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.
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.