Sony G Master Lens 24-70mm Called "Exceptional"

Sony has been pushing hard for the photography market to embrace their Alpha lineup of mirrorless cameras and one such way has been with the release of three new G Master Lenses. The new lens series is part of Sony’s more professional grade lens offerings and where before, the company designed lenses in partnership with Carl Zeiss, the G Master line is fully developed in house. Jordan Steele writes on Admiring Light:

With a price tag over $2,000 and the long-held desire for a fast standard zoom for the FE system, hopes are extremely high for this lens in the image quality department. Thankfully, in the most important areas, Sony has really knocked it out of the park with this lens.

So let’s look at how the lens performed in a few key areas.

Construction and Handling

The FE 24-70mm f/2.8 is, to put it mildly, big. It’s larger and heavier than Canon’s 24-70mm f/2.8L II and nearly the same size as Nikon’s 24-70mm f/2.8G. Tipping the scales at a hair under 2 lbs and measuring over 5 inches long, the 24-70mm GM is a beast of a lens. For those who are shooting professionally and need the speed in their standard zoom, it’s just part of the package, but the weight is noticeable and sometimes awkward. The base of the lens leaves enough clearance to keep the grip clear, so overall handling is fine, but if you’re carrying this in your hands all day long, you will begin to tire of it. Still, none of this is unexpected. There’s no free lunch with speed, and for the optical quality needed to perform well on today’s bodies, size is simply part of the cost of doing business with a lens such as this.

Autofocus

The FE 24-70mm GM has a quick and quiet focus motor. In most situations, the focus locked very quickly and surely, with excellent accuracy. I did have some misses when shooting at very small apertures, however, where the camera would get confused with the deep depth of field and focus too closely, simply due to the way Sony focuses while stopped down. I still don’t know why Sony doesn’t do what every other manufacturer in the world does and focus wide open and stop down when making the exposure.

Sharpness

It’s tough to make a zoom lens that goes from wide to telephoto that is truly excellent from edge to edge. It’s even harder to make one that’s exceptional right from an f/2.8 maximum aperture. However, the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM is just such a lens. Starting from wide open, the lens produces excellent resolution across the image frame right from wide open. Stopping down just a bit brings even the extreme corners up to very sharp territory. This is one impressively sharp optic, and one that really gives prime-like sharpness throughout its focal range. Amazingly, this sharpness is there both at closer focus distances and at infinity, even wide open. I was seriously impressed every time I looked at the images out of this lens. There’s not a whole lot more to say here, as it’s simply outstanding.

Contrast, Color and Chromatic Aberration

The 24-70mm f/2.8 GM shows very nice contrast at all apertures and throughout the focal range. It consistently produces images with great clarity and a very pleasing and somewhat punchy contrast curve. Color is also excellent. While not quite as rich as the color the Zeiss lenses typically render with their T* coating, the color out of the 24-70mm GM is natural with good saturation and a relatively neutral color response.

Of course it’s not all roses with the 24-70mm G Master Lens. As Jordan notes:

The cons list may seem a bit long at first for such a high priced lens, but for the most part, they are nitpicks (though worth mentioning). The lens is a very large and very heavy lens for its focal range, and is larger even than many SLR lenses with the same focal length and aperture. It also is a very expensive lens at $2,200 US. However, if you’re a pro who needs a fast standard zoom with excellent quality, both of those cons are really a non issue, and the size is expected given the full-frame coverage and fast aperture.

In the end though, despite a list of cons, the lens impressed nonetheless.

The bottom line is that this lens is exceptional. I’ve never used a standard lens that is this sharp, and the sharpness is outstanding throughout the entire range and at all apertures and all focus distances. It’s truly remarkable. Throw in good (but not great) bokeh, outstanding color and contrast and very low CA and you’ve got a standard lens that can truly take the place of a bag full of primes