Sony 24-70mm f/4 Review

Sony 24-70 F/4 Master Real world images

Sony 24-70mm F/4 lens review:

After Sony first launched their full frame mirrorless system in October 2013, the Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS was their first “serious” zoom lens. Since then, Sony has released the professional level 24-70mm F/2.8 GM lens as well as a second F4 standard zoom, the Sony 24-105 F/4 G lens. Tamron has also joined the fray with their 28-75 F/2.8. So now, five years into the existence of the Sony full frame mirrorless system, the consumer has four choices of standard zoom lenses, in addition to the basic kit Sony FE 28-70mm F3.5-5.6 OSS. Notably, both Canon and Nikon have recently followed suit, launching their mirrorless systems with a standard F4 zoom as one of the first lenses.

The early selling point of mirrorless was to emphasize compactness, which is apparent in the Sony 24-70 F/4. The big question is whether sacrifices were made to keep it compact.

Currently priced at $798, this post will ask whether the Sony 24-70 F/4 is worth it compared to the other options. Does it still make sense to purchase it for the Sony system today? If you were an early adopter, does it make sense to keep the 24-70 F/4 or to upgrade?

For comparison, I have already reviewed the Sony 24-70 F/2.8 GM, Sony 24-105 F/4 G and Tamron 28-75 F/2.8.  (click link for review).

Body and Handling

The body design of the Sony 24-70 F/4 is basic and austere compared to most of the newer lenses. It features a compact metallic feeling body, with no switches or buttons. The lens is equipped with in-lens stabilization, but it must be turned on and off in the camera menus. Focus hold buttons are useful on Sony lenses to re-program for eye-AF, but no such button is on this lens.

Overall, the Sony 24-70 F/4 makes the entire camera system feel compact and lightweight. The Sony 24-70 F/4 weighs in at 426 grams.

I would call the build quality “good.” The lens doesn’t feel cheap in the hand. Sony designates the lens as being “weather resistant” but not fully weather sealed. It does not appear to be quite as weather resistant as some other Sony lenses.

The Tamron 28-75 F/4 is definitely bulkier and weighs in at a slightly heavier 550 grams. You lose 4mm on the wide end but gain a full F-stop in aperture. Build quality is similar. The Sony 24-105 F/4 G weighs nearly 50% more than the 24-70 F/4 at 663 grams, but it’s still not a heavy lens. You get the same aperture, but focal length is 50% longer at 105mm. Build quality of the 24-105 is superior all around, including focus hold button (ideal for eye-AF), and switches for MF/AF and stabilization.  The Sony 24-70 F/4 is undeniably compact compared to the other choices.

Image Quality

The Sony 24-70 F/4 has been around for 5 years prior to this review. I am not the first reviewer. While I try to review a lens with complete objectivity, I can’t deny having read other reviews over the years. Based on reviews I’ve seen over time, the Sony 24-70 F/4 does not have a great reputation for its image quality. When I used the lens for some real world shooting (shots above), I was a bit pleasantly surprised. So let’s break down our image quality tests…

Vignetting and Distortion

Sony standard zooms often suffer from some significant vignette wide open, particularly in the extreme corners. This may be partially due to Sony designing their full frame system with a mount that is just a bit undersized for the task, requiring lens designs that need corner correction.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a good test shot at F4, but as shown below even at F5.6, there is still pretty significant vignette in the extreme corners. It is correctable, but correction causes other issues such as more noise in the corners.

The barrel distortion is a bit disconcerting at 24mm. While correctable, as shown, correction ends up softening parts of the image that get stretched out. The compact design of this zoom lens likely led to the fairly extreme level of distortion.

At 70mm….

While vignette is nothing new at the wide end of Sony lenses, the corner vignette is a bit worse on the Sony 24-70 F/4 at the long end. There is also a fair amount of pin cushion distortion.

It should be emphasized that all of Sony’s standard zooms exhibit some distortion and vignetting, but it would appear that the Sony 24-70 F/4 is just a bit worse than the other lenses. In real world shooting, with corrections applied, vignette and distortion will not be a major issue to deal with.

Flare – Chromatic Aberration/Purple Fringing – Sun stars

On the bright side, the fairly simple aperture structure of the Sony 24-70 F/4 lends itself to very nice sun stars, as shown above at F11.

Flare control is about average for what I’d expect in a standard zoom. There are definitely some ugly blobs but it is controllable and not extreme.

The negative is CA/purple fringing. Color fringing arises most typically in high contrast scenes at fast aperture. Even some of the best prime lenses can have significant color fringing at wide aperture. As a F4 lens, one might hope that fringing would not be an issue with the Sony 24-70 F/4. No such luck, and it does impact real world images as shown below. It is primarily present in the corners at high contrast.

Real world Purple Fringing:

Lightroom does have tools to let you correct the purple fringing, which works with moderate success.

Sharpness

Sharpness is overrated. There, I said it. On the one hand, sharpness is the one thing you really can’t correct in post-processing. Distortion and vignette can be corrected. Colors and contrast can be adjusted. But if your image is too soft, there isn’t much you can do. And I have encountered some lenses that are so soft that they get in the way of making great images.

But with modern lens designs, almost all newer lenses can reach a basic resolution threshold. Sure, when measuring with scientific equipment or pixel peeping, one lens may be sharper than another. But in terms of viewing images at basic sizes, most people won’t notice slight differences.

Still, let’s take a look at the Sony 24-70 F/4. Sharpness is overrated but not irrelevant. Sharper images give more freedom to crop or print large.

24mm Sharpness Tests

Starting with center crops at 24mm (click for large):

24mm at the aps-c border:

And 24mm in the extreme corners:

Another series from closer focus:

Centers at 24mm:

Borders at 24mm:

And the extreme corners at 24mm:

The wide end of 24mm is a bit disappointing overall. The center is brilliantly sharp. (And as you will see below, the center is brilliantly sharp generally at all apertures and focal lengths). The aps-c borders are a tad soft wide open and become acceptable upon stopping down to F5.6. I wouldn’t call the borders “tack sharp” at any aperture. Corner performance is particularly poor. I don’t expect sharp corners wide open but with the Sony 24-70 F/4, stopping down just barely improves the corners.

Real world shooting, at smaller print sizes, 24mm will be sharp enough but you really won’t be getting tack sharp 24mm landscapes for flawless large prints.

35mm Sharpness Tests

Centers at 35mm:

Borders at 35mm:

Corners at 35mm:

I didn’t do near-focus testing at 35mm but the normal distance images show a significant improvement over 24mm. The center is tack sharp. The borders remain consistently sharp, if not quite completely tack sharp. Extreme corner performance is more acceptable here. While still a step below being completely sharp, you reach an acceptable level of sharpness even wide open.

What’s notable is how little stopping down seems to change the sharpness. For the most part, at 35mm, it performs as well as F4 as at F8.

50mm Sharpness Tests

The borders:

50mm corners:

Closer focus, centers at  50mm:

50mm borders:

And extreme corners at 50mm:

50mm is the highlight for the Sony 24-70 F/4. You get a very even sharp performance across the frame. While still not perfect, the borders and corners are quite acceptable from F4 to F8. I would have no hesitation shooting this lens at 50mm for any use.

70mm Sharpness Tests

70mm border crops:

Finally, 70mm extreme corner crops:

The closer focus series, 70mm center:

70mm borders:

And finally, 70mm extreme corners:

 

This getting a bit weaker at 70mm but not terrible. Center performance takes a slight hit. While F4 is still quite acceptable, you need to stop down to F5.6 for it to be truly tack sharp. The border also looks very solid at F5.6 and fair at F4. The extreme corners are truly ugly at F4. Even for modest sized prints, the corners are too ugly for 70mm landscape shooting at F4. The good news is that the corners reach the acceptable range between F5.6 and F8.

Bonus:  Real World Comparisons

As discussed above, the Sony 24-70 F/4 is weakest at wide angle when examined closely. To what extent will this impact real world images?

One of the best wide angle lenses is the Sony 16-35mm F/2.8 GM. Of course, the Sony 16-35 F/2.8 GM is triple the price and one of the top rates lenses in the Sony line up. (My full review of the Sony 16-35mm F/2.8 GM here).

Click the below images for larger, to compare how the basic consumer zoom 24-70 F/4 compares to one of Sony’s best lenses for wide angle shooting.

 

If you click the above two images, differences are not apparent to my eye at smaller sizes. If you download the image and enlarge to 100%, then differences become startling. At F7.1, the Sony 16-35mm F/2.8 is nearly flawless. Across the entire frame, it is sharper than the 24-70 F/4, especially at the edges. So when pixel peeping, the differences are huge. When not pixel peeping, not sure the differences are too noticeable. Let’s remember that this is a comparison to one of the very sharpest Sony zoom lenses.

Overall:

On one hand, the Sony 24-70 F/4 exceeded my fairly low expectations. On the other hand, it’s the weakest of the standard zooms available for Sony. (other than the basic kit lens). Nothing about the Sony 24-70 F/4 stands out as particularly bad. Many will find the Sony 24-70 F/4 to be “good enough” in terms of image quality.

Compared to the other options, the main advantage of the Sony 24-70 F/4 is the small size and relatively affordable price. Let’s break down the comparison with the competition:

• Sony 24-105 F/4 G:Priced $500 more and weighs 237 grams. The Sony 24-105 F/4 G is still not a huge lens but it is noticeably bigger. If you can afford a Sony full frame system, the price difference between the 24-70 F/4 and 24-105 F/4 G probably shouldn’t break you, but it’s not a trivial difference. Most buyers will probably find the 24-105 F/4 G to be worth the extra cost.It’s a better built lens with better image quality and the nice extra range, 50% longer. Buy the Sony 24-105 F/4 from Amazon here.
• Tamron 28-75 F/2.8:This is the most compelling alternative to the Sony 24-70 F/4. The Tamron is practically the same price, currently just $50 more. (The Sony is currently on sale and regular price is higher than the Tamron). It isn’t much larger than the Sony 24-70 F/4, just 124 grams heavier. So for just a tiny bit more weight and cost, you get a superior lens: superior image quality and one stop faster. The negative is the loss of 4mm on the wide end. Many people will underestimate the difference between 28mm and 24mm: it does make a significant difference in field of view. But I’ll take a gain of a full stop of aperture in return for giving up the 4mm. Buy the Tamron 28-75 F/2.8 from Amazon here.
• Sony 24-70 F/2.8 GM:Different type of lens for a different type of photographer. Triple the price, double the weight. If you want to have it all: great image quality, 24mm wide angle, great build quality AND if you aren’t too concerned with price or weight, then go for this lens. Most enthusiast photographers can make do with one of the other choices. Buy the Sony 24-70 f/2.8 GM here.

Ultimately, if you are buying a normal zoom for Sony for the first time, I think most buyers would be better off with the Tamron 28-75 F/2.8 or the Sony 24-105 F/4. Both lenses were out of stock for most of 2018 for good reason. People who may want to consider the Sony 24-70 F/4 are those who prioritize the smallest possible lens.

If you already own the 24-70 F/4, should you upgrade? Maybe, but not necessarily. If you’re not a pixel peeper, you won’t necessarily get a huge noticeable image quality improvement by upgrading. While the other lenses do offer better image quality, it wouldn’t be noticeable enough to make upgrading a priority. The exception being A7riii landscape shooters: Considering the softness of the lens at wide angle, high resolution landscape shooters are the most likely to appreciate a sharper lens.

For everyone else, upgrading may be worthwhile to get the better body and extra range of the 24-105 or to get the faster aperture of the Tamron 28-75 F/2.8. But I wouldn’t upgrade in the hopes of getting a major image quality improvement.

Final Score:

The Sony 24-70 F/4 really isn’t a bad lens. It was slightly better than I expected it to be. But it’s not as good as the alternatives and doesn’t have any significant advantages over the alternatives. It’s not even really cheaper than the Tamron 28-75 F/2.8. So my final score shouldn’t be a surprise:

Rating (1-10):  Score: 5

(About my scoring:  9-10 is a superb lens which could have a place in the bag of almost every photographer.   6-8:  recommended with caveats.   3-5:  A compromised lens that may still be suitable for some shooters and situations.  1-2:  Just stick to your phone camera)

You can buy the Sony 24-70 f/4 from Amazon here. 

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