Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T * 24-70mm f / 4 ZA OSS Lens Overview (SEL2470Z)

Sony SEL2470Z lens test

Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T * 24-70mm f / 4 ZA OSS until recently was the top zoom in the Sony Alpha mirrorless system, a representative of the f4 series of zoom lenses. The situation changed at the beginning of 2016, when a more aperture fellow of this lens was announced - Sony FE 24-70mm F / 2.8 GM from the top G-Master series . SEL2470Z didn’t take off worse from this, but formally lost its leadership position. In our review, we will certainly take this into account. So, today in our test studio we have a regular mid-range zoom of Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T * 24-70mm f / 4 ZA OSS (SEL2470Z) .

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F11, 4 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Design

The design is made in the same style for most Sony FE lenses: minimalism in everything. On the case there was not even a place for an autofocus switch and a stabilizer. To change these settings, you will need to go to the camera menu. Case material - ferrous metal. Both the zoom ring and the electronic focus ring are made of metal. Check Price Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T * 24-70mm f / 4 ZA OSS (SEL2470Z) When zooming at the lens, the front lens block extends, increasing the dimensions of the housing by about three centimeters. Note that there is no backlash of the sliding part, and the front lens does not rotate, allowing the use of gradient and polarization filters. The diameter of the filter thread is 67 mm. The focus ring, like the rest of the lenses in the system, is electronic. Its course is non-linear. With smooth rotation, the adjustment is more accurate, with fast rotation it is more rough. You will have to get used to the work of the ring for some time, but in the end, such a solution is very convenient. The lens has a dustproof and waterproof design. Assembled to fame, it is nice to pick it up. No backlash and gaps. All the parts that the photographer touches are made of metal. The front lens unit does not spontaneously extend even with strong shaking.

Sony SEL2470Z at work

The main advantage of this lens is its versatility. The classic range of focal lengths from 24 to 70 mm allows you to use it in almost any genre, except, perhaps, specific: macro, photography. Such lenses are often used by professional photographers for event reporting, and amateur photographers for all possible subjects.

Awarding of the Best Photographer of Russia according to the Sony World Photography Award - Andrei Narchuk.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 4000, F4, 1/80 s, 62.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

I also managed to test the lens as the main tool during the filming of the event report. The seemingly not too high aperture of f / 4 is actually quite sufficient for shooting both outdoors and indoors. There are no complaints about the autofocus speed: the lens is sharpened quickly and silently. In some cases, I was faced with single misses autofocus.

ILCE-7M2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F5, 1/200 s, 70.0 mm equiv.

During the work on the test, they managed to shoot in the snow and in the rain. We could not fully test the moisture protection of this model, but there were no any consequences of shooting in adverse weather conditions.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F6.3, 1 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Given the versatility of this lens, a relative disadvantage is the lack of stabilizer and autofocus switches on the body. When shooting nightly from a tripod, I had to sort through half of the camera menu to disable these functions, and then turn them back on.

Handheld shooting with longer shutter speeds.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 250, F4, 1/5 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

The optical stabilizer here is very effective both when working with the "sevens" of the first generation, and with the second version of the Alpha 7 series cameras. Together with the stabilizer based on the matrix shift, it allows you to shoot at very long shutter speeds with your hands. In our test, we managed to obtain a qualitative result with shutter speeds of up to ? when shooting without a tripod or any emphasis. Test the stabilizer when shooting handheld. Focal Length 70 mm

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installations: ISO 2000, F4, 1/80 s, 70.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 1000, F4, 1/40 s, 70.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installations: ISO 500, F4, 1/20 s, 70.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installations: ISO 250, F4, 1/10 s, 70.0 mm equiv.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 125, F4, 1/5 s, 70.0 mm equiv.

Image quality

Of course, the main parameter of zooms that excite photographers is sharpness. At an open aperture in a wide-angle position, the lens gives excellent sharpness in the center of the frame. However, a slight drop in detail is noticeable on the periphery, which does not significantly affect the overall quality of the images. Even on a 42-megapixel matrix, the result is very high quality. As the aperture stops, the periphery of the frame becomes sharper, but in terms of detail it still does not catch up with the ringing-sharp center of the image. When shooting a contrasting plot in the corners of the frame, you can find chromatic aberration, the level of which can be described as weak. Aberrations are effectively suppressed by the camera itself when shooting in JPEG.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F4, 1/1000 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installations: ISO 100, F5.6, 1/500 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installations: ISO 100, F8, 1/250 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F11, 1/125 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F16, 1/60 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installations: ISO 200, F22, 1/60 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

At 70 mm, the sharpness at the open aperture is also high, and its decrease along the periphery of the frame is less pronounced. Aperture up to f / 5.6 further enhances sharpness over the entire field of the picture. It makes no sense to diaphragm a lens to increase detail.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F4, 1/2 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F5.6, 1 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F8, 2 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F11, 5 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F16, 8 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F22, 20 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

When shooting in the wide-angle position, strong vignetting of the angles is clearly noticeable, which significantly weakens at f / 5.6 and almost disappears at f / 8. It is also not badly suppressed programmatically by the camera itself when shooting in JPEG, or by using an automatically connected profile in Adobe Camera Raw.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F4, 1/80 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

There is one interesting point related to distortion correction: Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T * 24-70mm f / 4 ZA OSS (SEL-2470Z) refers to those lenses that cannot completely disable distortion correction in the camera. This means that in JPEG the camera will always record a file with corrected geometry. You can see how pictures look without correction by opening RAW and disabling the corresponding profile. You will see quite strong barrel-shaped distortion in the wide-angle position, and in the 70 mm position - a small cushion-like distortion. Their correction leads to a certain drop in detail in the corners of the frame when shooting in JPEG, as we wrote above. It is difficult to call these distortions critical for the final result: they are completely corrected programmatically. 24mm focal length

When converting RAW, geometric distortion correction is disabled.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installations: ISO 640, F4, 1/20 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

When shooting in JPEG, distortion correction is automatically applied.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installations: ISO 640, F4, 1/20 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Focal Length 70 mm

Without correction in the telephoto position, pincushion distortion is noticeable.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F4, 1/2 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

When shooting in JPEG, distortion correction occurs automatically. It cannot be turned off.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F4, 1/2 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

When shooting with the maximum focal length at an open aperture, the photographer can count on a noticeable blurring of the background. Of course, we are talking about the zoom, and its bokeh will not be perfect. Sony SEL2470Z has uneven filling of single glare. In addition, glare is not always round. This leads to the fact that the blur zone may not look too smooth, a little “nervous”. But let’s be objective: this is typical for almost all such zoom lenses. Bokeh imperfection is a payment for a complex optical design and high sharpness.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installation: ISO 100, F4, 1/2 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

The lens is rather capricious about backlight. In some cases, when the sun looks into the frame, contrast may decrease, rarely single glare appears.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installations: ISO 100, F8, 1/1250 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Around single sources of light, characteristic beams are formed even when shooting with an open aperture (this is also partially visible in the bokeh). However, in general, glare protection can be described as good: when shooting in a night city, bright lights do not form glare.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installations: ISO 100, F11, 6 s, 24.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

conclusions

Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T * 24-70mm f / 4 ZA OSS (SEL2470Z) is a solid universal zoom that can cope with a huge range of tasks. Its aperture is enough for shooting even with relatively complex lighting. The developers managed, on the one hand, to make the lens compact enough for a mirrorless system, on the other hand, not to sacrifice its basic characteristics. The only compromise solution was the lack of autofocus and stabilizer selectors on the body, and this significantly reduces the efficiency of management.

ILCE-7RM2 / FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Installations: ISO 500, F5.6, 1/15 s, 70.0 mm equiv.Download RAW

Forte SEL2470Z- image sharpness. In almost the entire frame area, it is already high at the open aperture and decreases slightly only on the periphery. The lens works fine even on a 42-megapixel sensor. Chromatic aberrations are also not bad: they are present in small quantities only along the periphery of the frame in scenes with high contrast and are easily suppressed by software. The lens does not like backlight: the sun that enters the frame can provoke the appearance of small glare and a slight loss of contrast. However, weaker light sources do not cause problems, glare does not form. Vignetting is present on an open aperture. Geometric distortion when shooting in RAW is strong, but when shooting in JPEG, software is still suppressed in the camera. The profile for RAW files is used by default in Adobe Camera Raw, We recommend this lens to all enthusiastic photographers as a high-quality and universal “staffer” for any tasks. Of course, it has some disadvantages, but at the same time it has a very balanced set of characteristics. The developers managed to achieve a successful compromise between the pros and cons. And if you want more, then you should pay attention to the top-end Sony FE 24-70mm F / 2.8 GM.