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Lenses

First Impressions: Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS (Sony FE)

Chris Gampat
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10/27/2017
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat the Phoblographer Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS first impressions product images 6

The new Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS is an extremely versatile offering, but not as great as a G Master

If you were to mount the Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS on pretty much any modern Sony FE series camera, you’d be incredibly amazed at its versatility. However, these types of lenses have always been more about convenience than solid quality. And, with the Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS, I find the lens to be not as sharp as many of Sony’s other offerings–at least initially.

To be fair, I only had maybe four hours max to use the new Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS recently. So our full review is on the way still.

Tech Specs

Specs taken from our 24-105mm f4 G OSS news report

  • Corner to corner sharpness
  • Not a G Master lens
  • Constant f4
  • Silent AF uses electromagnets to move focus group
  • 663 grams
  • 4 aspherical elements
  • 3 ED glass
  • Focus group is in the back of the lens
  • Fluorine coating on the lenses
  • 17 elements in 14 groups
  • Weather and dust resistance.
  • Smallest in its class
  • $1,299.99

Ergonomics

When you look at the Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS you see a whole lot of what you may see from the camera brand’s competitors. The exterior is plasticky and has texture on it to ensure that the user can grip onto it. But in addition to that, most of the gripping power may come in conjunction with the rubber rings on the lens. There is a rubber ring for zooming and for focusing.

When you look at the front of the lens, you’ll spot a massive front element. That’s really about it.

When zoomed all the way in, the Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS becomes about half a big as it was when collapsed. If the lens shade is off, then the overall product looks much smaller.

Turn to the side of the Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS and what you’ll see are the switches. These switches control the focusing mode (manual or auto) and the OSS–which is the image stabilization.

Build Quality

The Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS boasts weather sealing and resistance. But considering that this isn’t a G Master lens, we’re not quite sure how it is vs a lens from that lineup. Otherwise, this lens is everything you’d expect from a manufacturer: big rings for focusing and zooming, switches for control of focus and OSS, and a lock to ensure that the lens stays compact when not in use. In addition to that, Sony also has that control button that can be programmed on the lens.

Ease of Use

When using the Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS you begin to realize that the lens itself is pretty simple to use. Set the camera you’re using to aperture priority and just shoot and you’ll have no worries at all. This is due to the constant aperture range throughout the lens. What you may also want to keep in mind is the fact that there are switches on the side to control the focusing mode and the image stabilization. So just don’t accidentally deactivate those unless you mean to do that.

Autofocus

When using the Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS with the Sony a7r III, I found the autofocus to be very quick and responsive. Were there times where the combination didn’t quite nail the focusing? Sure. Some of those were in low light and some of those were with dancers. But we’re going to need to do more thorough testing to figure all of this out.

Image Quality

From what I’m able to tell so far, the Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS has some very good image quality. When the focusing is spot on and everything just works, this lens can sing. However, Sony has much better options in their lineup in the way of their G Master lenses and many of their primes are specific focal lengths.

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First Impressions

So far, I’m pretty lukewarm about the new Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS. Does it have a whole lot going for it? Absolutely. However, I’ll need to test it with finalized firmware and all to ensure I get the best results out of it.

autofocus build quality camera ergonomics lens sharpness sony Sony 24-105mm f4 G OSS sony a7r III
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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