The Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II is an optical masterpiece that delivers exceptional image quality across its zoom range. Sony has made significant advancements in lens design, resulting in sharper images, better contrast, and minimized optical flaws.

Sharpness

• Center Sharpness: Even wide open at f/2.8, the lens is impressively sharp at the center of the frame, offering excellent detail and clarity. As you stop down to f/4 or f/5.6, sharpness improves, and the lens delivers incredibly high-quality results across all focal lengths, making it an ideal choice for both commercial and artistic work.
• Edge Sharpness: One of the major improvements in the GM II is edge-to-edge sharpness. Unlike its predecessor, which showed some softness at the edges, the new version remains sharp throughout the zoom range, even at f/2.8. By stopping down to f/4 or f/5.6, sharpness across the entire frame becomes near-perfect, particularly at the wider end (24mm).

Color Rendering and Contrast

The color rendering is rich and accurate, producing vibrant, natural colors without unwanted shifts. The lens handles difficult lighting scenarios well, maintaining excellent contrast even in backlit situations. Sony’s Nano AR II coatingreduces flare and ghosting, ensuring high contrast and clarity in a variety of lighting conditions.

The lens also manages chromatic aberration effectively, with minimal visible fringing even in high-contrast areas. The lens's optical design minimizes both axial and lateral chromatic aberrations, ensuring images are crisp and accurate across the frame.

Bokeh

Thanks to the rounded aperture blades (11 blades), the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II delivers a beautifully smooth and creamy bokeh, especially when used at f/2.8 for subject isolation. The bokeh quality is especially noticeable when shooting portraits or subject-driven shots, where a shallow depth of field is needed. The smooth transition between focus and out-of-focus areas adds depth and a cinematic feel to images, making it an excellent choice for both stills and video.

Distortion and Flare

• Distortion: While all zoom lenses exhibit some distortion, the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II keeps barrel distortion at the wide end (24mm) and pincushion distortion at the telephoto end (70mm) to a minimum. These distortions are easy to correct in-camera or during post-processing.

Flare and Ghosting: Thanks to the Nano AR II coating, flare and ghosting are kept under control, even when shooting directly into light sources such as the sun or bright artificial lights. This is especially important for landscape, event, or architectural photography, where shooting into the light is often unavoidable.