Owning both this lens and a later version of the Sony-by-Zeiss 24-70mm F4, I must say that this review is a little unfair to the Zeiss offering, which is super-sharp, beautifully-coloured, and pleasing to use… sharpness to the corners is achieved at medium apertures when the image edges are on the same focal plane as the centre… it is also dust and moisture sealed… and a fair bit smaller and more portable than the 24-105… and comes with a nice carry-pouch.
Bibi
June 17, 2020 12:36 am
According to my experience, chromatic aberration is very strong
john collette
November 28, 2019 9:00 am
a first class professional use camera lens. the additional 35mm focal length beats any other 24-70/28-75 lens in general purpose use options. color,clairty,and sharpness of the 24-105 photographic results are all excellent. as most reviews state “sony finally gets it right”
Ziggy
April 6, 2019 3:42 am
Sony’s website describes it as dust and moisture resistant, not weather sealed.
JohnTheKeenAmateur
January 3, 2019 9:09 pm
A question, if I may, Dvir;
You point out that: “Sony bakes their auto-correction settings into their RAW files …” and then you go on to say that; “… when Sony’s profile is applied to the RAW file {vignetting corrections are made}”.
Is this correction achieved via (for example) Lightroom’s Lens Correction feature ? Assuming so then I guess LR is taking the correction details from the EXIF data … Right ?
Thanks for the thorough review.
JohnTheKeenAmateur
January 3, 2019 8:55 pm
Great to read (yet another) good finding on this lens – Excellent thoroughness here.
I bought my copy at a very good discount offered by Sony Australia — now I’m saving up for a Sony a7iii to mount it on :-)
Nice review, although I would have liked to have seen an example of the vignetting at 24mm wide open. Did I miss it?
Tiago Silva
December 17, 2018 2:32 am
Nice and balanced review I have been using the lens since it was launched with my Sony a7rii. It is a great general lens for almost everything except the vigneting at 24-28 range … I think that everyone considering this lens should try it at these focal ranges before buying
Guillermo Huertas
December 15, 2018 4:12 am
Great review, as expected from PL!
If there’s a minor correction that I can suggest (since it kind of caught my eye) is that you mention “The FE 24-70mm F/2.8 GM is much bigger, nearly twice as heavy option”. Considering the 24-105 weighs 663g and the 24-70 weighs 886g, I don’t see how the latter is “nearly twice as heavy” if there’s only a 200g difference, which is not even 1.5x times heavier… Sorry for being so pedantic, but I thought it was a bit of an exaggeration there.
Other than that, fantastic analysis! Can’t wait to see how this lens compares to the Tamron 2.8 version :)
I think it has to do with weight distribution: the 2.8 is very front heavy, making it feel much heavier. My 24-105 has most of the weight concentrated near the mount, which balances much better when in use. So subjectively, I’d say the reviewer is about right.
Owning both this lens and a later version of the Sony-by-Zeiss 24-70mm F4, I must say that this review is a little unfair to the Zeiss offering, which is super-sharp, beautifully-coloured, and pleasing to use… sharpness to the corners is achieved at medium apertures when the image edges are on the same focal plane as the centre… it is also dust and moisture sealed… and a fair bit smaller and more portable than the 24-105… and comes with a nice carry-pouch.
According to my experience, chromatic aberration is very strong
a first class professional use camera lens. the additional 35mm focal length beats any other 24-70/28-75 lens in general purpose use options. color,clairty,and sharpness of the 24-105 photographic results are all excellent. as most reviews state “sony finally gets it right”
Sony’s website describes it as dust and moisture resistant, not weather sealed.
A question, if I may, Dvir;
You point out that: “Sony bakes their auto-correction settings into their RAW files …” and then you go on to say that; “… when Sony’s profile is applied to the RAW file {vignetting corrections are made}”.
Is this correction achieved via (for example) Lightroom’s Lens Correction feature ?
Assuming so then I guess LR is taking the correction details from the EXIF data … Right ?
Thanks for the thorough review.
Great to read (yet another) good finding on this lens – Excellent thoroughness here.
I bought my copy at a very good discount offered by Sony Australia — now I’m saving up for a Sony a7iii to mount it on :-)
How do I get to Sony Australia for the discount?
Nice review, although I would have liked to have seen an example of the vignetting at 24mm wide open. Did I miss it?
Nice and balanced review
I have been using the lens since it was launched with my Sony a7rii. It is a great general lens for almost everything except the vigneting at 24-28 range … I think that everyone considering this lens should try it at these focal ranges before buying
Great review, as expected from PL!
If there’s a minor correction that I can suggest (since it kind of caught my eye) is that you mention “The FE 24-70mm F/2.8 GM is much bigger, nearly twice as heavy option”. Considering the 24-105 weighs 663g and the 24-70 weighs 886g, I don’t see how the latter is “nearly twice as heavy” if there’s only a 200g difference, which is not even 1.5x times heavier… Sorry for being so pedantic, but I thought it was a bit of an exaggeration there.
Other than that, fantastic analysis! Can’t wait to see how this lens compares to the Tamron 2.8 version :)
I think it has to do with weight distribution: the 2.8 is very front heavy, making it feel much heavier. My 24-105 has most of the weight concentrated near the mount, which balances much better when in use. So subjectively, I’d say the reviewer is about right.