Today we’re discussing this new Sony 70-200mm f/2.8
Mark II, which I can say is better in pretty much
every way compared to it’s predecessor.
But I’ll show you some tests you can decide
if it’s better enough to buy. Let’s get undone!
[offbeat music] ♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What’s happening, everybody?! I’m Gerald Undone
and I run at 1.21 gigawatts. Alright, disclosure:
Sony lent me this lens to make this review.
I do not get to keep it, no money changed hands,
and they don't get any input on this video's production
or get to preview it before it’s published.
This video does have a sponsor though and that’s Storyblocks.
So here’s the deal, Sony’s original 70-200
is one of the oldest in the mirrorless world
and it’s starting to show its age.
Since then Canon, Nikon, and Panasonic
have all released newer lenses that tend
to perform better for video as well.
So it was time for a refresh of this lens
for Sony E-mount, and I was very interested to see
how it performed for video because I’m interested
in getting a lens in this focal range.
I’ve also arranged for a photo shoot so we can
test the photographic capabilities of this lens in
a portrait scenario, but first, let’s talk focus breathing.
Sony has had a history of making quite a few lenses,
especially their G Masters, with bad focus breathing,
but I’m happy to report that this new lens
offers significant improvements in this category.
When racking focus over practical distances,
the breathing is barely visible, and even when I racked
all the way to minimum focusing distance,
I was quite pleased with this lens' control over breathing.
And speaking of that minimum focusing distance,
not only is the maximum magnification similar
whether at 70 or 200mm, which is quite impressive,
but it's also far closer than I was expecting it,
at only 40cm or 1.32 feet at 70mm.
The focus throw is still pretty short though,
so manual focusing won’t be as easy as on a cine lens.
But luckily, the response is completely linear, so you can
repeat focus pulls confidently. And alternatively,
the autofocus performance on this lens is fantastic.
Another pleasant surprise:
this lens is almost perfectly parfocal.
Whether zooming from 70-200 or 200-70,
the focus stays very sharp.
Now getting into the physical attributes of this lens,
it’s roughly the same size as the previous version,
but the weight has been significantly reduced.
They’ve simplified the optical formula and used
more modern focus motors allowing this lens
to weigh 400-500 grams less than the Mark I.
That’s a pound of bulk removed from your setup,
and you can instantly feel it.
Despite that reduction in weight, it still maintains
Sony's latest and greatest weather sealing, to give you
confidence in the field in adverse conditions.
They’ve also added a third stabilization setting
for rapid movement, and to bring it up to speed
with the other recent G Masters and to keep up
the nods to video, they’ve added a declickable
aperture ring with iris lock function.
This combination of features makes this lens
not only unique, but also the lightest lens
in its class without sacrificing any performance
as it’s actually sharper than its predecessor.
And if you go off of the MTF charts, it’s actually sharper
than the other competing 70-200s I mentioned earlier.
Now we’ll take a closer look at sharpness in a minute,
but before we do that, let’s try some practical photographic
applications and use this lens on a portrait shoot.
I’m not gonna lie: I’m not a very good
portrait photographer, so I met up with my friend, Lee Zavitz,
to take it for a spin and get his impressions on this it.
Before we do that, I’d like to take a minute to tell you
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Alright, let’s go meet up with Lee.
-You like that? -Perfect.
-Firm. -[Gerald] Alright, you wanna...
...shoot a little opener here?
70-200 f/2.8 G Master O-SS... Mark II?
Mark II. We're gonna shoot with Clarissa today.
♪
This zoom is smooth!
We're getting a little bit of that tree in there,
which is nice. Three, two, one...
Can you come around a bit, so there's is a little bit
more sun your face. Actually flip around,
so you're looking off your back shoulder.
Your back shoulder. There you go...
-Three, two, one... -[camera clicks]
That's at 135. We can go even closer to 200.
This is a real close headshot, though. I think I'd prefer to
do the closer headshots with some trees behind you though,
Whoa, we got some lens flare action.
This is a good test to show the lens flare.
I forgot to say we're shooting on the a1
so it should have the best autofocus
that we can get out of this bad boy.
We will do some tracking stuff on the road here,
but so far... it's good.
Yeah, just keep moving around in there.
Yo, the shutter on this camera's so quiet.
This is my first time shooting
with an a7-- or the a1. That's nice.
Actually hold that again when you were looking down.
I love this rolling hill action.
There's some sun behind you there which is really nice.
So I was trying to figure out how to adjust the aperture
'cause it's actually on the lens this time
so the updated version has an aperture ring,
but it's also a declicked aperture ring.
Nice, smooth declicked aperture ring.
And we also have iris lock here as well,
so... that's something new on this lens
that wasn't on the older lens.
[Gerald] Alright, so Lee, quick first impressions...
How's the new weight and the feel, you know?
So, obviously the first thing I notice
when I pick this up is how light it is.
[Gerald] How is it balanced on the A1?
Feels good, actually. I'm rocking it one hand, so...
[Gerald] Hey, Lee, why are you holding the Ninja like that?
Gerald forgot the adapter to go on the camera.
-[Gerald] I sure did -Alright so we're gonna do
some high speed continuous shooting.
[rapid clicking]
Nice. Beautiful. Alright, now we're going to
go 200mm. Get the Manny Ortiz.
Nice. So I'm just going to show the focus, how fast it is.
Like, it's instant. You don't even feel
the lens shift focus either, which is crazy.
-[Gerald] And I can't hear it. -[Lee] Yeah, there's no sound.
You can move around in there.
[Gerald] So the older ones, the Mark Is they were using
like a circular rotational style focus,
these as you already said are the linear XD,
same ones you're gonna get in 400mm, 200-600mm,
like all the big zooms, and so they just they're almost like
floating on rails and they just kind of
so they're silent and they're fast.
I wanna try one in the red stuff though,
so we gotta go this way to get that.
Where are we? We just went from the country
to, like, the apocalypse.
So let's try one more of those. I'm gonna get a little closer.
Three, two, one, go... Nice.
I look at that nice smooth red background.
-[Clarissa] Is it creamy? -[Lee] It's pretty creamy.
Now, something I was looking to do with this lens
was potentially replace my 100-400.
I like this lens a lot, but I don’t love the variable
aperture for video, and sometimes I wish
I could just work in that 85 to 135 mm range
so I wanted to test this new 70-200 with the 2x
teleconverter to see if it would make for a decent
140-400mmm lens with a constant f/5.6
for when I wanted a similar experience to my 100-400,
but with that added versatility of being able
to shoot 70-200 at f/2.8 whenever I wanted
by simply removing the teleconverter.
So, if we look at the sharpness test, we can see
that this new 70-200mm is incredibly sharp
in both ends of the focal range, and might even be
the slightest bit sharper in my 100-400, which was already
class-leading. But when we add the 2x Teleconverter,
we do lose a bit of sharpness, sadly,
and the image is a tad darker with a bit of a colour cast.
Now, the 1/3rd of a stop of transmittance loss
and colour shift can be easily fixed,
so it just comes down to whether you're willing
to accept that slight reduction in sharpness.
I think personally, for me, I'd rather have the versatility
of the 70-200 with an optional teleconverter,
and I'm okay with that reduction in sharpness,
but as usual, any time you introduce more glass,
you do lose some image quality.
The issue worsens a bit out to the edge. Chromatic aberration
is increased as well when using the teleconverter.
You can see extra fringing laterally when attaching it.
When using this new 70-200mm without the teleconverter,
the chromatic aberration control is fantastic.
Barely any noticeable fringing even across the most
challenging longitudinal scenes. If you really go hunting
for it, you can create some LoCA in extreme
backlit situations with the lens at 200mm set to f2.8.
But if you stop down to f/5.6
or even zoom out towards 70mm, it completely disappears.
And I haven't been able to create any distracting
LoCA in any practical shooting situations.
So, suppose if you needed the sharpest possible image
at 400mm, you'd have to buy a dedicated lens.
But keep in mind, this is also
a 50 megapixel still image comparison.
In 4K video, I could barely tell the difference.
Speaking of which, here's some 4K video of me walking at
the camera to see if the autofocus tracking was consistent
when adding the teleconverter. And as you can see,
not only is it the same as a 70-200 without the converter,
but it's also the same as the 100-400, and it's much harder
to see that sharpness reduction in this scenario.
So, again, for video, this lens is excellent.
By the way, there isn't a new teleconverter for this lens.
Just the standard one, so if you already have one,
you can still use it. Bokeh on this lens is very good.
Smooth and consistent orbs with minimal artefacts.
At the shorter focal lengths you can see some
faint onion ringing, and a bit of that outer membrane look,
but you have to really accentuate the shot to see it.
There's minimal cats-eyeing in the corners,
And because of the 11-bladed circular aperture,
the out of focus areas still look great even when stopped down.
I'd say the only weakness this lens has,
if you wanna call it that, is that the flare control
isn't the best I've seen from Sony.
There is some noticeable ghosting and reflective
artefacts across the frame with a modest reduction in contrast.
Nothing major, but it exists. But the lens does come with
a well-constructed hood that eliminates flare completely.
This is the case it comes with, by the way.
And this is one of the new modern design hoods,
so pop on that on, and it has the slot on the bottom that
you can use for adjusting the filter if you want.
By the way, 77mm filter threads on this lens,
same as the 100-400mm. Overall, I think
this is a fantastic lens and a worthwhile upgrade.
If you already have a 70-200 that’s working well for you,
you probably don’t need to rush out and buy this one,
but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you did,
as this is easily the best 70-200 I've ever used.
But if you’re like me and you’ve been holding out
on getting a 70-200 for Sony E because you didn’t
like your options and maybe you wanted something
more video focused, I think the wait is over
and I’m definitely going to be adding this lens
to my arsenal, and with the 2x teleconverter
I feel comfortable selling my 100-400
and having this lens do both jobs.
But that’s gonna be it for me, I hope you found this video
entertaining or at least helpful, and if you did,
make sure you leave it the old thumbs up
and consider subscribing if you haven’t already.
But if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
try setting the playback speed to 75%.
Alright... I’m done.
♪