This is the new Sony 70-200 G F4 II, the successor to my favorite lens for filming wedding ceremonies, and if you are a wedding filmmaker like me who has been looking for an affordable, compact, lightweight long lens that is perfect for filming wedding ceremonies, or if you just need a long lens for interviews or really anything else for that matter, Sony has knocked it out of the park with this one. I absolutely love it. That is me spoiling the conclusion of this review right at the top, because I respect your time.
Also, for the sake of ethics, I want you to know this video is not paid or sponsored by Sony, but they did send me the lens early so I would be able to make this review, and I will be sending it back to them very soon.
Why Wedding Filmmakers Love A 70-200
I have always loved this 70-200mm focal length, especially for filming wedding ceremonies, because whenever you are filming a wedding you never know if you are going to be filming the couple at a venue where you can get your tripods relatively close to the front so you can actually see their faces, or if you are going to be stuck up in the balcony of a church what feels like a quarter mile away from them, zooming in and just hoping you can get close enough. In situations like that, having a versatile zoom lens that can hit a variety of longer focal lengths is critical, and that is exactly what a 70-200 gives you.
Up until now, my go-to 70-200mm has been the original Sony 70-200 F4, which I have an entire review about that you can watch here: Review of the original 70-200 F4. To sum that review up, the original 70-200 F4 is dramatically lighter and smaller than a traditional F2.8 70-200, while still giving you plenty of compression and bokeh, all in a much more affordable package than most 70-200s.
The New One Cranks Everything To 11
If you want to know what this new mark two is like, you can basically take my review of the old 70-200 and crank everything to 11. If you thought the older 70-200 was lightweight, this new one is even lighter. If you thought the old one was sharp, this one is even sharper. If you thought the old one was compact, this new one is even compact-er. For real.
Look at these lenses side by side, and here I will throw in my old Canon EF mount 70-200 as well. Look at this behemoth next to these little babies. It is like Goldilocks and the three bears. We have got Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear.
If you want specifics on the weight, this lens is only 794 grams, down from 840 grams on the original 70-200 F4, and a whole lot lighter than the 1,045 grams of the 70-200 GM II. I am really impressed, and whenever you hold this lens in your hands I think you will be too.
It Extends!
Now that said, there is a reason this lens is so compact, and that is because it is not always compact. Just like a lot of popular lenses, a 24-70mm for example, this lens has an extending barrel and it actually gets pretty long. Fully extended, this lens is actually longer than the original 70-200 F4. But I do not think that extension is a bad thing at all, and I wish more lenses would offer this if it meant they could be more compact whenever they are zoomed out.
Interestingly, Sony told me this new 70-200 could have been even smaller, a whole inch shorter, but they chose to keep that inch of length so the lens would be compatible with their 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters. So you can actually turn this lens into a 400mm if you want to, which is pretty cool.
It’s A Macro?!
What is also cool, and I do not think I have ever said this about a telephoto lens I have reviewed before, is that this lens is a killer macro lens as well. I do not know what magic Sony is doing in their labs, but this thing has a minimum focusing distance of 3.5 inches at 70mm and 7.5 inches at 200mm. You can get super close to things.
So if you are a wedding filmmaker who has been looking for one lens that can film a ceremony and then film a close up of a wedding ring, this one might be the all in one lens that fits the bill.
The Usual Sony Lens Features
On the outside of this lens, Sony includes the majority of the switches and buttons you expect on one of their lenses. You get an autofocus and manual focus switch, a zoom lock switch, a switch that lets you toggle between full focus and macro focus, two customizable buttons, and an optical stabilization switch, which yes, this lens does have optical stabilization built in and it works great.
The only thing this lens does not have is an aperture control ring like you would see on one of Sony’s GM lenses. It is a bummer, but if it helps keep the weight and the size down, it is fine.
Image Quality, Autofocus, Manual Focus
All of that size and weight reduction would be ultimately meaningless if the image quality of this lens sucked. Thankfully the 70-200 has a great pedigree, with the original version of this lens being incredibly sharp, and I am happy to tell you that this one looks to be even sharper. It just looks great, and keep in mind that it can be a macro lens, which makes it even more impressive, because any time you are shooting anything macro you definitely notice if things are not sharp.
Autofocus performance is fast and snappy too. Sony says they put the same four XD linear autofocus motors from their 70-200 GM II into this lens, so it is great.
If you watched my review of the older 70-200 G lens, you will know that in regard to manual focus that lens had a very slight amount of lag whenever you focused, mostly because it is a much older focus by wire lens. Thankfully with the new mark two there is no lag whenever you manually focus, and it is incredibly fast and responsive. Sony has also included their DMF feature, where you can have your camera set to autofocus, but if you want to change to manual focus all you have to do is rotate the focus ring, and you can turn that feature on and off with a switch on the side of the lens. It’s great.
Focus Breathing
In regards to focus breathing, this lens is also quite good, with a minimal amount of breathing on my Sony a7S III, which at the time of making this video does not have focus breathing compensation yet as a firmware update. I would love that at some point, Sony. Of course, if you have a newer Sony camera with focus breathing compensation, you definitely will not notice any focus breathing at all.
Do You Only Need An F4?
In regards to this lens being only an F4, I am going to refer back to the argument I made whenever I reviewed the previous version. With current cameras getting better and better in low light, where you can just crank the ISO on something like an a7S III or an FX3 without worrying about noise destroying your image, there is a much greater argument to be made for using F4 lenses than there has really ever been in the past. What you lack in low light capabilities you can make up for in ISO performance with most cameras.
So if you are someone who films with a full frame Sony camera and you are looking for a zoom lens, I do not think you need to break the bank buying an F2.8 version of this lens. You can just buy the F4, increase your ISO to compensate if you need to, and save some money in the process.
The Price, Should You Buy?
Speaking of money, I am always glad to see a new lens for a mirrorless camera come in at under $2,000, because it feels like the prices keep going up on most lenses these days. So whenever Sony told me this lens was going to cost 1,700 bucks, I was really happy. You can buy the Sony 70-200 F4 II at B&H here.
So should you buy one? Well, if you are a wedding filmmaker who needs a super lightweight and compact ceremony lens, or if you are a documentary or commercial filmmaker who wants a lightweight and compact interview lens, I think the 70-200 F4 II is an absolutely stellar choice. Keep in mind that for weddings you may only be needing this lens for filming the ceremony, and that means you are stuck transporting at least one 70-200mm, if not two of them, to every single wedding. If you can dramatically decrease the size and weight of the gear in your bag, which makes transporting all of your gear and filming on the wedding day easier, this lens is kind of a no brainer.
So I am going to say something I have never said in a lens review before. I would not buy one of these lenses. I would buy two of them.
And of course, if you are getting ready to type “Matt, I am glad this lens is under $2,000, but the price is still a bit high for me,” well, think about this good news. The odds are that if Sony keeps making the original 70-200 lens they are probably going to drop the price, and even if they do not, the odds are there are going to be a lot of filmmakers and photographers selling their mark one lenses to buy the mark two, which means you should be able to pick up one or two 70-200mm lenses for a much more affordable price.
So yes, this new lens is great. And even if you do not buy it, here is my review of the original 70-200 F4 again, because that one is still an absolutely fabulous lens.
Bonuses For Wedding Filmmakers
I colored all of the footage you have seen in this video with my color presets, so if you want colors like these in your videos you can grab my LUTs right here.
You will also find my free guide to book more wedding film clients. If you are a wedding filmmaker who wants to book more clients and make more money, I would love for you to check out this guide. It is completely free.
If you want to go deeper, I have filmmaking courses here, and here is my full list of filmmaking gear.
Thanks so much for reading, and have a great day!