significantly nicely and the equal focal size will even change to 105-300mm.

Construct high quality is great, one thing of a aid given the price-tag. The Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II has an improved sealed mud and moisture resistant design that includes sealed seams, buttons and switches with silicone rubber gaskets, and a rubber ring across the lens mount, all of which makes it well-suited to life in each the sphere and the studio.

The Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II lens has a metallic lens mount. It accepts 77mm filters through metallic threads.

There are three separate spherical Focus Maintain buttons, equally spaced 90° aside, which hold the lens locked to the present focusing distance, helpful should you’re auto-focusing and don’t need the lens to attempt to discover focus once more. The preview perform can be assigned to those buttons by means of the digital camera’s customized settings.

The Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II has a large and ridged focus ring, though it’s a little slimmer than on the unique model as a way to accommodate the brand new Aperture Management ring.

Handbook focusing is feasible through the use of the AF/MF swap and there is additionally now a devoted swap for Sony’s Full Time DMF (Direct Handbook Focus), which lets you have interaction guide focus even when the lens is ready to AF mode.

There aren’t any onerous stops at both finish of the vary, although, making it tougher to set focus at infinity. Polariser customers must be happy that the 77mm filter thread does not rotate on focus.

With regards to auto-focusing, the Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II zoom is a quiet and really fast performer on the Sony A7R IV that we examined it with, taking round 0.25 seconds to lock onto the topic.

We did not expertise very a lot “looking” in any respect, both in good or dangerous gentle, with the lens precisely focusing just about the entire time, and it is also a really quiet performer that makes it superb for film capturing.

The Focus Vary Limiter swap prevents the lens from looking by means of your complete focusing vary. There are two choices – Full, or Infinity to 3m.

The brand new bodily aperture ring is a slightly stunning however very welcome addition. It ranges from f/2.8 to f/22 in third-stop increments and there is additionally an A (Auto) setting should you’d slightly set the aperture through the digital camera physique within the regular method.

There’s additionally a Click on swap on the right-hand facet of the lens barrel which will be turned On for stills pictures or Off for easy, silent use throughout film capturing.

Lastly, the brand new Iris Lock swap successfully locks the aperture ring into the A (Auto) place for customers that choose command dial management or any of the guide settings from F2.8 to F22.

This new management maybe feels a little bit extraneous on condition that you have already got to maneuver the aperture ring fairly a good distance from f/22 to A (Auto), with little likelihood of it being by accident moved even with out partaking the Iris Lock swap, however it does show helpful if you wish to frequently shoot utilizing a selected aperture.

The Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II options optical picture stabilisation, which along with the A7R IV’s personal built-in stabilisation imply that we might efficiently hand-hold the digital camera as much as 5 stops slower than with a lens and digital camera physique with no OIS.

The Mode swap toggles between Regular capturing (Mode 1), Panning (Mode 2), which mechanically adjusts the lens to account for horizontal motion while capturing, and the brand new Mode 3 emphasizes framing stability when capturing dynamic, unpredictable movement.

The Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II lens is commendably equipped with a gentle case, an excellent high quality, up to date petal-shaped metallic lens hood (ALC-SH167) with a gap for round polarizing or variable ND filters, a flocked inside to assist forestall undesirable reflections and a silicone rubber entrance edge, and a detachable tripod collar that may be unlocked and rotated to any place.

Observe that this lens is absolutely appropriate with Sony’s 1.4x and 2x teleconverters which prolong the lens’s focal size to 98-280mm f/4 utilizing the 1.4x converter and 140-400mm f/5.6 utilizing the 2x converter.

Focal Vary

On the 70mm focal size the angle of view is 34° levels.

70mm

On the 200mm focal size the angle of view is 12° levels.

200mm

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, sometimes seen as blue or purple fringes alongside contrasty edges, weren’t very obvious in our take a look at pictures, solely showing in very excessive distinction areas.

70mm

200mm

Vignetting

With the Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II large open at f/2.8, you’ll be able to see some pretty noticeable gentle fall-off within the corners. Stopping down helps, though to fully eliminate this phenomenon, you will have to make use of an f-stop of f/5.6 or smaller.

70mm

200mm

Distortion

Barrel distortion is nicely managed, however there may be some pin-cushion distortion evident at 200mm in each the JPEG and RAW information which you may must right in post-processing till an acceptable lens profile is launched on your enhancing software program.

70mm

200mm

Sunstars and Flare

The Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II produces fairly good sunstars when stopped-down to f/16-f/22, as proven under, though it it a little bit vulnerable to flare when capturing immediately into the solar.

70mm

200mm

70mm

200mm

Macro

The Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II is not claimed to be a macro lens, however it delivers fairly good efficiency nonetheless should you zoom to 200mm.

The close-focus level is a formidable 40cm / 1.32ft from the movie/sensor aircraft on the 70mm focal size (82cm / 2.69ft at 200mm) and it has a most magnification ratio of 0.3x.

Bokeh

Bokeh is a phrase used for the out-of-focus areas of {a photograph}, and is often described in qualitative phrases, reminiscent of easy / creamy / harsh and so forth.

One of many cause to purchase such a quick lens because the Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II is to have the ability to isolate the topic from the background.

Sony was apparently very a lot conscious of this requirement, as they employed an iris diaphragm with 11 rounded blades for a really pleasing rendering of the out-of-focus highlights.

Under you may discover some examples, however you’re additionally inspired to take a look at our pattern photos.

Sharpness

With a purpose to present you ways sharp the Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II lens is, we’re offering 100% crops on the next pages.