Introduction

Having a state of the art 70-200mm 2.8 zoom is something very important for the camera manufacturers, as these are extremely popular lenses – especially among the professional customers. Sadly, Sony’s first generation for the FE system wasn’t exactly a stellar performer and fell noticeably behind Nikon’s and Canon’s offerings. I said it before: Sony is very much aware of what the duds in the lineup are, so also here they released an improved version, the Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS II. Is this finally the 70-200mm 2.8 telezoom Sony customers deserve? Let’s find out in this review.

Sample Images

You can find most of the sample pictures in full resolution here.

Specifications / Version History

There have been two different 70-200mm 2.8 Sony lenses for E-mount:

• Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS
  23/18 design (1 XAsph, 2 Asph, 2 Super ED, 4 ED), 0.96 m MFD, 1:4.0 magnification, 1480g, 2016-2020
• Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS II
  17/14 design (1 XAsph, 1 Asph, 1 Ashp ED, 2 Super ED, 2 ED), 0.4 to 0.82 m MFD, 1:3.3 to 1:3.8 magnification, 1045g, aperture ring, 2021-

Two things are noteworthy here. The first is, that the first generation lens has been replaced after a relatively short time. This is, because it was a bit of a stinker in Sony’s lineup and not nearly as good as the 70-200mm 2.8 lenses from the competitors. The other is, that the new lens has an optical design made of noticeably less elements than the first generation. It is also currently the 70-200mm 2.8 of the mirrorless era with the least amount of elements. This is probably the main reason for it also being the lightest.

This is a review of the Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS II which has the following specifications:

• Diameter: 88 mm
• Field of view: 12.3° to 34° (diagonally)
• Length: 200 mm
• Weight: 1045g (without hood [108g], tripod foot [78g] and caps)
• Filter Diameter: 77 mm
• Number of Aperture Blades: 11 (rounded)
• Elements/Groups: 17/14
  
• Close Focusing Distance: 0.4 m at 70mm to 0.82 m at 200mm
• Maximum Magnification: 1:3.3 at 70mm to 1:3.8 at 200mm (measured)
• Mount: Sony E

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Disclosure

This Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS II was kindly provided by our reader Olaf Leismann for review purposes. Thanks a lot!

Handling / Build Quality

Generally this Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS II handles and feels very similar to the other recent G/GM primes and zooms.

The rubberized focus ring has decent damping and it takes a little less than 180° from the minimum focus distance to infinity – no matter how fast you turn it, as the coupling is linear.
When you turn your camera off, the lens will remember the last focus position and will still be there when you turn the camera on again.

The zoom is mechanically coupled and there was no zoom creep. This is something that may still develop over time though.

On the left side of the lens we have a host of buttons. An AF/MF switch, a focus limiter, On/Off/Mode buttons for the OSS and an iris lock switch. We also have lens buttons between zoom and focus ring.

The lens shipped with a bayonet style lens hood. As this is a tele lens I think it is generally a good idea to use it and it is also good protection should you be shooting in the rain. It also features a small window that can be opened to rotate a polarizer or variable ND filter.

The lens also comes with a removable tripod foot. Sadly it doesn’t feature an Arca Swiss profile, so most people will buy a replacement foot and leave this one in the box.

The MK II version is pretty much exactly the same size as its predecessor. Compared to the 70-200mm 2.8 lenses for DSLRs this one is a bit smaller, but as it is an internal zoom and focus lens it is not as compact as the Canon RF 70-200mm 2.8L IS USM.

Autofocus/Stabilizer

I am not shooting sports or fast moving animals/humans so if you want to know if the lens is fast enough for this, or how it compares to other lenses in this segment, you may have to look for a different review with a more detailed assessment of this aspect.

That being said these f/2.8 zooms are usually the lenses in the lineup with the fastest and overall best autofocus and this is exactly what this lens felt like in the field. Even adapted to a Nikon Zf via the Megadap ETZ21pro adapter taking pictures like this was easily possible:

Vignetting

Light Falloff

These vignetting figures are very typical for a modern 70-200mm 2.8 lens. Within the margin of error they are actually exactly the same as those of the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm 2.8E FL ED VR IF.

It is recommended to have a look at this article first to get an idea how this brightness graph works.

Optical vignetting

Fast lenses usually show a noticeable amount of optical vignetting. Without going too much into technical details optical vignetting leads to the truncation of light circles towards the borders of the frame.
In the center of the frame almost every lens will render a perfect circle, but only lenses with very low optical vignetting will keep this shape in the corners.
So in the following comparison we move from the center (left) to the extreme corner (right) and see how the shape of the light circle changes.

Again a very typical performance for a modern 70-200mm 2.8 lens and again this Sony lens looks almost exactly the same as the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm 2.8E FL ED VR IF. The Tamron 70-180mm 2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 shows a bit stronger optical vignetting, not surprising, considering its focus on compactness.

Sharpness

Focus Shift

Because this is an AF lens and at wider apertures the modern Sony bodies focus at working aperture anyway it would hardly matter if there was any focus shift, but I still checked and I am happy to report I didn’t find any.

infinity (42mp Sony A7rII)

In the center and midframe area this Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS II generally shows a great performance from f/2.8. The corners don’t look as good as I would have expected though. They are similar to what I have seen from the Tamron 70-180mm 2.8 G2 – which isn’t bad – but worse than what I have seen from the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm 2.8E FL ED VR IF adapted to Sony. Maybe not being optimized for across frame sharpness at infinity was the price to be paid for the lower weight and element count.

Keep in mind: at these distances heat haze and vibrations can have a big influence.

close (1.1 m, 1:4.1, 42mp Sony A7rII)

70mm

200mm

280mm (1.4x TC)

A maximum magnification of more than 1:4 is something very nice to have in a fast 70-200mm lens and also the standard these days. The highest magnification is being achieved at the 70mm end, so I am showing you the performance at both ends here.

This lens is only a little bit softer at f/2.8 at the 70mm end, but looking very good at 200mm. If we add Sony’s 1.4x TC we also see a difference between f/4.0 and f/5.6, so for optimal image quality you may want to stop down to f/5.6.

Distortion

Often modern lens designs allow for higher distortion as (in most cases) it can be easily corrected digitally anyway. Traditionally the 70-200mm 2.8 zooms showed noticeable barrel distortion at the wide end, noticeable pincushion distortion at the long end and no distortion somewhere inbetween.

This Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS II – just like the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm 2.8E FL ED VR – shows almost no distortion at the 70mm end and from there on increasing pincushion distortion that peaks at the 200mm end. As you can see from the comparison above the profiles do a very good job at correcting this.

Sunstars

In my experience, the longer the focal length of your lens, the more unlikely you are to encounter sunstars in your pictures. Nevertheless 70mm may still be used for more intimate cityscapes or landscapes with the sun on the edge of a mountain, so we have a closer look here.

As most of the recent GM lenses also this Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS II features 11 rounded aperture blades. With that configuration you will only rarely see distinct sunstars, between f/16 and f/22 they do look nice (meaning equidistant spacing between and same length of the rays) and unobstrusive though.

As this is a highly subjective topic may have a look at this article to see which kind of sunstars you prefer.

Coma correction

70mm

200mm

Coma seems to be corrected very well at both ends of the zoom range. Some people like to use these 200mm 2.8 lenses for deep sky astrophotography, this one wouldn’t be a bad choice for that application.

Bokeh

The 70-200mm f/2.8 telezoom lenses are often the primary choice of those portrait photographers, that are willing to give up some subject separation capabilties – compared to e.g. an 85mm 1.8 or 135mm 1.8 lens – for a lot of added one-lens-flexibility.

From the get-go Sony claimed, that their GM lenses are also optimized towards yielding a pleasing bokeh and in most cases I actually found this to be true. This Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS II is no exception.

Obviously you get the highest amount of subject separation at the 200mm end, but I also found that at the 70mm end the bokeh looks very pleasing, an advantage over the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm 2.8 FL ED VR, which I found to be a bit more nervous at its wide end.

You should of course have a look at the sample images here (and elsewhere) to decide for yourself if you like this lens’ bokeh rendering. Personally, it is among the best I have seen from a 70-200mm 2.8 lens, by which I mean smooth and predictable – exactly what I would be looking for in a workhorse lens.

Flare resistance

This is a section where the (fast) telezooms always have a bit of a hard time, are things different here?

Low amount of veiling flare, some smaller ghosts.

Very similar to the performance at f/2.8.

At the longer focal lengths veiling flare becomes the main issue.

Stopped down we also see some ghosts at the 200mm end which is not that typical actually.

Without having done a direct comparison to the other recent 70-200mm 2.8 lenses, I think this Sony lens shows a slightly above average performance here.

Chromatic aberrations

Lateral

Lateral CA are already corrected by the built in lens correction profile in most raw converters, so in the end: you won’t see any.

Longitudinal

The 70-200mm 2.8 zooms usually do well in this category and the GM II is no exception. This still holds true when using Sony’s 1.4x TC.

The situation is the same when it comes to purple fringing.

Conclusion

Despite their high price, the 70-200mm 2.8 lenses are high volume lenses for Sony, Canon and Nikon, so they receive regular updates to never fall behind the competitors. Sony’s first mirrorless 70-200mm – the Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS – didn’t really hit the mark and simply wasn’t as good as the competitor’s offerings.

This cannot be said about this second generation Sony FE 70-200m 2.8 GM OSS II though. Not only is the performance at the level you would expect from a lens like this, Sony once more managed to offer the lightest lens in class – despite still being a constant length internal zoom lens, unlike the Canon RF 70-200mm 2.8L IS USM, which extends on zooming.

What is interesting though: as was already the case for the 400mm 2.8 lenses, this Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS II and the Canon RF 70-200mm 2.8L IS USM again show a very similar design philosophy. In a time, where we see lenses becoming more complex, featuring more elements with every iteration, Sony’s and Canon’s engineers interestingly managed to reduce the number of elements compared to the predecessors. This generation, the Nikon Z 70-200mm 2.8 VR S looks like the outdated lens, needing four elements more and being 30% heavier than the competitors.

Don’t get me wrong, it never makes sense to change the camera system, just because a 70-200mm 2.8 lens is slightly ahead, as the next generation will probably change that order again.

The good news is, Sony users did indeed finally get the 70-200mm 2.8 lens they deserve and that doesn’t need to hide from the competition anymore. It sure does come at a price though, so if you cannot or don’t want to spend as much, be sure to check out the alternatives mentioned next.

buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de (affiliate links) for $2798 

Alternatives

I will only be talking about the currently most popular alternatives for Sony E-mount users. .

Tamron 70-180mm 2.8 Di III VXD:
Thanks to its successor (next lens on the list) this one got a bit cheaper on the used market. I wasn’t happy with the lack of buttons and its build quality, but if you can overlook these things this is a great affordable fast telezoom.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de (affiliate links) for $1099 new or $750 used

Tamron 70-180mm 2.8 Di III VC VXD G2:
For the second generation it looks like Tamron’s engineers had a look at my review of the first one, as they addressed all the things I wasn’t happy about. The price also increased a bit, but if you are looking for a compact, capable fast telezoom it can be very well worth it. In terms of optical performance the Tamron is similar to the Sony lens being reviewed here – except for the missing 20mm at the long end. Disadvantages are build quality, TC compatibility and AF speed.
The weight difference between MK I Sony and MK I Tamron was 700g, whereas between this MK II Sony and the MK II Tamron that shrunk to only 200g.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de (affiliate links) for $1299

Sony FE 70-200mm 2.8 GM OSS:
I cannot really recommend this lens, it was never as good as the price suggested, this successor being a much better lens makes this really clear. If you are on a budget rather get one of the aforementioned Tamron lenses.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | ebay for $2598 (affiliate links)

Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 DG DN OS Sports:
I haven’t used this lens personally yet, so I cannot tell you in detail how it compares to this Sony or the Tamrons. In terms of weight and price it is inbetween them though.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de (affiliate links) for $1369

Sample images

You can find most of the sample pictures in full resolution here.

Further Reading

• Sony Lens Reviews
• Review: Sony FE 12-24mm 2.8 GM
• Review: Sony FE 20-70mm 4.0 G
• Review: Sony FE 24-50mm 2.8 G
• Review: Sony FE 35mm 1.4 GM

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BastianK

My name is Bastian and I am your expert here when it comes to ultra wide angle lenses, super fast portrait lenses (ranging from a 50mm f/0.95 to a 200mm f/1.8) and I also have reviewed way too many 35mm lenses. Don't ask me anything about macro or wildlife shooting though.

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