70-200 f2.8 G Sony Lens

I went to a local camera shop with my parents and we were planning on getting a tamron 70-200 f2.8 for my photo journalism stuff. To my surprise we went for the
Sony 70-200 G lens along with the a700's battery grip and a heliopan uv filter for protection. We went home and I just couldn’t believe what just happened. I later had mixed emotions, on the one hand I felt real happy, on the other I felt really spoiled. Anyways, I’ll take the time to right a more insightful review once we get used to each other. For now I will go over what I like and don’t like about the lens.

In the shop I got a chance to play with it using a a350 alpha body from the display case. It was very well balanced on the a350. At home I mounted it on my a700 and it felt as good as the a350 balancing wise. It is very heavy but I think i can muscle it through a whole day of shooting with little problems. The build is amazing, strong and robust. A all around good pro lens.

Both the focus and the zoom ring's are very smooth. Something I was not used to was that the focus ring does not rotate when using auto focus. Also the focus ring can be turned in either direction past the 4 ft/1.2m point and the infinite marker with no sudden stops. I think this is to prevent unwanted damaged from sudden stops on both ends of the focus spectrum. I heard allot of complaints about the rubber grips on the turning rings. They do attract allot of dust but it’s not that big of a deal.

Auto focus is super quick. In good light it focuses fast, quietly, and accurately. The first time I had this thing mounted on the a700, my smile went sour because when i tried to auto focus, I couldn’t hear anything! It’s that quiet and low on vibrations. :p The lens hood is huge, but it should be mounted at all times since the front glass is so close to the rim and can easily get touched or hit. The petal shaped hood also has some sort of material on the inside of it, it helps attract and collect the dust before it reaches the lens. The three focus lock buttons around the front of the lens are extremely useful. I use AEL lock button allot and when I have my thumb on it and have my index finger on the shutter, how am i supposed to lock focus? Anyways, AF lock on the lens is just very useful...

I went out and shot some photos. I noticed that all my night photographs have allot of lens flare. I took off the heliopan uv lens filter that I got separately and that solved the problem. What a waste of money. I wanted to protect my gear but even a high end lens filter degrades image quality. It also tints everything slightly green. Off it goes!

I don’t recommend having a battery grip on while using this lens ether. Maybe it’s just me but when I have this set-up, my left hand can’t get under the zoom ring properly due to the grips protrusion into my bottom wrist. It actually caused quiet allot of discomfort. It also throws the whole thing off balance. But without the battery grip, its perfect.

Great looking lens. The white finish really makes it look pro and stand out, but it cause's head's to turn. I used black gaffer tape to try to make it look like crap. I hope it works.

The image quality is very impressive. I love the natural colors and the high sharpnest. I didn’t get a chance to use it in the way I would have liked to yet, but below are some fast shots. Not the best light and some are shot using high ISO's, so there not really much of tests ether but there something. The full raw sizes are awesome, I could keep zooming in and everything is still super sharp. Sony/Minolta ROCKS!

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Congrats on the lens. I probably drool over pics of that lens at least daily. - TF

Heres this one again but in color.

iso 100, 1/100th shutter speed and at f2.8 hand held 200mm focal length

Good choice for the upper end ... now dump that kit lens! Sheesh!

Thanks guys. That kit lens is nothing but a distant memory now lol

Can I ask "What are you replacing it with?"

Some practical "kit lens" replacements are:

TAMRON SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di-II LD Aspherical (IF)
TAMRON SP AF 18-250mm f/2.8 XR Di-II LD Aspherical (IF)
TAMRON SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) MACRO
SONY DT CZ 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5
SIGMA 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC MACRO
SIGMA 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM

Currently I’m not looking to buy a new wide angle zoom just yet. Wide angles are good for over view shots, but I find in allot of my photography I rarely use wide angles. But if I had to choose I would probably go with the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC MACRO you listed there.

Remember, Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC MACRO does "darken down" as you zoom to 70mm. If you do not need the really wide stuff, the TAMRON SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD is a nice and bright lens. all the way through its focal length. It also mounts on a Full Frame (A850/A900) w/o issue. Also, it meets up well with the AF 70-200mm f/2.8 G SSM

Attachment 72453

Sweet lens. Ill consider it later on. It will pair up nicely with the 70-200,

In my first post I said that the battery grip and the 70-200 f2.8 causes wrist pain. However I found out that when I remove the tripod collar, it fixes this problem.

Theres also the Minolta version of the 28-75, which supposedly has better coatings. And the new Sony version will have the SAM in it.