Hey, my name is Matt Johnson and this Sony 70-200 F4
is all that you need for filming wedding ceremonies.
Yeah, hot take video. Incoming.
You don't need the 70-200 F 2.8.
You don't need to spend some boatload of cash.
All you need is this relatively affordable in comparison.
Lightweight limbs.
And in this video review, I'm going to be telling you why.
Also, for the sake of ethics, I want you to know this video isn't paid
or sponsored by Sony. They don't even know that I'm making it.
And I bought this lens with my own money about five years ago
and have used it at dozens upon dozens of weddings.
Now, why do you need a 70-200 as a wedding filmmaker?
Well, in my opinion, this is the best focal range
for you to use when filming a wedding ceremony.
No matter where you put your tripod, as long as you're not being stuck
a quarter mile away at the back of a balcony in a church,
a lens like this is going to enable you to get a very nicely composed head and
shoulders shots of either the officiant or the couple as they read their vows.
And this closeness is going to give the film a greater intimacy
with the couple, as they're saying, these vows.
And it can make the film feel more personal.
So you want to be close like 200 millimeter close,
starting off with the build quality of this lens, then yes,
this lens is definitely a bit older, but it is still a g lens
which is a step below GM and it feels very solid and very well
put together with many of the controls that you would want.
You've got a big fat zoom ring, another big fat focus ring,
two programable buttons, as well as the usual controls
that you would expect to see on a lens like this.
Like a minimum focusing distance switch,
auto manual focus switch and optical image stabilization switch.
Because yes, this lens has OS, which works quite well.
The only thing this lens doesn't have are those new fancy aperture control rings
with a click loss aperture
switch like you see on Sony's newer GM lenses, which I love.
But considering that you're most likely going to be using this lens on a tripod
at a wedding ceremony where you do not need to make a ton of adjustments,
I've never found myself wishing I had those extra lens controls.
Speaking of lens controls, though, we need to talk
about how well this lens handles auto and manual focus.
First off, the autofocus performance is flawless.
This lens is fast and smooth.
But if you're like me and you want to use this lens for wedding ceremony,
I would never recommend leaving your lens set to autofocus because this can result
in the lens hunting around as soon as someone new enters the frame.
And you're not going to want that happening at a wedding ceremony.
You want the focus to stay locked on one person,
most likely the efficient or one member of the couple.
This brings us to manual focus and the main thing you need to remember
is that this lens is an earlier Sony lens with a focus by wire system
that's a little bit slower than their newer GM lenses do.
I think it's unusable.
No, it's still very usable, but there's definitely
a slightly perceptible lag that you're going to notice.
So if you're planning on using this lens for more than just wedding ceremonies
and want to use it as a telephoto for close up, couple shots, etc.,
you may want to rely a bit more on autofocus
with the eye detect AF which should work great
and only use manual focus when you absolutely have to.
But honestly, if you have the budget, watch my review on the Sony 135
GM and consider getting that for your telephoto footage
of your couples together because dang, that lens is absolutely incredible
and it feels purpose built for portrait shots.
I'll link to that lens
review in the corner and down in the video description.
Lastly, for build quality, we really need to talk
about the size and weight of the 72 200 F4
because this is one of the main reasons that I absolutely love this lens
and why I choose to bring it with me to pretty much every wedding that I film.
If you're like me and you prefer to pack as lightweight as possible
when traveling to film weddings and other events, this 72 200 is just about perfect
because it is one of the lightest and smallest ways to get this focal length
coming in at £1.8 or 840 grams.
Compare that to my older canon 72 200 F 2.8,
which comes in at £2.8 or 1310 grams.
And you can see how not only this Sony is smaller,
but it's also much lighter as well
because the Sony 7200 is only F four.
It requires less glass, which means that it can be
thinner, shorter and lighter than many of the other options out there.
So if you have a wedding across the country and a lot of gear to bring,
this lens is one way to lighten your gear load.
Of course, I would also keep in mind that Sony just released a new 72
200 F 2.8 GM Mach two model, which only weighs £2.3
or 1045 grams, which is honestly not much heavier.
But that lens is also dramatically more expensive.
More on that in a bit.
Moving on then let's talk image quality.
And I really want to address this F four aperture that I'm sure you're
wondering about and may have already begun to comment about below
because you're probably wanting to ask, is an aperture of F four enough,
especially whenever you have the option of F 2.82
that I'm going to say, having used both 70 to 200 millimeter lenses at F four
and at F 2.8 aperture is the difference in light
gathering between these two lenses is not as big as you would think.
And from a Boka standpoint and F four lanes will still give you quite
a shallow depth of field, especially as you get closer to 200 millimeters.
Alternatively, your concern may be about low
light performance, and you may be worried that this lens
is not going to be capable of handling darker wedding ceremonies.
To that, I would say that this f four aperture
is where I would lean more on your Sony camera's high ISO capabilities.
I personally have never felt the F four aperture on the 72 200 is holding me
back, especially because I'm always able to crank up the ISO higher to compensate.
If you're using pretty much any Sony full frame mirrorless camera
that you can crank up to ISO 6400 8000 or 12,800
without too much noise, then you should be fine with this lens.
Alternatively though, if you're using an older crop sensor
Sony camera like in a 6600 that can't hit as high of an ISO,
this lens may not work as well for you and you may need
to look into an F 2.8 option or an upgrade to a full frame camera.
Oh, and if you have a camera like Sony's F X30, which is still a crop
sensor camera, but newer,
while the high ISO performance of that camera is not going to be as good
as Sony's full frame options, it should still be quite good.
Incidentally, at the time of making this video,
I'm still working on getting my hands on the fix 30.
But once I do, I'm planning on making a review,
so please subscribe if you want to see that in the future.
Lastly, in regards to image quality, ignoring the aperture for a moment
and talking about things from a pure sharpness and beauty standpoint
in my testing and use over the years, I found the 7200 F four to be very sharp
without any crazy chromatic aberration or softness,
and overall it offers excellent quality for filmmaking.
Wrapping up this review, then let's talk price at $1,498.
At the time of making this video, the 7200 F four is the cheapest way
to get a Native name
brand Sony Mount Lens at this focal length for your filmmaking.
Do I wish it was cheaper? Of course.
But Sony, just like Canon and Panasonic, have all set higher prices
for their mirrorless lenses that said, whenever you compare this 1498
to the 70 to 200 F 2.8 Mach two, which comes in at an eye
watering $2,798.
This F four looks like quite a good deal.
All that said, though,
I'm sure there are many of you that are getting ready to comment.
Matt, what about third party lines? Manufacturers?
What about tamron?
Don't worry, i haven't forgotten tamron.
They have a very impressive 72 180 millimeter
in e-mount that i've unfortunately not had the chance to review yet.
But please comment below
if you'd like me to review it and compare it to this Sony 7200
and I will try to get my hands on that lens very soon.
In conclusion, in this, Sony 7200 F4 is one of my favorite lenses
for filming wedding ceremonies and with its compact and lightweight form
factor, great image quality and relatively affordable price,
especially compared to Sony's other F 2.8 options.
I have no qualms about recommending this lens as a great purchase
for wedding filmmaking.
With that, thanks so much for watching.
I would love to help you out.
Even more so, I've put together a free guide
called a Level Up Your Wedding Films, and if you're a wedding filmmaker like me,
which I assume that you probably are considering,
this is a lens review for wedding filmmakers.
I would love to help you out even more.
So please check out this guide because it's going to show you
many of the steps you can take to improve the quality of your wedding films.
You can download this guide
completely for free at the link down in the video description.
I will also link down below to a playlist of my other lens reviews
if you want to check these out,
because I've reviewed a decent amount of Lindsey's at this point.
And lastly, this video has been colored using my color presets.
So if you like these colors
and you want them to, you can get my presets down below as well.
Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.