Sony 24-70 f4 - will I be disappointed?

[pilsburypie]

Getting very close to moving from Canon over to Sony now the A7rii reviews are coming thick and fast. My Canon setup is the 1Dsii with 24-70 f2.8L and the 70-200 f4is. The 24-70 is pretty much on the camera full time. I find this such a versatile lens, that little bit of zoom is just so useful for quickly adjusting the framing. Great images too.

 

I'm keen to use Sony lenses with my imminent new purchase, I'm aware the autofocus of my 1Dsii is fast and the Sony will be slower so I'm keen to give it a fighting chance by using Sony lenses. Also another reason for the switch is size and weight. I'm currently not keen on using an adaptor to fix my heavy Canon glass onto the camera.

 

I'm rambling now so will get to the point..... 24-70 is my go to lens. I'd love to have this for a Sony but I have read not to encouraging reviews on the Sony offering - quite bad distortion and lack of sharpness across the frame. I am a self confessed pixel peeper and am swaying towards getting the 2 new Batis primes 25/85 to satisfy my quest for sharpness, but I know my reliance on that zoom will come back to bite me.

 

Any Sony 24-70 users or others have opinions?

[yali]

Well, the 24-70 is probably the only FE lens that doesn't get praised. But you have to think that a 42 megapixel sensor will give you more detail even with a slightly less sharp lens. 

You can always rent one and see if it satisfies your needs.

As for your quest for sharpness. The FE 55 f1.8 was ranked as the sharpest autofocus lens over at dxomark so you could have a look at that. Actually now the FE 90mm Macro beat the 55. The 35 f1.4 seems to be a favourite of many as well. 

[pilsburypie]

I just worry that the super high MP of the new A7rii will really show up an average lens.

 

Yep, the 55mm is right in the sights. With a nice round 30mm between them I'm leaning towards the 55 and the 2 Batis primes (25/85). A terrible trio.

[addieleman]

Here's another pixelpeeper. I'm on my second sample of the FE 24-70mm. My first one wasn't sharp at the right edge of the frame, I wrote a blogpost on that. I think the lens is just about good enough for landscape-type of pictures between roughly 30mm and 60mm where it is just about sharp enough across the frame at f/8; also the OSS tends to deteriorate sharpness at times, I suspect that especially the flatness of field is impaired. As universally reported it doesn't feature sharp corners at 24mm, not even when stopped down far like at f/11; when I need good image quality at below 35mm I'll switch to the FE 16-35mm. My 24-70mm sample isn't perfect at 70mm either and at that focal length it's wise to stop down a bit, say to f/5.6, to get excellent image quality ignoring corners. I use it on the A7 BTW. If you want razor-sharp pictures on an A7RII, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed.

 

I also use the lens for snapshots of family and friends and for that it's really great IMHO. The images look beautiful, nice colors and contrast and a big improvement to my eyes over the FE 28-70mm. It's also sharp at the selected focus point, for this kind of pics sharpness across the frame is mostly irrelevant. I have no hesitation of using it wide-open (well, f/4 isn't that wide anyway) and the stabilization enables making pictures under relatively low-light.

 

The fact that I went through testing a total of 6 different samples and getting a second one says something about how much I want this lens. If you buy one, make sure that you can return it if needed, sample variation may rear its ugly head here.

[Wesley]

I still use my Nikon 24-70 instead of the FE one if that tells you anything. The distortion was the deal breaker.

[LeButler]

Since that focal length is so essential to you, you may be better off sticking with the 1DSii for now since you already have the best available lens.

 

A native 24-70 f2.8 is likely pending (Sony have stated a wide aperture prime and faster zooms are in progress) but no-one yet knows if they're nearer 6, or 12 months away. I would wait until that's announced.

With the exception of the 2-month-late 90mm, Sony have delivered roadmapped lenses on schedule so that'll inform your decision.

 

If you can't resist until then, I know it's not what you wanted but adapting your current lens would seem the best solution - try it out in person before buying.

 

 

Just to make things harder for you-

Note a 24mm crop from the FE55+A7Rii will probably deliver as much or more detail than the 24-70 at 24mm on the 1DS...

[yali]

Since that focal length is so essential to you, you may be better off sticking with the 1DSii for now since you already have the best available lens.

 

A native 24-70 f2.8 is likely pending (Sony have stated a wide aperture prime and faster zooms are in progress) but no-one yet knows if they're nearer 6, or 12 months away. I would wait until that's announced.

With the exception of the 2-month-late 90mm, Sony have delivered roadmapped lenses on schedule so that'll inform your decision.

 

If you can't resist until then, I know it's not what you wanted but adapting your current lens would seem the best solution - try it out in person before buying.

 

 

Just to make things harder for you-

Note a 24mm crop from the FE55+A7Rii will probably deliver as much or more detail than the 24-70 at 24mm on the 1DS...

 

How exactly would you crop a 55mm to 24mm? If you crop a lens it becomes longer... So the A7rII in cropmode would produce 18 MP images and the 55 would "become" a 85mm equivalent...

[LeButler]

How exactly would you crop a 55mm to 24mm? If you crop a lens it becomes longer... So the A7rII in cropmode would produce 18 MP images and the 55 would "become" a 85mm equivalent...

I meant, the 25mm might partly negate the need for a zoom, in that OP might get as much detail from that higher quality prime on the 42MP A7Rii as (s)he gets from the 24-70 on a 16MP 1DSii even when it's zoomed towards 70mm. Of course, a lack of telephoto compression would mean the results wouldn't be directly comparable...a silly observation of mine, ignore it!

 

(Edited 16:59)