Sony FE 70-200mm F/4 G Real world images (click for larger)
Sony FE 70-200mm F/4 G OSS Review:
The Sony 70-200mm F/4 was the first full frame telephoto zoom lens that Sony made for their full frame mirrorless sytem. For their older A-mount dSLR/dSLT system, they never bothered with F4 zooms, but 70-200 F/4 lenses are standard in the Canon and Nikon lineup. I’ve used the Nikon 70-200mm F/4 and found it to be an excellent all around lens. While I’m just getting around to reviewing it, I’ve owned the Sony 70-200mm F/4 G for quite some time. I originally purchased it for use with the Sony A6300, even before I owned a Sony full frame camera.
Every lens is the result of compromise and this is most obvious in a lens such as a 70-200mm F/4. It’s not the fastest telephoto lens, such as the 
By compromising in both focal length and aperture speed, the hope is to produce top image quality, at a reasonable aperture, reasonable price and reasonable weight. Let’s see how well the Sony 70-200mm F/4 G accomplishes this task.
Body and Handling
The Sony 70-200mm F/4 G is not a light weight lens, weighing in at 840 grams. This is a situation where Sony hasn’t really shaved any weight off of dSLR equivalent lenses, the Nikon 70-200mm F/4 weighs 850 grams and the Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 weighs 780 grams. The Sony is actually slightly heavier than the Canon version.
Despite the weight, the lens doesn’t feel particularly heavy in the hand. It is well balanced on both full frame bodies and on Sony aps-c bodies. I used this lens extensively as my telephoto on the Sony A6300.
Build quality is sensational. The lens includes a removable tripod collar (not pictured), which I never really saw reason to use. A large hood is effective against flare, as tested below. There are generous switches for MF/AF as well as two modes of optical stabilization (OSS).
A really nice addition is the presence of three focus hold buttons. Focus hold buttons are a great place to assign eye-AF on Sony bodies. By assigning focus hold buttons to eye-AF, it becomes incredibly easy to activate this eye-AF feature with one hand supporting the lens in either landscape or portrait orientation.
Build quality feels very solid without feeling massively heavy. Rubberized rings make for pleasant zoom and manual focus. On the Sony A6300, Sony A7riii and Sony A9, focus is fast and silent.
Steady Shot System
The Sony 70-200mm F/4 is equipped with OSS which works in conjunction with the in-body SteadyShot found on the most current Sony bodies. By combining both systems, stabilization is quite effective. Not the most effective stabilization I’ve seen in Sony lenses, but you definitely get the benefit of slower shutter speeds.
The general rule is to shoot at 1/focal length. With the Sony 70-200mm F/4, I felt confident shooting 2-3 stops below this rule. At 135mm, I wouldn’t hesitate to use 1/30th of a second and could even get a decent number of usable shots at 1/15th of a second. I wouldn’t venture any slower. At the full extension of 200mm, I was pretty confident shooting at 1/50th of a second.
Image Quality
I previously shot with the excellent Nikon 70-200mm F/4 so I had pretty high expectations for the Sony lens. If I’m not getting a large zoom range like a 70-300mm, and I’m not getting a fast aperture of 2.8, then my hope is that it can produce a very solid performance right from the F4 aperture.
Vignetting
Tested vignetting at the wide and telephoto end. As shown in the above images, there is definite vignette at 70mm but it isn’t terribly severe. It is easily correctable, and is already dissipating at F5.6.
It’s a similar story in the 200mm images below. A relatively minor issue at 200mm, which gradually improves as you stop down to F8.
In real world shooting, the vignette is unlikely to detract from most images but you will want to correct landscapes.
Flare – Chromatic Aberration/Purple Fringing
See above (click for larger) to get a sense of how well the Sony 70-200 F/4 handles harsh backlighting and strong light at the edge of the frame. Overall, these are pretty solid results. There is some contrast lost, some general purple haze, some minor green blobs. But you really don’t have strong detailed blobs of flare ruining images. All testing was done with the hood. I expect flare may have been horrible without the hood, but that’s why Sony includes the hood and why you should use it.
Many lenses exhibit color fringing in high contrast / wide aperture situations. With a maximum aperture of F4, one wouldn’t expect this to be a major issue with the Sony 70-200mm F/4, and it isn’t. I have never seen evidence of such color fringing, as in this below image:
back lit at 153mm and f4, no color fringingBokeh and Sun Stars
My expectations for bokeh aren’t very high for zoom lens., especially a F4 zoom lens. That said, the bokeh is fairly decent. 200mm allows for significant background blur, even at F4. The background blur is soft and appealing. The out of focus highlights (bokeh balls) are nicely rounded by become “cat’s eyes” towards the edges of the frame. Within the middle of the bokeh balls, there is a bit of onion ring effect but this should be expected in zoom lenses.
While portrait shooters may want lovely bokeh, landscape shooters may be interested in the sunstars. As if often the case, lenses can do one or the other, but not generally both well. Here, it is difficult to get impressive sunstars with the Sony 70-200mm F/4.
Distortion
Quite simply, distortion shouldn’t be a concern with the Sony 70-200mm F/4. At the wide end of 70mm, there is very slight barrel distortion that is easily correctable. The long end sees very slight pin cushion distortion. There is enough distortion that you want to correct it. Severe corrections can lead to other image impairment but here only minor corrections are necessary.
Sharpness
Some lens softness is acceptable in a really fast aperture lens, when shooting wide open. But if the lens starts at F4, then the hope that it is fairly sharp even wide open. For the most part, the Sony 70-200mm F/4 G passes this test. Click any of the below crops for larger.
70mm Sharpness
At 70mm, the center is practically tack sharp at F4 but does sharpen up a bit further stopped down to F5.6. F5.6 is essentially perfectly sharp in the center. We can take a look at the 70mm borders next:
At the aps-c border of the frame, the sharpness is definitely acceptable wide open at F4. But stopping down to F5.6 really makes it tack sharp. Moving to some crops of the most extreme corners:
Even the corners are quite usable wide open though I wouldn’t call them tack sharp. In most real world shooting, you aren’t going to object to the corners at any aperture. When looking closely, the corners don’t truly become tack sharp until F8.
In summary at 70mm, the lens is really quite usable at all apertures. If you are looking for truly totally tack sharp results, F5.6 will mostly get you there, except the extreme corners where you need to go to F8.
135mm Sharpness
In the middle of the zoom range, I have absolutely no objection to the center of the frame at F4. I’d essentially call it tack sharp at F4, though you can notice it sharpen up even a bit more at F5.6. It’s a similar story at the borders:
The borders here are stronger than they were at 70mm. Pretty much tack sharp at F4, I don’t see a need to stop down. The more challenging corners:
At 135mm, bravo to very even performance across the frame. Even the extreme corners are quite usable wide open and become tack sharp at F5.6.
Let’s move on to the long end..
200mm Sharpness
Everything seems to soften up just a bit at the long end of 200mm. While the center is certainly acceptable at F4, there is a clear degree of sharpening by stopping down to F5.6, where the center does become tack sharp. We see similar progression at the borders:
The borders aren’t bad wide open at F4 but clearly benefit from stopping down. You need to stop down to F6.3 to truly get tack sharp borders. In real world shooting though, F5.6 is perfectly fine. (In most cases, F4 will still be fine). How well do the corners hold up?
At the corners at 200mm, the Sony 70-200mm F/4 does start to falter ever so slightly. Wide open at F4, the corners are visibly soft. Not completely ugly — I’d still use this lens at F4 at 200mm for most purposes. Still, when examined closely, the corners are starting to falter. Upon stopping down, the corners improve but remain a tad soft until F8. At F8, the corners are quite sharp even if just a bit shy of “tack sharp.”
It’s important to note that all of the sharpness testing is being done with extreme pixel peeping, after shooting with a demanding 42 megapixel sensor. If you are shooting portraits, sports, wildlife, etc, you probably don’t care about whether the corners are a bit soft. Even if you are making large landscape prints, the corners are acceptable enough at every aperture and focal length, that you won’t run into image quality objections.
Some APS-C Uses for the Sony 70-200mm F/4
In this section, I’ll share some images taken over a couple of years with the Sony 70-200mm F/4 paired with the 
Using only the center portion of the frame, it is also a nice telephoto landscape lens on a camera like the Sony A6300:
The long focal length and F4 aperture are adequate for nice background separation for portraits, even on an aps-c camera:
On an aps-c camera like the Sony A6300, the Sony 70-200mm F/4 does quite well as a jack of all trades. With the crop factor, it’s even long enough for a moon shot:
Sony A6300 with 70-200/F4 at 200mm and f5While not a compact lens, the Sony 70-200mm F/4 becomes a high quality general purpose telephoto lens worthy of a solid aps-c camera like the Sony 
Full Frame Samples of the Sony 70-200mm F/4
I won’t be shooting with moon with a 200mm lens on a full frame camera. Combined with the high ISO capabilities of a camera like the 
While you won’t get the same background separation as a 2.8 aperture zoom, the 200mm focal length still allows for nice bokeh on full frame cameras. You also get lovely compression at 200mm. Thus, I wouldn’t hesitate to use it as a portrait lens:
Finally, you really don’t need a fast aperture for most landscapes. For those who shoot telephoto landscapes, the Sony 70-200mm F/4 can produce very acceptable images:
Sony 70-200 F/4 on Sony A7riii at 70mm and F8Overall:
The Sony FE 70-200mm F/4 G OSS excelled at essentially every test. Sharpness is quite acceptable at all apertures and focal lengths, with just a bit of softening at the long end of 200mm where some stopping down will produce visible benefit. The lens is essentially free of other defects: flare, distortion, vignetting, etc, just are not significant problems for the Sony 70-200mm F/4. Meanwhile, build quality is top notch.
At $1499, the Sony 70-200mm F/4 isn’t cheap by any means. The pricing is fairly competitive with the equivalent dSLR lenses. The Nikon 70-200mm F/4 goes for $1400 and the Canon 70-200mm F/4 (newest version) goes for $1300. So $100 more than the Nikon and $200 more than the Canon. A bit more expensive but at least in the same ballpark. So while the Sony 70-200mm F/4 is no bargain, it also can’t be considered terribly overpriced.
In honesty, I had some difficult deciding how to rate the Sony 70-200mm F/4. Despite owning it for some time, I find that I rarely use it these days and that’s the issue. Yes, it excels at what it does, but what does it do? It doesn’t shoot long telephoto and it doesn’t shoot very fast aperture. For some shooters, it may be the perfect balance of image quality, price and weight. For some shooters, it may be the perfect compromise to save money and weight versus the
I don’t usually do this, but I would rate the Sony 70-200mm F/4 G differently for aps-c shooters than for full frame shooters.
For aps-c shooters, the Sony 70-200mm F/4 G shoots at an equivalent focal length of 105mm – 300mm, which is a pretty decent telephoto length. On an aps-c camera therefore, it’s a decent lens to use for sports, wildlife and other telephoto purposes. Meanwhile, Sony really doesn’t have a great aps-c telephoto. The kit telephoto for Sony is a similar focal length: 55mm-210mm. Having used that lens, I can state that the image quality is quite poor. The Sony 70-200mm F/4 G will cover at similar focal length at a higher price and weight, but a vastly superior image quality. Thus, for a serious aps-c shooter, this is an excellent telephoto zoom option.
For full frame shooters, the evaluation is a bit different. 200mm is a bit short for most true telephoto shooting. You aren’t going to shoot much wildlife at 200mm until you are close up at a zoo. Indoor sports are often shot at 200mm, but then using a 2.8 lens for the low light advantage. To some extent, you can certainly use the Sony 70-200mm F/4 as an indoor telephoto zoom, as F4 combined with the high ISO capabilities of Sony’s full frame cameras will give you very acceptable images in most cases, but F2.8 would definitely be preferable. For those looking for a longer lens, the Sony FE 70-300mm may be preferable, though it will sacrifice some image quality.
For those reasons, for a serious aps-c shooter, I would rate the Sony 70-200mm F/4 at an 8.5: And excellent choice to replace the kit telephoto lens. It definitely increases the size and weight of your kit but you’ll appreciate the results. For full frame shooters, because it is only 200mm and only F4, despite the excellent image quality, my rating is:
Rating (1-10): Score: 7.5
(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)
If purchasing a telephoto zoom lens for the Sony system, the Sony 70-200mm F/4 G should certainly be a consideration. You need to ask yourself if 200mm is long enough and if F2.8 is a fast enough aperture. If you answer both those questions in the affirmative, then you won’t be disappointed in the Sony 70-200mm F/4 G.
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