Sony 24-70mm f/4 Vario-Tessar T FE OSS Interchangeable Full Frame Zoom Lens

I primarily use this lens for event photography on a Sony A7S.The material quality is nice. It's a class act on a Sony A7 series camera. I would not say this lens is built like a tank, but rather built to a reasonably high quality while trying to be a small, light lens.In terms of size, this lens is very nicely sized for a Sony a7 series camera. It feels well balanced in hand. When I rest the camera and lens on my chest (when I'm writing down info about people I've just photo'd), and a flash attached, it has a little tendency to flop forward. I have an inexpensive 2 battery grip I might attach to remedy this, or I might not, it's not much of an issue.In comparison to a full frame mirror'd lens, this lens is small and light. I think the price on it is reasonable considering it's a 24-70 lens with stabilization.Some people worry about the image quality or the f/4 max aperture. I would say the image quality is "very adequate". When I use this lens for semi professional purposes, I don't feel like I'm wanting more. Does it compare to a $2,000 f/2.8 full frame lens? I would say no, the colors and contrast aren't quite there, but not off by much, certainly not enough to pay twice the price for a small gain in image quality or one extra stop of light. But then again, the price, weight and size of this lens is half. So, you get what you pay for.Is the f/4 a problem? Not really. F2.8 is nice to have, but the depth of field can be so narrow it can cause problems with group shots. So I shoot this lens wide open at f/4 without running into focusing or depth of field problems.Some people might wonder if this lens has distortion problems. I haven't noticed any, and seldom correct the lens for distortion in lightroom.Using this lens and the Sony A7S, I have found that I don't need to correct the photos at all in lightroom. With my previous Canon setup, I was always having to tweek the white balance, move several sliders around, minimize noise etc. With this camera / lens combo, I crop a little and that's it. Everything is perfect coming off this sensor. When I'm using flash, about 1 in 10 shots I might have to tweek the exposure level a little, to compensate for the flash. I have heard other reviewers say that same thing, but until I experienced it with the A7S and this lens combo, I would not have believed it . Great job Sony!In terms of lens stabilization, I don't really notice it lol (it is enabled). Maybe that's a good thing.So, I think this is a very good lens, and works well. Is it worth the extra $$$'s to buy the f/2.8 heavier lens? For me, no. Would I purchase this lens new or used? Yes, I would recommend it. It's fits the A7r series well and does a very adequate job for amateur, semi-professional and some professional use.Don't be worried, this lens is a good one to buy. You don't need to succumb to needless f/2.8 envy. lol.

This is a great lens. The Zeiss coating gives it a saturated, contrasty look and the images can tolerate superfine sharpening. This is also one of the smallest full frame normal zooms out there. At F11, everything is more than acceptable except for a prime shooter. The lens is silent and focusses fast in all but the darkest light. The centers are always sharp. The best pro lenses are sharp across the field wide open for shallow DOF. Everything else is good at F8/F11. This lens is good enough for casual to serious amateur use. Because the A7r files can tolerate sharpening, landscapes should be fine at F8/F11. Wide open in low light, most subjects are not even at the same plane, so edge sharpness is not critical anyway. What this lens is notable for is the saturated colors and perfect contrast that catches our eyes. It's like a signature look. I seriously doubt that most people are printing big enough to complain about this lens vs. a prime. I can see it in the RX100 and other lenses. My only complaint is that we have returned to the larger sizes and weights of full metal bodies and mid size lenses.I'm getting to the point where I think equipment doesn't matter that much anymore. I have shot a wedding for fun with my RX100 with both photos and videos and it was extremely fun. Sure, the results may not be pro, but the results can be great. To do the same thing, with a full frame A7r I would need to bring a flash, more batteries, possibly a tripod, a camera bag and possible 1 low light lens. With the RX100, it all fit in my jacket pocket. I wonder what people do with these huge image files. I hope they're printing them because why else do people need so may megapixels?

I'm not a pixel peeper, so I can't speak to the technical aspects of the lens. What I can tell you, is that it's a VERY useful lens for the A7s when recording video.I can't tell you anything about autofocus other than it works, because we are strictly manual focusing people.What I can tell you, is the footage from this lens is VERY clear and the color rendition is very nice.For years, I've shot with nothing but prime lenses. This lens changed that. Mostly because it's really handy in live situations (I do weddings) to change focal length on the fly.Probably the best thing about this lens is it has the OSS which is an absolute life saver when you are forced to shoot handheld. The other thing is with a few button presses (hopefully only one after sony issues a firmware update)...on the A7s anyway, you can also shoot in crop mode which makes this lens effectively more like a 35mm-100mm or so. This is a great option again for those of us who shoot live events like weddings.But the bottom line is this: It's better than the available kit lens, it has OSS that works and works very well with the Sony equipment. It doesn't require an adapter, and there's not really a lot of choice out there right now....I don't think you can go wrong with the lens if you're shooting with an A7s, A7r, or A7. I'll also note that it's a nice touch that it does still work the crop cameras too...which is nice as our backup camera is a NEX-6.ONE thing to note for video: If you're planning to use a follow focus. Forget it. You can't. The focus ring on this lens and most sony lenses is "drive by wire" for lack of a better word (there's probably a real term for it). What I mean by that is, the faster you turn it, the faster it changes focus. The slower, the slower it changes. Therefore, you can't repeat focus pulls like you can on a cinema lens.Of course, I'll note that I can pretty easily perform a smooth focus pull with my finger while hand holding, and the zoom is INCREDIBLY smooth for what I was expecting. Good luck.