The Sony 70-400mm f/4.0-5.6 is an excellent general telephoto zoom, but not recommended for photojournalism.
Written: Mar 23 '09 (Updated Apr 16 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: Very sharp thoughout most of its range, decent build quality, minimal aberration, useful focal range.
Cons: Zoom extends, some softness from 350 - 400mm, small and variable aperture, plastic filter ring.
The Bottom Line: Easy to recommend to advanced amateur photographers for its decent build quality and excellent optical performance. Not quite recommended for professional use, but still capable of professional quality images.
Sony's first super telephoto zoom is a welcome addition to the Alpha lineup. On an APS-C sensor, such as the one in the Sony A350 body, this lens covers 105mm - 600mm, which is an incredible range by any standard. Even on the full frame A900 body, this lens offers a lot of reach. Fixed focal length telephoto lenses always offer the best overall performance, but zoom lenses offer more utility for a little less money. The trade off is usually image quality, and sometimes build quality. Let's see how this Sony handles the challenge.
As of early 2009, this lens is selling for $1500 from USA authorized Sony dealers. Included with the lens is the front and rear lens cap, the dedicated lens hood, and a carrying case. It is compatible with all Sony DSLR camera bodies (both APS-C and full frame sensors).
Build Quality
This lens has decent build quality. A metal lens mount and partial metal barrel give a feeling of substantial build. Still, there is just a little more plastic than I would expect for a lens at this price range. In one of the dumber feats of engineering I've seen awhile, Sony put plastic filter threads on the front of this lens. This is nearly as dumb as a plastic lens mount. Whenever something made of metal needs to mount to something else, both mounts should always be made of metal. Plastic and metal expand and contract at different rates in different temperature regimes and this causes many problems. Otherwise, I'm not worried about it taking a few bumps, but any prolonged professional use might take its toll. The average amateur and advanced amateur photographer shouldn't have any issues with build quality.
On cheap telephoto zoom lenses, zoom creep is often a problem. This usually occurs wthen the lens is pointed toward the ground. The heavy weight of the front elements causes the zoom to extend unintentionally. I have noticed no such problems with this lens. However, zoom creep sometimes emerges with time as the zoom mechanism loosens slightly with more and more use. If this happens, I'll update this review later. No news is good news.
The finish seems tough, but again time will tell how well it holds up to the bumps of everyday use. Silver? Well, that's a subjective thing. It's certainly not the color I would have picked, but it's not nearly as bad as I though it would be and I never think about it when I'm shooting.
Ergonomics
The handling of this lens is a mixed bag. On one hand, the zoom and focus rings are smooth with very little play, which I was happy to see. If anything, they might be a little tight, but this typically improves with time. The lens is heavy, but not compared to comparable fixed focal length telephotos. This weight allows it to balance well on the A900 body, but a little less so on the very light A350 body (add the vertical grip and an extra battery to the A350 and handling improves dramatically). Each of the focus lock buttons (a total of three!) are easy to access and operate. The front element does not rotate while focusing or zooming, which allows for easy use of circular polarizing filters and the like. Although I don't use filters, many photographers will be thrilled with this design. The tripod mount is easy to use and reminds me of the mount on my Nikon 300mm AF-S in that it is easy to align for vertical shooting and can be removed when it gets in the way. I think Sony copied Nikon's superb design here, and why not. I don't recommend removing the tripod mount permanently, because you're eventually going to need it with this combination of long focal lengths and small maximum apertures. The lens hood is reasonably easy to mount in both positions. In the "on" position, it rotates fairly easily onto the front of the lens, but I recommend a few dry runs before taking into the field. In the "off" position, it mounts even more easily, reversed around the front of the lens for storage.
On the other hand, this lens extends when zooming. By the time it extends all the way out with the lens hood mounted, this thing is nearly a foot and half in length! We call these grenade launchers in my profession, and they seriously compromise the ability to use this lens in tight quarters. Additionally, the center of gravity of the lens changes as it is extended, which makes keeping the subject in the frame difficult. This lens really needs to have internal zooming for it to be useful in serious photography. From 300mm, a tripod is required in all but the brightest of daylight to guarantee blur free shots. Even with Sony's great Super Steady Shot built into every camera body, this lens does little to help its photographer get a high percentage of keepers with its small maximum aperture at very long focal length. Keep the monopod close at hand. Finally, another problem with extending zoom lenses is their tendency to suck in dust. After minimal use, I'm already looking at two specs inside that, admittedly, have no impact on image quality. Focus Perfomance
There is a lot of glass to move inside this lens. As such, its focus speed is a little slower than what I had hoped for. The SSM focusing technology is nearly silent, which wildlife photographers will be happy to hear. However, photojournalists will not find the typically quick focusing they prefer. A common misconception is that ultra-sonic focusing mechanisms are always faster than traditional motor focusing mechanisms - this is not always the case. Most of my 1980's issue Minolta lenses focus just as quickly as this Sony, and in some cases faster. Again, I wouldn't call the focus on this lens slow, but it's definitely not breaking any speed records. Compared to the Nikon 80-400mm, well, there really isn't any comparison - this Sony is noticeably faster and a little more reliable in low light. Speaking of...
The small maximum aperture takes a toll on focus accuracy in low light conditions. This greatly reduces its usefulness in journalistic applications. Thankfully, f/5.6 as a maximum aperture doesn't rear its ugly head until about 300mm. This is exactly where I start to see some focus hunting and I know I need to use manual focus only in low light conditions. This was expected and I would not say it's any worse than any other small maximum aperture lens. In fact, in may be just a hair better. In bright conditions, or with high contrast subjects, I've had no problems whatsoever with focus accuracy on either the A900 or A350 bodies.
Optical Performance
Where this lens surprised me was its overall optical performance. Having used the Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5 - 5.6, I was expecting a similar level of sharpness, color, etc. Without question, this Sony is sharper than the Nikon and produces better contrast and color. Down the middle (middle focal lengths and apertures) it can compete for sharpness with some of Minolta's telephotos, which are some of the best lenses ever produced. Near its limits (350mm - 400mm at maximum aperture), the picture does soften on the edges, but center sharpness remains very good. At these long focal lengths, stopping down helps improve sharpness a little, but I could never get perfectly even sharpness across the frame. Of course, the last thing you want to do is stop down at a long focal length unless you have a solid tripod. Compared to Sony's 70-300mm G lens, this lens is noticeably sharper at all focal lengths. Overall, it's easy to quality this lens as very sharp.
Color reproduction is also excellent, but it can't compete with the early Minolta autofocus lenses, which really set the standard along with a handful of Leicas. Contrast is impressive for a zoom of this range, better than any comparable Nikon or Canon, but still not quite up to Minolta standards. Bokeh is quite nice thanks to its rounded aperture blades, but of course not up to the standards set by the fast Carl Zeiss lenses. Now I'm really comparing apples and oranges.
As far as the bad stuff goes, well, there isn't much. Bad stuff refers to things like vignetting (corner darkening), chromatic and spherical aberrations, and distortion. I've seen no significant vignetting on my APS-C sensors, but it does become apparent on the full frame sensor of the A900. I don't worry about this because it is so easily correctable with modern image processing software. Chromatic aberrations are kept to a minimum throughout the zoom range, but are slightly noticeable in high contrast areas of a photo taken at maximum aperture. This aberration also seems to be more common at the limits of the zoom range, as I would expect, but I'm going to have to do more testing to confirm that. Regardless, chromatic aberration is never to objectionable levels. In my horizon tests, distortion was also negligable. Brick wall tests might bring out more distortion but I've never sold a photo of brick wall so I'm really not interested. Architecture photographers are probably crying right now.
Conclusions
Without question, this is one of the best lenses in its class. However, it does have a few issues that should not be present in a $1500 'G' class lens. Its small and variable maximum aperture makes it quite difficult to use in low light, its focus speed is good but not great, and the extending zoom reduces shooting stability. Optically, it is easy to recommend for its good sharpness and lack of aberrations. Most photographers will be very pleased with the overall performance of this lens. Because of its low light limitations and minor build quality issues, I can't recommend it for photojournalism.
Get incredibly close to your subject with the SAL-70400G super telephoto zoom lens. Part of the acclaimed G series, this zoom lens is ideal for sports...More at Dell
The Sony SAL-70400G 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G SSM Lens is a 5.7x super telephoto lens features high-speed SSM (SuperSonic-Wave Motor) for autofocus speed and...More at Adorama
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.