A Lens I’d Carry Around All Day

During the presentation that Sony gave us, the company seemed pretty adamant that they were going after Canon with their new 28-70mm f2 G Master Lens. And with the exception of the way that Sony makes everything so clinical, they’re doing a fantastic job. At least, that’s in comparison to Canon — Sony claimed that this lens was as sharp as their 35mm f1.4 G Master. Compared to the Canon variant, this lens is both smaller and lighter. In fact, it’s so much lighter than the Canon variant that I really haven’t minded using it for long shooting sessions where it’s slung around me for hours at a time.

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The Big Picture: Sony 28-70mm f2 G Master Review Conclusions

The Sony 28-70mm f2 G Master is a solid performing lens all around. When it’s paired with Sony’s latest autofocus technologies, it will be an incredible tool for paid gigs. It also boasts Sony’s weather resistance while keeping the overall package smaller and lightweight. Really, this lens beats Canon in almost every single way — but at the same time, I wish that Sony hadn’t just only done the bare minimum to outdo Canon on the specs. I wish that they had built in some extra character with this lens like Canon does with chromatic aberration control or something like that.

We’re giving the Sony 28-70mm f2 G Master 5/5 stars. Want one? check it out on Amazon.

Pros

• Only as sharp as their 35mm f1.4 G Master, so that means that it’s got some character going on.
• Weather resistance
• Fairly small and lightweight
• You’ll have no issues carrying this around for an entire gig, except for maybe a bit of backpain.

Cons

• I wish Sony had done more with this lens rather than just try to meet Canon where they’re at.

Who Should Buy the Sony 28-70mm f2 G Master?

Photographers should buy the Sony 28-70mm f2 G Master if they own the Tamron 35-150mm f2-2.8 and need something wider and not longer.

Gear Used

We tested the Sony 28-70mm f2 G Master with the Sony a1 II and the Sony a7r V. All of them were loaner units provided by Sony. We also used it with the Sony a7r III and the Profoto B10; those units are our own.

Innovations

This lens isn’t really all that innovative except for the fact that it’s smaller and lighter than Canon’s option.

Hardware

To recap what we’ve said many times, this lens is smaller and lighter than Canon’s variant. It’s so pleasant that we carried it around for entire shooting sessions of several hours and didn’t have much of an issue with the weight at all. When you’re working with this lens, note that it’s got a plastic exterior with rubber rings and tons of both buttons and switches.

It also has an aperture ring — which I love.

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Ease of Use

Sure, the Sony 28-70mm f2 G Master has a lot of controls on it. But it’s not really all that complicated to use if you just want to go ahead and shoot with it.

This doesn’t feel all that heavy and I’m quite shocked. Canon had us all believing that innovation has to be heavy in the same way that Sigma does. But Sony and Tamron often show us that this isn’t true.

I slung the a1 II with 28-70mm f2 and the a7r II with the Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 around me. In one hand, I had a camera, and in the other, I had my Profoto b10. I put everything down for less than 10 minutes from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. that night. My back hurt a bit, but it wasn’t all that bad at all.

Focusing

In our tests, the Sony 28-70mm f2 G Master didn’t really give us any sort of troubles with autofocus. If anything, it really just depended on the camera model. The Sony a1 II focused the quickest with this; followed by the Sony a7r III and then the Sony a7r V.

Compared to the Tamron 35-150mm f2-2.8

If you’re a Sony photographer, this will be the big question. For years, we’ve championed the Tamron 35-150mm f2-2.8 over so many other lenses available for Sony FE cameras. Tamron is also partially owned by Sony, so they’re going to make solid products for them.

If you need more telephoto length, such as for portraits or candids, then I’d go with the Tamron lens. But if you need something wider, then I’d go for the 28-70mm f2. If you’re using a strobe or a flash in TTL mode, the variable aperture won’t be much of an issue.

I own the Tamron lens and I don’t think that I’m going to sell it. It’s still my favorite lens for the Sony system.

Image Quality

So here’s something that I don’t think anyone will talk about very much besides the most hardcore of Sony users: I found onion ring bokeh. Honestly, I don’t care about this issue. I think it’s fine. And otherwise, this lens is perfectly good at what it does. I don’t think anyone should harp on issues like that.

Let’s Talk Art

I got together with a buddy and tried to create a photo shoot where I don’t think Generative AI could do what we’re creating — at least I don’t think that people could make prompts for it all that easily. It ended up being really fun.

Extra Image Samples

The Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience since day one. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, many folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. They’re not showing what the lens can do. So, we have a section in our Extra Image Samples area to show edited and unedited photos. From this, you can decide for yourself.

Unedited

Edited

Tech Specs