Foreign Abbott and I'm here today to give you my Definitive review of the Sony 24 to 70 Millimeter F 2.8 G Master Mark II lens Sony's GM or gold Master lenses are in Their second generation and the 24 to 70 Millimeter F 2.8 to me is evidence of Just how far Sony has come in the past Six years originally the premise of the GM series was is that they were Essentially future proof but I think That Sony really couldn't have predicted How that new technologies were going to Enable them to make a lens like this That is smaller lighter more Feature-rich faster focusing and Optically Superior Of course the flip side is it's also More expensive at about twenty three Hundred dollars but you can't have Everything but the new 24 to 70 Millimeter F 2.8 as we will see in this Particular review is going to highlight How that this lens really has become the Gold standard for standard zooms so the Question is for you is it worth the Money well hopefully we'll be able to Help answer that question for you right After a word from our sponsor today's Episode is sponsored by merak maker of The q1s Bluetooth enabled magnetic rower Space in my exercise room is limited so I need equipment with a small footprint The qns fits the bill and is easy to
Store upright where it takes only 20 by 21 inches of space the built-in Wheelbase makes it easy to roll back Into place for a workout the q1s is made Of quality parts and can support rowers Up to 350 pounds I've been pleasantly Surprised by the quality of the rowing Action as the seat moves smoothly on the Dual rails the rower flywheel is very Quiet and the Magnetic resistance is Smooth over the 16 selectable levels There is a basic LCD screen on board but The rower is Bluetooth enabled and Allows you to sync up with either the Premium Kino map or free merak apps the Q1s has been just what I've personally Wanted in my weight room for years use The Amazon Link in the description below For a discounted price on the marac q1s Magnetic rower so as noted this is the Smallest and lightest 24 to 70 Millimeter F 2.8 lens on the Sony Platform it weighs in at only 695 grams Or about a pound and a half that's about 150 grams less than the sigma and even More than what we saw on the original Sony 24 to 70 millimeter G Master Importantly to me also is the fact that This lens is considerably shorter it is Comes in at about 120 millimeters which Makes it somewhere around 18 millimeters Shorter and what that means is that not Only is the lens lighter but the weight Is much better distributed one of the
Things that I kind of highlighted in my Review of the original 24 to 70 Millimeter is that while Sony's bodies Were smaller than DSLR bodies that lens Was actually a little bit larger than What the 24 to 70 millimeter lenses I Was accustomed to and as a byproduct the Balance really wasn't all that great With this new 24 to 70 millimeter F 2.8 The balance feels really good and I also Noted that the weight is distributed in Such a way that even when I was using it On a Gimbal and I wanted to zoom in a Little bit I found that I didn't have to Do any kind of rebalancing but it Retained a nice balance there and so it Is a really nice lens to use in the Field because of that The diameter here is right under 88 Millimeters it's about three and a half Inches in diameter and has an 82 Millimeter front filter thread now Noted this is a more feature Rich lens And the its predecessor and so one of The main areas that's been added which Is only a very new trend for Sony to Include on the zooms is the inclusion of An actual aperture ring and not just an Aperture ring you have the ability to Control it with one third stop to tense You have the ability to use a switch and To de-click it and so that you can do Aperture racking you also have the Ability to put it just solely into
Automatic if you want to control it Within the camera and then much like Sigma has been doing there is an iris Lock that allows you to lock it into Either the automatic or the manual Position and that will keep you from Inadvertently you know switching over Into either one and possibly missing the Shot as a byproduct it's a nice little Feature that is tucked in such a way That it's out of the way and thus is Really not an issue at all the same is True for the switch that is allows you To click or de-click it's you know put In such a way to where it really doesn't Take up real estate and so things don't Get busy and complicated out here but It's there if you need it it's not one Of those things you're going to need all The time and so I really like the way That Sony has put these less likely to Be used often things they're there but They're not in the way so a lot of Control when it comes to aperture and by The way there are instead of nine there Are now 11 aperture blades in the Aperture Iris that really as you can see Helps to keep a really nicely circular Shape both when you look into the iris And then also if you're looking at the Specular highlights the bokeh highlights You can see that they stay nice and Circular as the lens is stopped down Now a unique approach to the control of
The zoom action here is that there is Now a switch that allows you to control Tension on the zoom ring and so it's Either the smooth position and in the Smooth position it allows you to do just That fingertip type of zooming and so You can zoom really fast really easily If you so desire but there is also a Tight option that allows you to zoom With a little bit more weight and Damping on there and one of the main Things here is that I noted it Eliminates the need for having any kind Of a zoom lock even out hiking on Multiple occasions I had zero issues With zoom creep when I was in the tight Position and unlike uh an actual lock it Means that you can pull up the lens and You can take the shot and not have to Worry about that extra step of having to Unlock it it's a really nice approach to Control of the zoom here and so I highly Applaud that move there also uh upgraded Here is that rather than just having one Focus hold button near the afmf switch You now have a secondary one and so if You're shooting in a vertical position You also have a focus hold button there Easy to hand just another little upgrade That's a part of the overall feature set Beyond that we also have a very thorough Weather ceiling with as you can as you Can see from this diagram there are 14 Different seal points internally there's
A flooring coating on the front element And so as a byproduct you have a Professional grade lens that is Thoroughly sealed also improved here is The amount of magnification that you Have and so at your minimum Focus Distance you can get a very high degree Of magnification of 0.32 times and that Is obviously a really useful thing to Allow you to you know maybe as a wedding Photographer or as a portrait Photographer to get in tight on some Details blur out some backgrounds get Some creative shots to augment your Other work it's just a useful feature to Have and so I'm really glad to see that Now one thing that isn't a part of the Lens design is uh Sony's Optical steady Shot or an inland stabilizer they're Going to rely on the in-camera Stabilization and obviously Sony is able To do that in large part because they Have so readily adopted Um their in-body image stabilization and It is widespread across the majority of Their cameras and for me I didn't really Notice the difference and it does Eliminate some Optical complexity or I Should say mechanical complexity to the Lens which means that there's just one Thing less to go wrong there Unfortunately Sony's um you know Optical Steady shot in the camera is getting Better and better all the time with each
New camera release and so it's pretty Easy to rely on that so overall this Lens was a design a delight to use it is Lighter it is more feature Rich and you Know just generally handles really Really well It also is seriously upgraded when it Comes to autofocus now there are four of So a quad XD which means extreme Dynamic Linear Motors that are used as a part of The design and so as you can see Focus Changes are essentially instantaneous You can go from close to a distant Subject with no Focus lag it's just you Know once you try to focus the the you Know the focus group is there Essentially and so that means that on a Camera like my alpha one here it not Only can enable you to have the 30 Frames per second which any first party Sony lens will but it's also not going To slow you down because if you have you Know where you're actually trying to Prioritize actual focus and not just a Burst rate it's actually going to keep Up with the action and one thing that I Really noticed is that probably the most Frustrating shots I get is shots of of Nala right now she's young and so as Soon as she sees the camera rather than Running from it she actually always Starts to move towards it and if you Have a lens that doesn't Focus really Quickly what you basically end up is a
Series of blurry shots where she has Moved Beyond Focus every time in this Case it actually nailed Focus even as She got really really close to the Camera and that was a byproduct of Having such fast Focus acquisition and The ability that when she starts to move To actually begin focus and to get it to The proper place I also noted in this Shot that autofocus was nailed right at The very edge of the frame and I was Reminded of how far we've come from the DSLR days when you just you just weren't Going to take a shot off near the edge Of the frame because there was no Focus Points out there and even if they were They tended to be much less sensitive And didn't Focus as well and so it is Pretty amazing we're very blessed these Days to have such amazing autofocus Systems both in the lens and in not Modern cameras now on the video front Here for a moment one thing that I did Note that this lens seems to be pretty Par focal and so as I Zoomed In and Out Felt like Focus stayed pretty consistent And so that's interesting for video also With Focus pools as you can see here They are quiet they're confident they're Smooth I noticed an average amount of Focus breathing there so I tried with The breathing compensation and frankly I Don't see a huge difference between the Two clips maybe your mileage may vary on
That but I didn't find that to be any Kind of extreme issue the lens also did Well with my hand test no problem in Confidently returning to focus on my Eyes and frankly I would expect nothing Different at this point Sony's iaf Technology is very very good and very Mature at this point I also found that The lens worked well on a Gimbal and it Was lightweight enough that I was in the On the middle of also reviewing the DJI RS3 mini and even though that's a Smaller gimbal it was able to handle the Combination of either my A7 IV or Alpha One and this lens and have zero issues As you can see from the shots I also Noted that in this you know clip where I'm kind of tracking knowledge she moves Around how good even at F 2.8 the lens Did it just staying locked on the eye With no visible steps this is a Fantastic autofocus system and it's one Of the main areas that sets this lens Apart from cheaper alternatives So let's talk image quality here You can see from the MTF chart that we Have got even better if it was the Master before it's more the master now In this Mark II version that Center Performance is near perfect and you can See that even at the weakest point off At the extreme edge of the frame the Image quality is still quite good and One thing that we'll see in our
Breakdown that we'll dive into here is That it's a really consistent Performance all across the zoom range so Let's take a look at that so let's start By taking a look at a couple of Sequences that show off this particular Zoom range so here we have the same Scene from the same spot at 24 Millimeters and on the right at 70 Millimeters so obviously some Versatility it's not a huge Zoom range But it's enough to cover a lot of focal Lengths second look here 24 millimeters On the left 70 millimeters on the right And so you can see that there's a lot of Various options for framing a shot Inside that particular focal range now As a first party lens this is obviously Going to have very good profile support And you can see that on the wide end it Is needed we have at 24 millimeters we Do have some Barrel Distortion not a Massive amount but as we can see here as Far as the correction goes you can see It doesn't necessarily correct totally Perfectly with a manual correction so There is a little bit it's not linear There's a little bit of a a mustache Type pattern not strong but there is Some there and then also some vignette So taking a quick look at the quantity Of both these things I have a plus eight To correct for the Distortion now just To give you some perspective with the
Sigma 24 to 70 millimeter to correct the Barrel Distortion at 24 millimeters I Had to be into the low 20s and so this Is significantly Less in the Distortion Department as far as the vignette it's Not a particularly strong amount plus 51 To correct for the vignette and so you Know that puts us a little over two Stops or in the two-stop range but Really that's not bad for the wide end Of a zoom lens like this now here's a Look at what you get with the actual Profile correction so as you can see It's a much more linear correction here It takes care of that mustache pattern And so fortunately this is what you're Going to see with either a JPEG or video File and then using a correction profile In your editing software you should end Up with raw files and to put an end Result that looks more like this so as You zoom throughout first of all you get To a neutral point and then as you get Towards the telephoto end you can see That we move towards some pin cushion Distortion a pincushion Distortion is Much more linear so you can see that it Was easier to correct for and uh Vignette is there but not particularly Heavy I used a -5 to correct for the Pincushion Distortion and a plus 46 so a Little bit less vignette than what we Saw in the telephoto end and once again You're going to see a nice clean result
If you're using the standard correction Profile that corrects the Distortion Well and the vignette in a very linear And easy fashion so let's talk about Chromatic aberrations when it comes to Longitudinal chromatic aberrations we Can see here that I don't see a lot of Purple fringing before the planet Focus I definitely do see some green fringing After the plan of focus nothing extreme Here but neither is it fully corrected Either now I saw very good results when It comes to lateral chromatic aberration Control and so here we can see just Using a real world image that in these Branches towards the edge of the frame This is without any kind of correction Having taken place you can see that There just isn't any fringing there Along the sides of the frame so Certainly a very positive end result When it comes to lateral chromatic Aberrations so here is my chart that Probably most of you are familiar with At this point again I'm using the 50 Megapixel Sony Alpha one for my test Camera and I am shooting here or showing You the results at a 200 magnification So in the center of the frame a really Fantastic result that MTF chart showed Near perfect results in the center of The frame and that's exactly what we see Very high contrast very high detail also This is a really strong mid frame result
Great contrast great detail there and if We pop all the way down into the far Corner we can see that there is some Drop off in the corner but it is still Quite good we have a fairly consistent Result here out towards the corner as Well now stopping down to F4 we can see There is just a little bit of a contrast Boost in the center of the frame it Looks really fantastic mid frame is Looking um even better still really Great detail down into the corner there Is some uptick and contrast we can see It's still not as bitingly sharp as it Is elsewhere but contrast has improved And this is a you know a very usable end Result in the corner you can stop down To F 5.6 for just a little bit better in Result and at f8 I would argue there is Even just a little bit more contrast Though unfortunately often when you stop Down this far you're not really making Any gains elsewhere if anything you can Be stepping back a little bit though I Would say that the center and the mid Frame also look pretty good here at f8 We'll pop over to the other side and Take a peek there as well and it all Looks quite good and so if you want Maybe your maximum performance at 24 Millimeters f8 gives you good consistent Results across the frame now our minimum Aperture is F22 but as per usual on a High resolution body moving past f11
Starts to give you diminishing returns Where diffraction starts to make the Image look softer so here's wide open on The left side and minimum aperture on The right side and you can see how much Better the wide open Result looks Compared to the um the minimum aperture Result everywhere you look across the Frame the corners are probably the least Extreme that because that's where it was Weakest to begin with but you can see That F 2.8 is definitely sharper than F22 now it is not unusual for zooms like This particularly these standard zooms To you know be maybe optimized on the Wide end and then to drop off at other Places in the zoom range that's really Not the case here so we can see that at 35 millimeters the lens if anything is Sharper and even more contrasty and That's true whether you're looking in The center of the frame here you can see It's better in the mid frame and even Down into the corners you can see that It is a sharper end result if we pop Over and look at the other side we can See there's just more contrast in detail There so 35 millimeters is an Improvement on 24 millimeters so if we Compare 35 millimeters to 50 millimeters We can see that while 50 millimeters is Just very mildly behind the 35 Millimeter performance it is very very Close and here in the mid frame I would
Say that it's probably every bit as good If not I hear better moving off towards The edge of the frame and again I would Say that here in the corner it looks Every bit as good as what 35 millimeters Did very close here in this part of the Frame and over here as well so I mean You're not talking about any kind of Real regression there even moving on to 50 millimeters so then if we move on to The crucial 70 millimeters we can see Compared to what we just saw at 50 Millimeters that the center result looks Very similar I would say ever so Slightly less contrast and the mid frame Is very very close very strong detail Once again and off into the corner a Very very similar end result over on This side we can see that I would say Contrast is even slightly better at 70 Millimeters and off towards the edge of The frame they're looking very very Close and so I mean this is very Consistent performance all across the Frame in this Zone I would take the 70 Millimeter result over what I saw at 50 Millimeters and so just really really Great consistency across the zoom range Just to give you a little bit of real World context of that performance at 70 Millimeters so here's a shot at F 5.6 I Was down low using the high snow bank to And the light here to give you a look at Just some nice simple contrast and lines
But just look at you know at 100 Magnification this is shot on the a74 You can just see though that the detail Is just Flawless there on that it looks Really really great here's a shot also On the a74 a Ferrari this is wide open F 2.8 at 70 millimeters and you can see The detail there is really really Impressive just delineating all of that Fur you can see here looking at the the Whiskers very little chromatic Aberration and also taking a look at the Defocused area it looks quite nice Here's a pair of shots one taken at F 2.8 this is at F 5.6 almost the same Focal length in the middle of the zoom Range there and you can see that at 100 Magnification frankly it's it's not all That easy to tell the difference between F2 0.8 and F 5.6 I mean there's going to Be some difference in the depth of field You can see you're getting tons of punch Out of the lens even wide open at F 2.8 Here's a shot of the same scene this Taken at 50 millimeters and you can see As we zoom into a pixel level I mean the Detail is fantastic I mean this you know Sony is touting that this is offering up Prime Type image quality and while you Know that's obviously Prime's going to Give you much larger maximum aperture to Work with as far as just the raw detail At F 2.8 this very much is very similar To a performance that most primes would
Give you at F 2.8 now there seems to be A little bit of confusion out there as To how to achieve the maximum Magnification figure of 0.33 times I've Read it reported by several that that's Actually achieved at the 24 millimeter End that doesn't actually seem to be the Case and so here we can see that at 70 Millimeters first of all we'll take a Quick look at the detail which is nice It performs well up close but here's our Degree of magnet vacation at 70 Millimeters if I manually focus and use The minimum Focus distance and at 24 Millimeters you can see that it's not Nearly as high of a magnification figure Even if you can get a little bit closer And so as a byproduct I don't think the Reporting that says that the maximum Magnification figure of 0.33 times is Taken at 24 millimeters that's not high Enough magnification but this 70 Millimeter performance is and so that's Where our maximum magnification is Actually at 70 millimeters and frankly I Like that much better it's much easier To access that with a little bit longer Working distance than trying to get Right on top of something at the wide End quick look at the bokeh geometry Here we can see that there is a very Slight amount of fringing along the Outside of the bokeh circles but you can See the geometry is fairly good fairly
Circular it's you know getting squeezed A little bit here but still closer to a Circle shape than at F4 pretty Consistent circles everywhere F Five Points six still very circular there's a Little bit of motion blur here because It was quite dark where I was shooting This but you can see as far as the Geometry it looks quite good overall I Would say the quality of the bokeh is Quite good for a standard zoom and so You can see in this case quite creamy in The foreground and then you know we're Going down towards a detail there and You know blending away again here also Detail is really quite nice as you can See here up close and you can see that It blurs away very nicely and another Shot here where you can see that chain At varying depths of field it blurs away Quite nicely the shot stood out to me is Really showing very nice creamy bokeh And so you know nice detail on our Subject here this is a handheld shot but You can see that in these varying Degrees of defocus it is all Falling Away really nicely One final thing to look at is flare Resistance flare resistance is not Perfect you can see that there is some Ghosting artifacts here Um wide open at F 2.8 stopping down to F11 you can see that the ghosting Pattern becomes a little bit more
Pronounced you can also see a nice 22 Bladed sun star that comes from the 11 Bladed aperture I can also point out That either wide open or stop down There's not a problem with veiling Contrast is holding up really nice but There is a bit of that ghosting pattern To be aware of so as you can see really Very little but good to report when it Comes to the Optics you know there's a Lot of times that these camera companies Talk about having prime image quality in Their zooms that's actually true here Not in the sense of being able to have That huge maximum aperture but in terms Of having equivalent sharpness at F 2.8 It is very close to a lot of prime Lenses out there In short this is the best performing Most feature-rich standard Zoom that I've ever tested while also managing to Be smaller and lighter than other 24 to 70 millimeter F 2.8 that's a winning Combination it used to be that if you Were to have Optical improvements it Meant that you had a bigger and a Heavier lens but somehow Sony has been Managed to reverse that Trend to where Their newer lenses are smaller and yet They are optically superior to what I've Seen before I love that Trend because it Means I'm far more likely to reach for a Lens that is not so onerously heavy to Bring along there are some cheaper
Alternatives the sigma 24 to 70 Millimeter F 2.8 art is one of those it Does have more Barrel Distortion it's Not quite as sharp and it's not quite as Fast autofocus and I have heard a lot of Anecdotal reports from those that have Mentioned that they have gotten dust Inside their copies despite it claiming To be weather sealed so this is Superior In those regards though it's about twice The money another good alternative if You can live with a slightly less wide Focal length as the Tamron 28 to 75 Millimeter G2 I had a very very good Experience with that lens during my test I was impressed by the build quality the Weather sealing on it the autofocus Performance and the Optics there but Again 28 to 75 millimeters is not the Same as 24 to 70 millimeters and you're Not going to get as amazing either Autofocus Performance or the ability to unlock the Full Burst speed if you're using one of Sony Sports cameras so bottom line is That this lens is expensive at 2300 US Dollars but if you want the best this is The lens to buy particularly if your Work includes demanding autofocus and You need to catch those critical shots Maybe at high speed that might make this Lens worth the investment even with its High price tag I'm Dustin Abbott if you Look in the description down below you
Can find a linkage to my full text Review also to an image gallery there's Some buying links there if you'd like to Purchase and beyond that linkage to Follow myself or Craig on social media Media to become a patron or to get Channel merchandise and of course if you Haven't already please like And Subscribe thanks for watching have a Great day and let the light in [Music]
