[Music] Foreign Abbott and I'm here today to give you my Video review of the Sony Fe 20 to 70 Millimeter F4 G lens now I recognize That I'm a probably a couple of months Late at this point after this lens has Been released just through due to Scheduling quirks I couldn't fit it in At the time but I've been spending some Quality time with this lens over the Last several weeks including taking it With me on a trip to Cancun Mexico area And it has proved to be an excellent Travel companion for that and so I Thought that that would be a a great Kind of a segue for this particular Review and at this particular time it Was actually in the briefing for this Lens that a Sony rep mentioned the fact That something that kind of resonated With me and that was that modern cameras You know for example I've got this Mounted on the Sony a7r Mark V which I've used primarily for this test that's 61 megapixels when you got 61 megapixels You have a lot of options for cropping Which of course gets you closer to the Subject but what high resolution doesn't Solve is the ability to get lighter and So it becomes increasingly important in This you know day of of increasingly Common high resolution bodies to have Lenses that can go wide enough because
That gives you more flexibility so Essentially this lens takes the standard Zoom kind of standard ratio of 24 to 70 Millimeters and while four millimeters Doesn't sound like a lot on paper it Really dramatically changes what you can Do with the lens going from 24 to 20 Millimeters for example at 20 Millimeters you can get this much of the Scene in and at 24 millimeters you get This much and if you go into an interior Space obviously by comparison you can Get much more in the frame so Essentially what it does is it kind of Blends both a wide angle Zoom with a Standard zoom into one lens and for many People 20 millimeters is going to be Wide enough to basically serve pretty Much all of their wide angle needs and So if you paired this lens for example With the new 70 to 200 F4 macro G you Have of an incredible Optical Performance all the way from 20 to 200 Millimeters at a very compact size and Weight which makes this a very Attractive combination Now a maximum apture of f4 in the Standard Zoom is probably not going to Excite anyone too much but I think Depending on your photography style this Lens is going to work perfectly fine for Your needs so who is this lens best Suited for find out with me as we Explore it after a word from our sponsor
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Going to be able to do a lot of Different things with this lens that you Can't do with the Tamron and so overall I think that the size is really Reasonable for what we've got here it is 78.7 millimeters in diameter giving you A 72 millimeter front filter thread and A love 72 millimeters because it's not As common as either 67 millimeters or 77 Millimeters but there are a number of Lenses that do share that filter size The lens is 99 millimeters in length so That's 3.1 inches by 3.9 inches and it Weighs in at 488 grams or 70 17.2 ounces so you've got under 500 gram Weight means this is easy to carry Around I did a lot of just carrying Around as a part of my travels I had Zero issues with that the overall Combination is still really really Lightweight Now this is an externally zooming lens As you can see here the zoom action is Really really good very very well damped Very smooth there's no wobble or Anything and there is no kind of Tendency towards Zoom creep which is Good because there actually isn't a zoom Lock which is kind of surprising when You don't have an ex when you don't have An internally zooming lens so about four Centimeters of barrel extension there at 70 millimeters it does have a variety of Features I found that Sony's lenses have
Become increasingly more feature Rich And that's definitely true here it Starts with a lot of ways to control Aperture you have the ability to use an Aperture ring and you can use it with Clicks with one third stop to tense Throughout and those detents are Actually quite strong it's very definite You're going to feel those a little bit Maybe almost too much but there is a D-click option so that gives you the Option to kind of smoothly go throughout The various aperture options and also For video allows you to do aperture Racking which could be an essential part Of your video capture thank you you also Obviously have the ability to lock it Into an A or automatic mode if you don't Like using an apture you know aperture Ring and there is an iris lock on the Left side of the lens that allows you to Either lock it into the manual aperture Ring or lock it out of the manual Aperture ring depending on kind of your Preference if you don't like a manual Aperture ring at all no problem just use That aperture lock and you're never Going to have to worry about Inadvertently choosing aperture through The manual aperture ring I only have one Complaint about the execution of that And that is the d-click option it is Down on the right side and it's quite Low and so what happens is that the grip
Of the camera actually interferes with Getting at it it's in a really kind of Difficult position ergonomically so I Don't love that execution though Obviously at the same time this is not a Switch you're going to be reaching for Constantly either Other features include an afmf switch And along with two Focus hold buttons Now those are redundant as you know Anytime you have more than one Focus Hold button the purpose of it is to Allow you to access it when you're Shooting in a different orientations you Know portrait orientation versus Landscape orientation the function of That Focus hold button can be programmed Through the camera body itself and so You can choose a wide variety of Different functions just gives you Another control point on the lens itself I will also point out that we have a Very thorough weather ceiling here There's about 14 seal points as I count In this diagram flooring coating on the Front traveling to Mexico where it is Very hot and humid that was a very handy Thing because you come out of an Air-conditioned facility immediately Everything fogs up and so you know There's that you know option of moisture Buildup that a weather ceiling design is Going to keep out of that also the Flooring coating did help out you have
To kind of wait a few minutes for Everything to equalize but I could speed Up the process a little bit because this Was so easy to wipe due to that flooring Coating and so I could start to get into My photography more quickly particularly In the morning where you're wanting to Get those crucial Early Morning Light Shots and so I appreciated that another Interesting thing here is that we do Have a really low minimum Focus distance Of just 25 centimeters and that gives You a very high 0.39 times magnification Which is a very high magnification now You're close enough that it's not a Completely flat plane of focus as you Can see here but I will also point out That allowed me to get really close and Produce interesting results not just for Photos but also as you can see here for Videos as well so there's a lot of Versatility that's built into this lens And it handles very very nicely it's a Nice size just very functional in real World use particularly for travel which I think is a really important Application for a lens like this Now when it comes to autofocus we have Dual XD that's their you know higher Powered higher torque linear Motors here And so as a byproduct of that as I think Is is true of basically all of Sony's New releases at least higher inlands Releases autofocus is pretty much
Perfect it is fast it is accurate it is Very quiet in operation uh it was quick Enough to capture bird in flight and Kind of crucially in these moments where I wasn't really thinking about shooting Bird in Flight I was out shooting Landscaping so my shutter speed wasn't Really fast enough and I was just kind Of adjusting to just something that Happened a pelican came swooping in Decided he was going to knock a seagull Off of his perch so I managed to just Kind of point the camera and get the Shots they're well focused and even Though my shutter speed was technically Too low I kind of like the effect of the Shutter dragging there and it made for An interesting effect but most Importantly when it comes to autofocus Even in that kind of snap situation Autofocus was quick enough and accurate Enough to nail it and get what I wanted In that situation I found of course that Iaf was pretty much Flawless you know Whether I was shooting human subjects Various animals subjects this boa Constrictor in Mexico you know shooting Insects like my bees zero issue with any Of those things autofocus was just Perfectly reliable no issues at all to Complain about on the video front again As I've come to expect I have no Complaints there either Focus pools were Smooth and confident and beyond that
You'll also see that there is a minimum Of focus breathing here and my hand test Also I had no problems with that a nice Confident transition from my hand to my Eye and vice versa so autofocus is Highly recommended here So how about image quality Sony has you Know stretched the boundaries a little Bit by going this wide in a standard Zoom and so that does come with some Engineering challenges and we're going To see that they were able able to Overcome those quite successfully though There is one little thing that gets Masked by the uh the the profile Correction profile that is there that We'll highlight here as a part of this Section but let's dive in let's take a Closer look at how this lens holds up on A high resolution body so the first Thing we'll jump to is what is really if There's any kind of flaw to this lens it Is this at 20 millimeters there is some Significant Barrel Distortion now that's Not unusual in my experience when they Try to push the boundaries a Manufacturer tries to push the Boundaries in how wide they're going to Go in a compact lens and so this is what Gives right here Now I'll jump ahead for just a moment to The uh the correction profile here on The right and that is the actual profile So you can see that there's a little bit
Of Bulge that remains but it corrects it Fairly well if you try to manually Correct as I've done here on the left we Have a really it's not just a lot of Distortion it's also an inconsistent so You can see there's a dip up and down What's often called a mustache pattern You can see the amount of distortion is Actually really high at the plus 50 this Is one of the higher levels of Distortion that I've actually had to Correct in a lens like this so there's a Lot there vignetting is very very light And so vignette is basically a non-issue But the Distortion obviously is not Something you're going to want to Manually correct fortunately the profile Does a fairly good job with it at the Same time however I wouldn't call this a My top choice for doing Interiors for The simple reason that when you're Having to correct a lot of distortion You know there is a little bit of price To pay and that your lines are just not Going to be as clean as what they would Be in a lens that does just a little bit Better in this regard now for more Typical shots like this not Interiors But where there are other straight lines You know I don't see any problem here I Think the correction profile has cleaned Everything up to where I wouldn't look At this image and see any kind of issue There everything looks nice and clean so
Probably not much of a real world issue For most Shooters now on the other end Of the spectrum we switch towards a Pincushion type Distortion and it's not Insignificant there is some here it's About a minus nine to correct for that But you can also see in my manual Correction it is a very linear it's easy To correct for and obviously the profile Is going to clean it right up vignette Continues to be extremely extremely low You're just really not going to have to Worry about vignette correction very Much this is only about a plus 20 in Terms of Correction once again which is About as minimal as I ever see so how About our sharpness and contrast here so Once again we have a 61 megapixel Sony A7r Mark 5 body here and I'm showing you These results at 200 percent at 200 in The middle of the frame this is Flawless That is probably sharp very high detail And contrast just fantastic if we move Off towards the mid frame likewise mid Frame looks exceptionally good I mean That is just great panning down here Continues to look great and it's really Only as we get towards the corner that We see just a bit of a drop off it Doesn't look as good on either one of Those sides right out near the corner Now I will point out we just saw that There is a lot of distortion that has to Get corrected one of the potential cost
Of that is that maybe we're losing just A little bit of sharpness in that Correction process because the MTF Suggests that the lens probably should Be a little bit sharper than this in Real life so here in a real world shot At F 5.6 we can look at those Corners we Can see that you know what in real world Use they really don't look all that bad You can see right there at the edge it Does drop off a little bit but overall I Would say that that is a perfectly Useful looking image and of course in The center of the frame it's deadly Sharp looks really fantastic now Stopping down down from F4 to F 5.6 we Can see there is in the center of the Frame it's hard to say that it's any Sharper it was already just so Exceptionally good I would say here you Can see that there's just still more Detail look at the lips here that There's just more showing their higher Contrast there down in this corner you Can see that there is some improvement That is coming to the corners if we pop Over to this side we can see I mean it Just looks brilliant brilliantly sharp Out at this point and if I go all the Way up into this upper left corner here We can see that there is some Improvement still not as good as Anywhere else in the frame but it's only At that last little bit where we start
To lose a little bit of image quality Now our Peak Corner performance is going To come here at f8 where it's just a Little bit sharper if we look here you Can see we've we're not any improved in The mid frame if anything there's just a Very very mild regression back and the Same is going to be true in the center Of the frame but if your priority is Getting as sharp of results all across The frame kind of the most even Sharpness f8 seems to be the peak Aperture here now our minimum aperture Is F22 but after f8 you're going to see A steady erosion due to diffraction on High resolution bodies and so well on All bodies but in particular on high Resolution bodies and you can see here That there is a huge difference between F4 and F22 in terms of the sharpness and Contrast and that's just due to Diffraction so if we go from 20 Millimeters to 24 millimeters we can see That in the center of the frame you know Both are just stunningly sharp I mean That's incredibly incredibly good mid Frame is about equal but I would give a Very slight Edge to 24 millimeters and If I look over on this side that just Feels a little crisper to me than what I Saw at 20 millimeters likewise down here In the corner you can see that it's just A little bit sharper a little bit better Detail there in the corner likewise on
This side you can see a fairly Noticeable difference so 24 millimeters Is sharper still so moving on from 24 Millimeters to 35 millimeters we see That consistently just really really Amazingly sharp Center frame also mid Frame looks about equal here if we move Over to this left side again looking Roughly the same and up into this corner Here we can see that I would say that 24 Millimeters is perhaps ever so bit Slightly better than what 35 millimeters Is but overall really really consistent In terms of performance now moving Comparing 35 millimeters with 50 Millimeters we can see that it remains Just brilliantly sharp in the center of The frame I would say a few like a Percentage point or two less but still Very very close mid frame looks really Really good in both spots and down here In the corner we can see that they look Roughly the same perhaps a little bit of An edge for 50 millimeters on that side And they look about the same here over On the left side now with mini zoom Lenses they are actually weakest at you Know one of the ends of it in many cases At the telephoto and that's really not The case here you can see comparing 50mm Meters and 70 millimeters 70 millimeters Still looks brilliantly good mid frame Looks really really good better still Than what we saw at 50 millimeters here
On the left side we can see it looks Fantastic very very Crisp And even right Up into the corner we can see that it's Noticeably improved so this is Definitely our most even and consistent Sharpness profile that I've seen thus Far really really high performing and it Just looks fantastic at 70 millimeters Everywhere I look in the frame is just Fabulous so we saw that our maximum Magnification is quite High even though You can see that the planet focus at This close of focus distance is not all That flat but for real world shots You're able to achieve nice crisp Results here you can see there's a nice Detail up close plane of focus or is There is very very narrow The plane of focus is very very narrow As you can see but where we're focused At you can see that the sharpness is Really really quite good and so it can Produce some really nice looking images With fairly blurred out backgrounds Here's another shot looking kind of at The bokeh Quality here and so obviously In this case there's lots of detail I Mean if you look at the detail that's on This can that washed up overnight you Can see that it looks really really Crisp as we look towards the defocused Area there's a little bit of busyness Here on this transition zone out here Looks fairly nice but again this is not
The kind of lens that typically people Are going to use to kind of try to Obliterate backgrounds not really its Strength it really is better at keeping A lot of things in Focus but as you can See here once again if we look at this B The detail is really really nice and What I've been able to get and as we Look towards the defocus it looks pretty Decent this lens proof capable of Capturing really really lovely looking Colors and so obviously this is a really Color Rich environment here really nice Lighting in the morning and very rich Green grasses and then of course the you Know the thatch there it all looks Really really good in this image which We've already seen colors are a little Bit you know less extreme but you can See that they look really really nice Very natural here in a early morning Shot still a little bit of a haze on the Lens from the moisture outside but it Produced kind of an interesting looking Image that I liked but particularly the Colors itself look really really rich And uh and so I really appreciated that Here's another shot that I liked there Was just a building that had little Cutouts in it and so I saw this framing Just while walking and thought oh I've Got to cap capture that shot with that Lighting as it hit that palm tree so Anyway you can see just really really
Nice color work now when it comes to Flare resistance in many situations Flare resistance was quite good at wide Wider apertures as you can see here There's lots of light flooding into the Scene and it's also you know magnified By skimming across the the ocean and Reflecting there no issues with Flare I Mean I think there might be a tiny Little ghosting artifact here but really Nothing much when stopped down a little Bit you can see the sunburst effect Which is okay not exceptional but you Know it works I saw just a little bit And as you can see if we pan across at F11 going down to smaller apertures You'll see just a little bit more Ghosting artifacts but overall flare Resistance is really quite good so as You can see overall outside of that Strong Barrel Distortion at 20 Millimeters which by the way is not Wholly unexpected we have a really Strong Optical performance I think that Maybe that Barrel Distortion does affect The corners a little bit at some of the Wider focal lengths but overall we Really have exceptionally good image Quality here and images you know real World images just look fantastic great Color great contrast and pop they just Produce great options that makes this a Really appealing travel option I've Traveled with a 24 to 70 millimeter
Before and found it I found that I had Packed along a telephoto option and I Just rarely pulled it out because you Know that was long enough to get most of The shots and of course these days if You're on a higher resolution body the Ability to go into an aps-c type crop And to get out over a 100 millimeter Equivalent you know just makes that Really really useful and and so I think That this is going to cover a lot of Those applications and the ability to go Wider that's the one thing you can't Zoom with your feet often when you need To get into a wider space and interior Spaces I wouldn't recommend this for Real estate and that that higher Distortion at that point I think that There's better options but for most Other applications this is a great lens It'd be very useful for a wedding and Portrait photographers for giving you Some framing options particularly with Groups when you're not so concerned About just blowing out the background And you need more depth of field So obviously F4 is not going to crush Backgrounds and that's the one thing That you know will separate this lens is Not being great for those that would be Better served with maybe an F 2.8 type Zoom but if your photography style is More about getting a lot in Focus this Is an amazingly useful focal range here
And it delivers excellent image quality All throughout for both photos and video Making this a very very useful and very Recommended lens and at a price point of Right under 1100 US Dollars that's not Cheap obviously but neither is it Extremely expensive and when you compare It to a lot of the competition out on The market from other brands I think That you have a very fair price point For what you're getting here because This lens in many ways is fairly Unprecedented and having this kind of Range in a lens like this I'm Dustin Abbott and if you want more information You can check out my full text review Which is linked to in the description Below along with an image gallery if you Want to look at more photos there's also Some buying links there if you'd like to Purchase one options to follow myself on Social media to become a patron to get Channel merchandise please like And Subscribe if you haven't already thanks For watching have a great day and let The light in [Music] Foreign
