A barking owl in flight – straight at me!
I’m ready for my close-up Mr de Mille.
Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II – First Impressions
Sony announced a new version of their 70-200mm f/2.8 lens in October 2021. This one replaces their original 70-200mm f/2.8 for E mount, announced in 2016. They did some interesting things in this new lens. I will get to those.
The 70-200mm f/2.8 lens is a staple for professional photographers. It is flexible, capable of good subject separation, and reliable. I am not a professional photographer, and I am quite fond of using prime lenses, but I have owned three 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses over the last two decades, because they are too useful to ignore. I bought the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS over 15 years ago. It was considered a fine lens back then; almost 1.5kg of metal and glass, complete with Canon’s image stabilisation. Several years later, after a move to Nikon, I bought the Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II. Also a fine lens; and just over 1.5kg of metal and glass with Nikon’s Vibration Reduction system. When I moved to Sony, I resisted the temptation of Sony’s 70-200mm, because it, too, was around 1.5kg (a little less), and I wanted lighter lenses. No 70-200/2.8 for me!
Sony finally got me to buy a zoom lens with the 200-600mm G. I want to reach out to 600mm, but the 600mm f/4 GM is seriously pricy. Unlike the 150-600mm zooms from Sigma and Tamron (which extend a lot when zooming out to 600mm), the 200-600mm has both internal zoom and internal focus. I discovered that I liked that.
So when Sony announced that their new 70-200mm was also internal zoom and focus, I started to pay attention. Even better, this is a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens which defies the expectation that it weigh 1.5kg; this one weighs 1045g, barely over 1kg. This lens gets features we’ve seen in some of Sony’s best new lenses: it has an extreme aspheric element (like the 135 GM, except that this one is made from ED glass, reducing both spherical and chromatic aberrations simultaneously), it has four linear motors driving a pair of focus groups (like the 135GM and the 50GM). Oh, and where the original Sony 70-200 GM had a minimum focus distance of 96cm (which was good), this one reduces it to 40cm.
I got lucky. My local store managed to get stock of this lens quickly, and I leapt on the chance. I needed a 200mm lens that weighed less than the 200-600mm, and Sony didn’t seem to be coming out with a 200mm prime (admittedly, a 200mm f/2 could weigh even more than the 200-600mm). I hoped I would not regret my impulsive behaviour.
Very first impression? It’s really light! It does not feel like a 70-200 f/2.8. It feels barely heavier than my beloved 135mm GM (where “barely heavier” is 95g = 10% of the weight of the 135 GM).
I had plans to visit a collection of exhibits from the London Natural History Museum, so I took my new lens along. It’s an unusual selection of exhibits, featuring some things I had not expected to see (a first edition of Darwin’s Origin of Species, and specimens collected by Darwin and several other famous naturalists). Sadly, a lot of the collection is in fairly dim light. Fortunately, my new lens was fully capable of focussing even in the dim light. My biggest problem was reflections from the glass cabinets – it was impossible to get a good shot of the dodo (I will have to return another day to try again).
The image I’ve shown above was shot at ISO 12000, f/2.8, 1/125 at 108mm on the 70-200mm using a Sony A1. It is uncropped.
It amused me to show an image of a fossil predator taken with the most recent of Sony’s GM lenses.
I would not normally report my first impressions after a single outing with a lens, but this one has really impressed me.
Lemur against the light
I visited the zoo at lunchtime, and caught this lemur sitting in the shadow, avoiding the harsh sunlight that we can see in the background. I like how much detail I captured in the shadow, and the separation of the lemur’s muzzle. The A1 managed to focus on the lemur’s eyes, despite the significant difference in brightness between the lemur and the background.
This image was shot with the Sony 200-600mm G lens at 312mm on a Sony A1, at f/6.3 1/2000 ISO 1250 (on auto ISO). The image is uncropped – thought you’d like to see the whole frame, including the lemur’s fingers.
Wild black kite – got any spare?
The wild dogs get fed, and the local black kites are ready to souvenir anything that gets missed. Yes, kites are predatory, but they are perfectly willing to scavenge.
This image was shot with the Sony 135mm GM lens on a Sony A1, at f/1.8 1/10000 ISO 100. What you are looking at is a 2500×1667 crop from the frame. Arguably, this wasn’t the best choice of lens for this subject, but Sony has yet to make the 200mm f/2 GM or 300mm f/2.8 GM that I’d dearly love to be using here. That said, the 135 GM is so sharp, I can get away with such a savage crop. I really like having the extra headroom on the shutter speed, being able to go above 1/8000 all the way to 1/32000 – it effectively gives me two more stops before I need to think about stopping the lens down.
Cheetah intensity
Kulinda the cheetah is prowling. Not moving quickly, but intent on examining what the keepers have done to her space (she has been out for just a few minutes). She has come quite close to the window. This is a completely uncropped frame (and you know how much I love to crop!) – no room to crop, but I’m willing to put up with that on this one.
This image was shot with the Sony 135mm GM lens on a Sony A1, at f/1.8 1/3200 ISO 100. You could argue that I should perhaps have shot this at maybe f/8 to get a greater depth of field, but I like that only her head is fully in focus, courtesy of animal eye AF in the A1.
I can’t resist. Here’s another image from shortly before, as she stalked past the window. This image was shot with the same settings, and it, too, is uncropped. The early morning sun is low in the sky, but it’s already bright and clear (look at how strong her shadow is); there were no clouds this morning.
Making the mundane not
I like the idea of making a perfectly mundane object just a little different. You cannot get much more mundane than a manhole cover, and a great many of them are quite boring. Whoever designed this one decided it could be a bit distinctive without losing any of its functionality. That appeals to me.
This images was shot with the Voigtländer APO Lanthar 50mm f/2 lens on a Sony A1, at f/8 1/200 ISO 250 using manual focus. The image is cropped.
A black-breasted buzzard
Showing off her distinctive plumage, this black-breasted buzzard is naturally alliterative.
Did you know that lions climb trees?
When chased by a lion, don’t expect climbing a tree to save you
