After receiving my Sony FE 24-70/2.8 GM today, I first checked to see if the lens was well-centered. The good news is that it passed my decentering tests at all focal lengths (24, 28, 35, 50 and 70mm). My tests are done at infinity and to make sure there is no room for variance.
Next, I took many aperture tests at most focal lengths and compared some of them with the lenses I have (Loxia 21/2.8 ,Loxia 50/2 and FE 28/2). The Loxia 21mm will be compared with the zoom at 24mm.
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In my view, the lens sweet spot center to corners is f/5.6 at "24mm".
I would not say f/8 because there is pretty much no differences at the extreme corners but the center loses a little bit of micro-contrast.
However, Center and Mid-field resolution is very good even wide open.
The corner is a tad soft at wide open, right? But frankly, the difference in the corner is quite subtle at each 1-stop increment but noticeable at 2-stop until about f/8. Is that right? I cannot tell much from just the images you posted. What do you think? Thanks!
Fred Miranda wrote:
In my view, the lens sweet spot center to corners is f/5.6 at "24mm".
Totally agree I can see it pretty clearly on the right crop from F4 to 5.6
F11 its starting to go south which is what i would expect with diffraction. Still decent though . Im not really seeing a clear advantage at F8 over 5.6. That's a good sign
AGeoJO wrote:
The corner is a tad soft at wide open, right? But frankly, the difference in the corner is quite subtle at each 1-stop increment but noticeable at 2-stop until about f/8. Is that right? I cannot tell much from just the images you posted. What do you think? Thanks!
So far, I'm quite impressed. At 24mm, center and mid-field is quite strong wide-open. Yes, extreme corners improve at f/4 and are optimal at f/5.6.
The lighting was quite terrible with some hazy and overhead sun. Keep that in mind.
I would tend to think your 21 gets it by 1 stop sooner at F4 but for maybe the worst end of the zoom which it tends to be the widest that's really good. My bet this thing screams at 28mm through 60. That would suit me just fine.
I have the entire image on my computer and I can see slightly more micro-contrast at f/5.6 in the center area. In the extreme corners, f/5.6 is all that's needed but there is a very slight improvement at f/8.
Next, I will post 28mm crops and compare to the FE 28/2 prime.
Fred Miranda wrote:
So far, I'm quite impressed. At 24mm, center and mid-field is quite strong wide-open. Yes, extreme corners improve at f/4 and are optimal at f/5.6.
The lighting was quite terrible with some hazy and the sun overhead. Keep that in mind.
Thanks, Fred. Now, the focus is at the hard infinity stop for all those shots, correct?
AGeoJO wrote:
Thanks, Fred. Now, the focus is at the hard infinity stop for all those shots, correct?
Yes, the infinity marking on camera since it's focus by wire.
I have not seeing the results from the longer FLs but at the wide range, there is no noticeable field curvature. (extreme edges are just as sharp as center at infinity)
Thanks for the 24mm images Fred. It's hard to tell for sure how the edges are performing due to the subject matter and what appears to be shadow-lifting noise in the edges (it's either noise or sharpening artifacts that occurs when an a diffusely-soft area gets sharpened).
Nice comparisons Fred...24 is the hardest FL to get right....I do wish you lived in a neighborhood that wasn't so inclined to slide ( I worry about you)
Here is how the FE 24-70GM performs at 28mm and compares to the FE 28/2 prime.
Here are the "Extreme Edge" crops:
PS: the crops are showing slightly different subjects. That's is because the zoom at 28mm is not quite the same FL as the 28mm prime. However, the crop was done from the same area in the image field.
snapsy wrote:
Thanks for the 24mm images Fred. It's hard to tell for sure how the edges are performing due to the subject matter and what appears to be shadow-lifting noise in the edges (it's either noise or sharpening artifacts that occurs when an a diffusely-soft area gets sharpened).
Yes, there was shadow lifting from the the lens profile (Vignetting only).
f/2.8 has heavy vignetting that does quite not get fully corrected with the LR custom profile for the GM zoom.
I didn't correct any of the crops for distortion.
The G Master zoom is clearly better at all apertures except for f/8 and f/11, where the 28/2 caught up, I would say. But still I can see outline of roof tiles in images taken with the zoom at those apertures better than those coming from the 28/2.
AGeoJO wrote:
The G Master zoom is clearly better at all apertures except for f/8 and f/11, where the 28/2 caught up, I would say. But still I can see outline of roof tiles in images taken with the zoom at those apertures better than those coming from the 28/2.
Is the zoom really that good ?
The FE 28/2 is a very sharp lens after f/5.6. So, that is a strong performance for the zoom.
Next: FE 24-70GM @50mm vs Loxia 50/2. That will be the biggest challenge for the zoom imo.
FYI: My Loxia 50/2 performs better than my 55/1.8 at f/8 at the edges. Let's see how it compares to the zoom.
It's nice because I'm reviewing the crops with you guys. I have no idea how it will perform until I post it here.
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