Hey everyone I'm John Sison and today we're taking a look at the Sony 70-200mm F2.8 G
Master lens for the Sony E-mount system.
Now the 70-200mm F2.8 is Sony's long awaited fast telephoto zoom lens and to date is the
third G Master lens to be released alongside the 24-70mm F2.8 and the 85mm F1.4.
Now it is also one of the most expensive 70-200mm on the market, especially when you compare
it to Canon and Nikon but Sony is promising that the construction is well built and it
is going to deliver in terms of bokeh and resolution.
Now today I have it mounted on my Sony A7R mark 2 and see how well it fairs but in the
meantime I'm just going to have breakfast and I'm going to quickly get ready.
The lens screams high end with a solid metal construction in an off white finish with rubber
zoom and focus rings.
The lens accepts 77mm filters and comes supplied with a plastic petal type lens hood with felt
lined within to prevent any flare in your image.
An interesting note with the lens hood is that it easily snaps into place when attaching
it and when you want to detach it, it requires you to push the button to release it.
This makes the lens hood more secure when its attached.
And in addition to that, you have a little door at the bottom to adjust for filters such
as a polarising or a graduated neutral density filter.
On the side of the lens, you have a series of switches for different functions.
Starting at the top, you have a switch for autofocus and manual focus.
The second switch is a focus limiter so you can focus the lens with its full focusing
range or you can limit it to reduce focusing time from 3 metres or infinite.
The third switch is to turn on and off the steadyshot and the last switch are for different
modes of stabilisation.
Mode 1 is stabilisation for when you're standing still and mode 2 is stabilisation for when
you're panning.
You also have three focus hold buttons located at the top, the side and the middle for when
you're shooting in either portrait or landscape.
There is also a tripod mount which is a bit unique among other telephoto zoom lenses on
the market.
Instead of removing the tripod collar, there is a tripod mount which can easily be removed
by loosening the screw and pressing the button the mount to slide it out.
This is actually a clever design as its very quick to attach and remove.
You can also change the orientation of the lens by loosening the screw on the collar
and turning it.
Okay, so this lens is really built like a tank.
It's solid, very sturdy in the hand and while that may be a good thing, this weighs 1.48
kilos so its going to be a very heavy lens to carry around casually.
So I do recommend people using a tripod or a
monopod just so you can take the weight off your shoulders but if you're shooting for
short periods of time, you can always go handheld but if you're shooting for long periods and
you want to get a workout, just go with this lens and go handheld.
While using this lens, the autofocus speed was very fast and accurate however, it was
slower in dim lighting.
Note that autofocusing performance varies from camera to camera and while the A7R mark
2 was decent with autofocusing, the A6300 and A6500 will be much better.
Zooming in and out is all internal and doesn't change the physical size of the lens.
Zooming and focusing with the lens does not provide any resistance and is nice and smooth.
The lens can focus as close as 96cm which is pretty close for a telephoto zoom lens.
It also has enhanced weather sealing so its going to be great for shooting in different
conditions but just make sure that the body you're using it with is also weather resistant.
The stabilisation works very well, especially at full zoom and having it on the A7 2 series
cameras or the a6500 will give you even better results because of the in body stabilisation.
And let's not forget that the F2.8 aperture also makes this lens more versatile for low
light conditions and assists in helping you blur out the background from your subject
in focus.
For the amount of money you pay for this lens, you can expect the quality to be top notch
and no doubt, this lens definitely delivers the goods.
It is extremely sharp even wide open with vibrant colours and I haven't found any issues
with chromatic aberration or distortion.
There wasn't any vignetting from what I've observed and out of focus blur is very good
but the 85mm F1.4 G Master will definitely be better.
All these photos were shot with the A7R mark 2 in RAW and converted to JPEG.
Now the 70-200mm F2.8 G Master is what a lot of professionals and enthusiasts photographers
would hoped it would be.
In terms of build quality, its very solid, very easy to hold in the hand and with the
added weather sealing, its great because you can actually shoot in a variety of conditions
so anything from wet conditions to dry conditions, you should feel reassured that this lens would
be able to stand against those elements.
Now in terms of weight, it is quite heavy.
I'm actually getting a strain on my wrist just by holding it so if you are shooting
for long periods of time I do recommend using a tripod or a monopod just to make it easier
but if you a bit of a workout on your arm, definitely just go handheld.
Now in terms of image quality, I don't think its going to disappoint with that either.
Its very sharp, a lot of contrast and beautiful colours that you can get with this lens and
with the F2.8 aperture, you're going to get some nice and smooth out of focus blur which
helps separate your subject in focus to the background which isn't going to be too distracting
if you're using this lens.
Now I do recommend this for anyone that shoots sports or wildlife but there are also people
that use even portraits or events or even landscape in which I know a few photographers
that use the 70-200mm with it and that's because you don't get any distortion which is going
to be great if you shoot landscapes but the downside is that its very expensive and you're
going to need to save a lot for this lens because in Australia anyway, its about a $1000
more than the Canon and Nikon equivalents which is very very expensive and strange so
if you're switching systems or just getting into the Sony system, you need to be well
aware that this is going to be an expensive lens.
But in the end, I don't think you're going to be disappointed with it.
So that's it from me, if you have anymore questions please feel free to leave a comment
below and if you already own one, let me know what you think of it and remember to like
this video if you found it helpful and subscribe to my channel for more Sony lens reviews and
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until then, happy shooting and thanks for watching.