Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G SSM II Lens Review

Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G SSM II Performance

At 70mm and maximum aperture, sharpness in the centre of the frame is very good. Unfortunately, the clarity recorded towards the edges of the frame falls short of good levels at this aperture. Stopping down improves performance across the frame with  sharpness reaching outstanding levels in the centre and excellent levels towards the edges of the frame between f/5.6 and f/11.

Zooming to 200mm results in an improvement in performance at maximum aperture with sharpness being excellent in the centre and good towards the edges of the frame. Stopping down to f/11 results in peak clarity across the frame for this focal length.

Finally at 400mm sharpness levels continue to hold up well at maximum aperture, with clarity in the centre approaching excellent levels. Stopping down to f/8 results in peak sharpness across the frame for this focal length. Here clarity in the centre is outstanding and excellent towards the edges of the frame.

MTF @ 70mm

MTF @ 200mm

MTF @ 400mm

How to read our charts The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony Alpha A99 using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations are reasonably well controlled throughout much of the zoom range, although fringing peaks at levels that may become an issue in some circumstances at 200mm. At maximum aperture chromatic aberrations towards the edges of the frame approach 0.9 pixel widths. This level may start to become visible along high contrast edges near the edges of the frame.

CA @ 70mm

CA @ 200mm

CA @ 400mm

How to read our charts Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony Alpha A99 using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is fairly pronounced for a lens with an f/4-5.6 maximum aperture. At 70mm the corners are 1.7 stops darker than the image centre and at 400mm the corners are one stop darker. Visually uniform illumination is achieved with the aperture stopped down to f/8 throughout the zoom range.

Distortion is well controlled throughout the zoom range with only 1.8% barrel distortion at 70mm and 1.1 pincushion at 400mm. This low level of distortion should pose few issues during normal shooting, but if absolutely straight lines are required, you'll be glad to hear that the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame. This should make applying corrections in image editing software relatively straightforward.

The new Nano AR anti-reflective coatings applied to this lens do a very good job of controlling flare and retaining contrast, even when shooting into the light. A deep petal shaped hood is supplied with the lens, which does an excellent job of shielding the lens from extraneous light that may cause issues. The bayonet fitting for the hood isn't very secure, and it has a tendency to come loose when being removed from a bag.

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