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Background: I do landscapes but I started out this inquiry to try and understand why my wildlife and portrait photos at F4 70mm on my 24/70 FE were often blurred, my wifes RX100 took a sharper shot so I used that to compare, Its been a little exhaustive doing all this pixel peeping etc. but I have learned a lot, the A7r is my first real DSLR after owning a NEX3, after shooting with it for 18 months now this investigating has helped me understand it and my lens strengths and limitations, I can condlude my investigation in this post. This post is a follow on from http://www.sonyalphaforum.com/topic/3691-rx100-sharper-than-24-70-fe-70mm/ I could not add more images to that post so started a new one. Findings: 1) As stated in the title, there is no doubt to me now that the Rx100 MK1 at its full focus range of 37mm (100mm equivelent in full frame) and max aperture of F4.9 is sharper than the 24/70FE at F4 70mm, and any F4 zoom range of the 24/70. The 24/70 is sharper at F8 and I know there are many benefits of the A7r image, color, pixel density etc, but its just not that sharp at F4. 2) The 16/35 FE is worse than the 24/70 at F4 at 24 and 35mm (not suprising as I dont believe any super wide angle lens should not outperform or match a 24-70) It was on par maybe very slightly less sharp at F8 at 24 and 35 than the 24/70. 3) I can rule out shutter shock as a cause as I have compared a 24/70FE 24mm at F4 and F8 below, I used a Hoya HD ND to get the same SS, F8 is tack sharp so the blur at F4 cant be caused by shutter shake. 4) My images at 70MM have been poor for a few reasons, in an attempt to prevent blur at 70mm shoooting portraits or wildlife encounters handheld I have done the following to increase shuttter speed to avoid blur, Shot at F4 Increased ISO Given the 24/70 at F4 is kinda blurry from a tripod the degradation from increased ISO above 600 was extreme, and at lower ISO (1-200) SS goes as low as 1/45 outdoors under cloud or in shade, then camera shake can make it blurry. So its basically pretty hard for me to do handheld portraits or wildlife shots on the fly unless I am in direct sun to bring the SS up without the help of ISO. Conclusion: Thats a little disappointing, maybe you pros out there are laughing at me as its obvious to you not to even try 70mm handheld with a slower F4 lens, but I had hoped I could do some basic stuff, truth is I should use my wifes RX100 for these kind of shots. This is not an attack on the 24/70, its great at F8 and I get the manyother benefits other than sharpness, just frustrating thinking i need anopther lens for handheld mid telephoto type shots. I have a few questions: Any suggestions? ( I now think I am better shooting 70mm at closer to F8, even if its way underexposed then recovering the image from raw, I will try that bit its hardly a goodsolution) Is this normal for this or similar full frame DSLR lenses at wide apertures? Does anyone still think my lens is a bad copy? I am thinking not as my 16/35FE is similar at F4 but please reply if you think so. One last test I hane not done is in full sun, F4 vs F8 at 70mm, same SS using an ND, The full sun speeding up the SS above 1/250 to rule in/out camera shake, but I believe I have done that anyway in these tests, and im over this. its hard work, so if anyone else wants to try with this with their 24/70 FE and post here be my guest. F8 1/4 ISO100 70mm (24/70 FE) crop 100% This is tack sharp, F4 1/4 ISO100 70mm (24/70 FE) Hoya HD Variable ND crop 100% Not as sharp as F8 at all, now I know this is not bad, but this is from a tripod, remote release, shooting handheld or with increased ISO seriously degrades images at 70mm F4 F4.9 1/2 ISO100 100mm RX100MK1 crop 100% Interesting the color change, both cameras are on standard creative style. BUt this is way sharper than the other F4 shots. F4 1/4 ISO100 24mm (16/35 FE) Cokin HD Variable ND crop 100% I have been curious which lens I am better shoooting at with between 24 and 35mm, My 24/70FE or my 16/35 FE, its clear the 24-70 is better but not by much.

I did some tests today as I have been getting some poor focus at 70mm on my 24-70FE I mainly do landscapes but play around with some portraits and wildlife when I get the chance, but recently a bird shot came out tack sharp on my partners RX100 and my carefully manually focussed shots on my A7r 24-70FE at 70mm were not tack sharp at all. I since realised I should have increased ISO to get the shutter speed up to at least 1/250, some of my poor shots were at ISO 100 1/45 To further explore I mounted both cameras on a trpod at home today to photo this lamp and can conclude the RX100 is deffinitily sharper at 70mm, (approx 70mm equavellent as the RX100 is supposed to be a 28-100 equivelent focus lens, exif reads 37mm but it was near full focus length) I just cant get a tack sharp image from the 24/70 at 70mm? I used remore trigger mounted on a stirdy tripod Increased ISO to get faster SS Used remote release Manually focussed maticulously (the image did become tack shap in the viewfinder but not the raw output file viewed in lightroom)I tried with both image stabilisation on and off, both images were identical(I recon its a myth by the way that image SS on or off on a tripod monted A7r is any different, please reply if you have found there is a difference)Tried mounting weight on the lens in case shutter shake was effecting at 1/200 but interestingly this blurred the picture This is really disappointing, I don't want to fork out for an 85mm prime for portraits and I can't carry that around on my landscape hikes in case I encounter wildlife, I really hoped the 24-70 would do a better basic job than this, especially compared to a camera with a tiny sensor, the rx100 is a great little camera but it's disappointing that a $400 camera beats about $3,500 worth of kit for the A7r & 24-70FE. See below images, all from RAW files with minimal development, 3:1 zoom in Lightroom, the first one is the best of about 8 I took. A7r 24-70FE 70mm F4 1/250 ISO 1000 not sharp at all? RX100 Approx 70mm Equivelent, 1/100 F4.5 ISO800, tack sharp So I tried the 24-70 FE @ 55mm F8 ISO 3200 and it improved a lot, its close to the Rx100 now, but thats the Rx100 at f4.5 70mm so that may not be an equal comparison, I still think there is more detail on the Rx100 but its close, ISO noise is stronger on the RX100 so I am unsure which is best. There is a strong red hue from the A7r? I guess thats the Auto White Balance many give out about, interesting any feedback on the red hue as I have that on all my photos, does not seem right, is this the auto white balance? I could swear its there when I select white balance in camera myself.