Sony FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II Review

Dustin Abbott

July 12th, 2023

Sony just keeps hitting one home run after another. Their newest lens – the Sony FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II (or SEL70200G II) – is one of the most versatile telephoto lenses I’ve ever used. Perhaps that’s why the name has to be so long; this lens does a LOT of things. It covers the popular 70-200mm focal range, which covers from this:

to this at 200mm:

It delivers 1:2 macro all across the zoom range, allowing you to get ever closer as you move from 200mm towards 70mm, allowing you to get beautiful macro-like shots…like this one of tiny budding blackberries.

What’s unique about this is that it gives you a lot of different framing options, and the ability to get slightly different macro style shots at different focal lengths – not to mention the flexibility for video footage as you don’t really have to work about getting too close to the camera. It has updated OSS (Optical Steady Shot), which further enhances the ability to get stable video and photos without the need of a tripod. It’s smaller and lighter than the first generation 70-200mm F4, but unlike the Canon RF 70-200mm F4, it retains the ability to use teleconverters…which also allows you to get even higher macro performance (0.75x with a 1.4x TC [shown below] and 1:1 macro with a 2.0x TC).

The Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD has stood out to me as being perhaps the most versatile lens on the Sony platform, and in some ways that’s still true (focal range and aperture), but this new Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G is even more versatile in other ways. This is an incredibly useful lens that can do a lot of things well…and it might mean that you skip buying a macro and use this lens for even more things. Should the SEL70200G II (as Sony calls it) go to the top of your wishlist? You can judge for yourself by either watching my video review below or reading on to get the full picture.

Thanks to Sony USA for sending me a pre-release review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.

SLE70200G II Build and Handling

The current trend on mirrorless is to try to take advantage of advancing lens manufacturing technologies and shrink the size of lenses. Canon changed their RF design from an internally zooming design to an externally zooming design, which enabled them to take a whopping 56mm off the length when retracted for storage (though when the RF lens is zoomed out it is only 2mm shorter). That makes it much easier to transport and even to balance on camera, though with Canon, that came at a price. Sacrificed at the altar of compact size was the ability to use teleconverters, which unfortunately limits the versatility of the RF lens. Sony has taken a similar route with the SEL70200G II, moving to a externally zooming design, though they learned from Canon’s mistake and compromised with the size just enough to allow for both the 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters to be used without restriction. The first generation 70-200mm F4 was 175mm long (internally zooming, so that length was constant), while the new lens (by my measurement) is 150mm (5.9″) retracted, though it extends to about 205mm (8″) when zoomed to 200mm.

Not everyone will be happy about the transition to an externally zooming design, but I personally appreciate the route that Sony has taken here. The SEL70200G II is an easy lens to transport and fits in far more bags than the internally zooming design, but Sony’s approach has not left it compromised in performance. There are some advantages to internally zooming lenses.

The first is that they are often easier to handle the in field, with zoom adjustments typically taking no more than effort than what you can do with a finger. Sony has countered this by really doing a great job with the zoom action. I wouldn’t say the zoom action is quite as light as the excellent 70-200mm F2.8 GM II (internally zooming), but it isn’t much heavier.
The second objection is that people feel that internally zooming lenses are more weather sealed. This is often more perception than reality, and the SEL70200G II sports about 15 weather sealing points in the lens. This is a professional grade lens with professional weather sealing; internal dust and moisture should not be a problem.
Those that do video prefer internally zooming lenses because the balancing point remains constant for use with gimbals or stabilizers. Sony has done their best to make this a nicely balanced lens, but there is no question that the balance point does move when the lens is zoomed out.

The tradeoff is excellent portability and better balance when carrying the lens on a strap or harness.

The diameter of the lens is about 80mm (3.1″)*, which is the same as the previous model. The SEL70200G II retains the 72mm filter thread of the previous lens as well. The weight is 862g (30.4oz)* with the tripod collar attached, or 794g (28oz)* without. *These are my measurements, not official measurements. You can see from the image above that the SEL70200G II is both narrower and shorter than the Tamron 35-150mm, which is also an externally zooming lens.

As noted above, Sony left room for both the narrower 1.4x teleconverter (shown) and the thicker 2.0x teleconverter to be used without issue.

This really expands the versatility of the lens, as you can get up to 280mm (maximum aperture of F5.6) with the 1.4x and up to 400mm (F8) with 2.0x. Sony’s strong optical design in both the lens and the teleconverters mean that the lens remains very sharp even with the TCs attached. This shot is at 280mm, F5.6:

There are 9 aperture blades that help keep the aperture shape circular when stopped down. Geometry across the frame is really good for specular highlights even wide open, F5.6 remains perfect, and you can start to see the shape of the blades by F8:

The minimum focus distances varies through the zoom range, from as little as 26cm (0.86ft) at 70mm to 42cm (1.38ft) at 200mm. This dramatically cuts down the MFD on the first generation lens, which was a full meter (39 inches) and delivered only a 0.13x magnification. The much closer focus distance of the SEL70200G II delivers a 0.50x magnification throughout the zoom range (both 70 and 100mm are shown below), and when I add my 1.4x TC, that magnification climbs even higher to 0.75%.

What I enjoy about this is the ability change up the framing to what best suits the image while still being able to get very close. It should be remembered that MFD is not from the front of the lens, but from the sensor. I measure the lens length from the sensor at 16.7cm at 70mm, leaving less than 10cm as the working distance (about four inches). The lens measures 22.5cm from the sensor at 200mm, but that leaves about 20cm as a working distance (8″), which might prove more practical with some subjects. You can see from these photos that the 200mm position (second image) definitely gives you more space from your subject.

Up close performance is very, very nice, delivering rich images in both color and detail. You can see that depth of field is very shallow at F4 at this “macro” distance.

I use quotes around the word macro, as some debate whether any magnification lower than 1:1 qualifies as a true macro lens, though I’ve certainly seen (and owned) many lenses called macro which had the same 1:2 magnifications as this lens, so I think it is fair for Sony to use that designation.

Sony has upped their game in terms of the physical controls on recent lenses, though this G lenses doesn’t have quite as many as the 70-20mm F2.8 GM II lens. There’s no aperture ring (and thus no declick option or iris lock). But Sony has upped the total of Focus Hold Buttons to 3 here to allow one to easily fall to hand whether shooting in vertical or horizontal modes. This can be programmed to multiple functions from within the camera (my current preference is to control Eye AF so I can prioritize a certain eye).

There is an extensive bank of switches on the left side of the lens barrel. This starts with an AF/MF switch, following by an ON/OFF for the full time DMF (direct manual focus) function. I like this option, as one of my persistent complaints about Sony focus has been that sometimes it is very reluctant to focus on a close foreground object and focus stays “stuck” on a background subject. DMF allows me to quickly override that and pull focus forward, where typically autofocus will then focus without issue on my desired subject.

This is followed by a focus limiter complete with a new third position (Full, 3M to ∞, and Macro). The latter will be very handy when doing close up work to avoid by focus racks as the lens searches for the right focus position. I’m not sure the other positions will be often needed, as autofocus is incredibly fast.

There are two OSS (Optical Steady Shot) related switches that come next: an ON/OFF switch along with 3 OSS modes (1 Standard | 2 Panning | 3 Active – prioritizes stabilization of image capture rather than viewfinder).

The bottommost switch will be more easily accessed when either the tripod collar is removed or rotated to a vertical orientation.

I felt like the OSS worked better here than on the 70-200 GM II that I reviewed earlier in the year. I was able to get fairly consistently stable results at 200mm and 1/3rd of a second on my a7RV. That’s nearly six stops of assistance, which is great. The viewfinder also stayed very stable throughout the process as well, which really helps to do handheld macro work.

Don’t expect successful macro shots at handheld shots with shutter speeds that low, but I did find it easy to get nice handheld macro shots due to the excellent OSS:

Since this is an externally zooming lens, it needed a zoom lock switch, which Sony included. It can only be locked at the 70mm position, and I found that I did need it when hiking with the lens. The problem was not with zoom creep in general, but because movement would eventually cause friction on the zoom ring and cause it to extend.

The tripod collar is easily removed by loosening a tension knob and pulling the two sections apart. That same tension knob at lower levels allows you to rotate the tripod collar for shooting in a vertical positions There are markings but not detents at the cardinal positions. I have only one real complaint here, and that is that the tripod foot is not Arca compatible, so you will have to add a quick release plate before mounting it on a tripod.

The zoom ring is located nearest the camera body, and it is ribbed and rubberized. As noted, it moves very smoothly for an externally zooming lens, with no hitches or spots of uneven tension. A full zoom from 70-200mm takes roughly 90° of rotation.

The manual focus ring is located near the front of the lens. It is slightly narrower but has a similar ribbed design. Focus action is smooth but very light – not a lot of feel.

I appreciate the fact that the lens hood is color matched to the lens. Sometimes these “white” lenses come with a black hood, and it never seems like the hood was actually made for the lens. Sony has shifted to a petal shaped hood here, which is more rare on a telephoto lens. It does help reduce the overall size of the hood.

This smaller, lighter lens is a better balance for Sony’s smaller than average camera bodies. I really, really enjoyed using this lens and appreciated the excellent ergonomics and overall form factor of the lens. Sony’s 70-200mm F2.8 GM II is an outstanding lens, but the more than $1000 difference in price will help make this F4 version more appealing to those that decide that they can live without an F2.8 aperture.

Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G II Autofocus Performance

An area where Sony is able to create a distinct advantage for its lenses is in the realm of autofocus. They has employed four!! XD (extreme dynamic) Linear Motors to the autofocus system here with one pair of motors on each side of the focusing group. This provides blazingly fast autofocus speeds that can keep with pretty much any kind of action. Sony also limits their top burst speeds on their sports cameras like the Alpha 1 or a9 series to Sony lenses, so I can get a full 30FPS with the SEL70200G II and my Alpha 1 whereas I would be limited to 15FPS if using a third party lens instead. I had no problem keeping up with basketball action during long bursts on my A1:

I got down low and shot through grasses to get this delightful shot of Nala with a little bit of a snarl on her face.

I was also extremely impressed by this shot, as focus ignored the tangled brush and fence in the foreground, the hairs from the mane hanging over the eyes, and nailed focus on the heavily shadowed eye perfectly.

Portrait and wedding photography will be a breeze with this lens and a decent camera body. It just nails focus on the eye:

I brought the lens along to a wedding of some friends, and every shot was perfectly focused.

The newest Sony cameras like the a7RV have insect detection mode, and that works nicely for nailing focus on one of my honeybees.

On the video front, video pulls are quick, quiet, and confident as you might expect with a first party Sony lens equipped with 4 focus motors. There is a very small amount of focus breathing and when I tested it on the a7RV and turned on the “Focus Breathing Compensation” setting there is a mild improvement and at very little crop because of the low amount of breathing to begin with. I would call the amount of focus breathing fairly good. The lens also performed well (as expected) in my “hand test”, quickly transitioning back to tracking my eye after I blocked visibility of my eyes with my hand towards the lens.

My general focus results were excellent. Focus is incredibly snappy and precise, and that allows the amazing optics to shine. Autofocus is a definite strength here.

Bottom line is that we have a top notch focus system here that is able to keep up with the most demanding photography or video scenarios.

Sony SEL70200G II Image Quality

At this stage I have come to expect that Sony’s new lens releases are typically going to be pretty fantastic optically, and I’m certainly not disappointed here. The quality of the optical design shines through in images that look great right out of the camera. Some lenses require some processing to give images sparkle, but this is a lens that will make you feel like you really don’t need to do much editing work at all. Here’s a RAW image with basically no edits other than my import sharpening.

I was just happy with the look of images, period, so prepare yourself for a fairly glowing section here.

Longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) typically show up as purple/magenta fringing before the plane of focus and blue/green fringing beyond the plane of focus due to colors not being perfectly focused together. They typically diminish as the lens is stopped down to smaller apertures. You can see in this image that there is no visible LoCA in either my real world or chart tests:

Lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) show up as fringing on either side of contrast areas (like tree trunks, for example) along the edges of the frame. Unlike LoCA, they do not improve when stopping the aperture down, but are much easier to correct for (typically a one click “remove chromatic aberrations” box in editing software). We can see once again that there is no evidence of any fringing near the edges of the frame. The transitions from dark to light are nice and clean.

Next we will take a look at distortion and vignette. Below you will see a series of images.

70mm uncorrected
70mm manually corrected
135mm uncorrected
200mm uncorrected
200mm manually corrected
280mm (with 1.4x) uncorrected.

Now, to parse that data: throughout the zoom range there is some pincushion style distortion. It is mild at 70mm (-5 to correct), more pronounced at 135mm (-9 to correct), and remains at the same level at 200mm (-9 to correct). What’s interesting is that adding the 1.4x TC obvious would create some barrel distortion, but in this case it actually just serves to correct the pincushion distortion and the end result is almost distortion free (I used a max of -1 to correct). Throughout the zoom range the distortion is quite linear and easy to correct cleanly. No big deal.

Vignette is also not a significant issue. It was strongest at 70mm, where I used a +38 to correct (about a stop and a half in the corners), but it dropped to a +22 at 135mm (one stop) and a +12 at 200mm (about a half stop). It was actually even lower with the 1.4x attached (+7), which would make this some of the lowest vignette I’ve ever seen on a zoom lens. These tests also show the SEL70200G II takes teleconverters (at least the 1.4x) very, very well.

So how about sharpness? This is the first lens I’ve tested using my new 61MP Sony a7RV for this series of tests, which increases the optical demands from the 50MP of the Alpha 1 that I usually run my tests on. Here’s a look at the test chart:

And here are the 70mm F4 crops at about 175% magnification, taken from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:

This is a lens that handles the 61MP resolution point with aplomb. It is delivering exceptional sharpness everywhere in the frame, and is also delivering exceptionally good centering – every corner looked equally sharp. Exceptional.

When a lens is this good wide open, there isn’t a lot of room for improvement when it is stopped down. Comparing F4 and F5.6 showed virtually equal results everywhere save in the extreme corners, where I saw a mild uptick in contrast. F8 showed about the same result, though down just a percentage point or two due to the effects of diffraction.

Minimum aperture is F22, but by then diffraction has really raised its ugly head. The image is very soft; diffraction on high resolution cameras makes using apertures smaller than F11 just not worth it.

$38-Diffraction$

Real world results at most apertures at 70mm are just fantastic: great detail, great color, and no real optical flaws.

The performance at 100mm is very similar. I would say that the center and mid-range are about 1-2 percentage points lower, but the corners are a good 10% better.

135mm brings the highest performance yet, and while 70mm might still be the very slight winner in the center of the frame, the mid-frame and corners are incredibly good.

Real world results in the middle of the zoom range look gorgeous. Great detail, great color, and lovely bokeh:

At 200mm the results are about the same as at 100mm, so just a fraction off the high point at 135mm, but still exceptionally good. Once again most of the sharpness is available right at F4, with only a very mild improvement at F5.6:

Real world results look great.

That’s true at macro distances as well, where you can get great detail.

The big question is how the SEL70200G II handles teleconverters. I don’t have a 2.0x TC (not a huge fan of 2.0x TCs), but I do own the Sony 1.4x. There’s always some impact to image quality for the simple reason that you are adding 6 additional elements to the optical performance, resulting in some loss of light and the potential of more aberrations. As you can see from the image below, there is some mild softening of the image and less contrast, but the end result is still sharper than most lenses.

Real world images pack plenty of punch at 280mm:

If you are shooting with one of Sony’s higher resolution bodies, you can switch to APS-C mode and get up to 420mm equivalent reach, which obviously further extends the potential usefulness of the lens.

The bokeh from the lens is beautiful as well. At close distances it will completely blur out a background:

At medium distances the depth of field isn’t as shallow as an F2.8 lens, but the bokeh is still gorgeous.

If I shoot in the middle of the zoom range the bokeh quality is still excellent:

The truth of the matter is that many people can get by with an F4 telephoto lens. Depth of field is already quite shallow at many focus distances. The limiting factor is more shooting in lower light situations, though most modern Sony cameras do fairly well at higher ISO values.

Flare resistance is also quite good due to excellent coatings. I saw little impact from the sun other than some very mild prismatic veiling.

As you’ve probably seen throughout this review, the lens also produces excellent color. As noted, I felt like most images needed little to no processing. They just came out looking great.

Bottom line: there’s nothing really to complain here about. Not only is the SEL70200G II very versatile, but it is high performing at all those various tasks that it can accomplish. If you would like to see more images, check out my image gallery here.

Conclusion

I don’t need the Sony FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II. I’ve got the focal range well covered. But this is a lens that works so well that it makes you question if maybe, just maybe, you do actually need it. The SEL70200G II has few flaws and a long list of strengths. I love the packing, the versatility, and obviously the macro capabilities.

One area that I haven’t yet dealt with is the strength of the lens as a landscape option. Most people think wide angle lenses for landscapes, but often the “big scenes” actually work better with a telephoto lens. The ability to tap into the different focal lengths available here along with the great detail, contrast, and color makes this a really great landscape lens, and even more so because it packs quite easily.

This is a lot of lens, and I think it will work for a lot of different photographers. It is much more affordable than the incredible but incredibly expensive FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM II, which might make it a more realistic target for many photographers at the roughly $1700 price point. Sony is well into its second generation cycle for lens development, and the lessons learned over the last decade are clearly evident. Sony’s newest lenses are simply some of the best lenses I’ve ever tested, making new releases a joy to spend time with as a reviewer. The same will be true for those own the SEL70200G II. It’s fantastic.

Pros:

More compact than first gen lens
1:2 Macro at all focal lengths
Plays well with teleconverters
Beautifully built and well sealed
Easily removable tripod collar
Very portable design
Extremely fast and accurate autofocus
Very low focus breathing
Extremely sharp across the zoom range
Very low vignette
Beautiful color
Excellent bokeh
Mostly good flare resistance
Low aberrations

Cons:

Tripod foot isn’t ARCA-compatible
Pincushion distortion throughout the zoom range

Purchase the Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G II @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Keywords: Sony, Sony 70-200mm, 70-200mm, F4, G, OSS, Macro, II, Sony 70-200 II Review, FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II, 1.4x, TC, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7IV, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, Sony A1, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

July 12th, 2023

Sony just keeps hitting one home run after another. Their newest lens – the Sony FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II (or SEL70200G II) – is one of the most versatile telephoto lenses I’ve ever used. Perhaps that’s why the name has to be so long; this lens does a LOT of things. It covers the popular 70-200mm focal range, which covers from this:

to this at 200mm:

It delivers 1:2 macro all across the zoom range, allowing you to get ever closer as you move from 200mm towards 70mm, allowing you to get beautiful macro-like shots…like this one of tiny budding blackberries.

What’s unique about this is that it gives you a lot of different framing options, and the ability to get slightly different macro style shots at different focal lengths – not to mention the flexibility for video footage as you don’t really have to work about getting too close to the camera. It has updated OSS (Optical Steady Shot), which further enhances the ability to get stable video and photos without the need of a tripod. It’s smaller and lighter than the first generation 70-200mm F4, but unlike the Canon RF 70-200mm F4, it retains the ability to use teleconverters…which also allows you to get even higher macro performance (0.75x with a 1.4x TC [shown below] and 1:1 macro with a 2.0x TC).

The Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD has stood out to me as being perhaps the most versatile lens on the Sony platform, and in some ways that’s still true (focal range and aperture), but this new Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G is even more versatile in other ways. This is an incredibly useful lens that can do a lot of things well…and it might mean that you skip buying a macro and use this lens for even more things. Should the 70-200G II go to the top of your wishlist? You can judge for yourself by either watching my video review below or reading my text review, or just enjoy the photos below.

Thanks to Sony USA for sending me a pre-release review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.

Photos of the Sony 70-200G II

Photos Taken with the Sony 70-200G II

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Keywords: Sony, Sony 70-200mm, 70-200mm, F4, G, OSS, Macro, II, Sony 70-200 II Review, FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II, 1.4x, TC, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7IV, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, Sony A1, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

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Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM Review

Dustin Abbott

November 26th, 2021

The Canon EF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM holds a very unique place in my personal lens kit; it has lasted longer than any other lens. I have had dozens of lenses come and go since I purchased the 100L Macro back more than a decade ago. I’ve changed cameras a number of times, and even though I don’t even own a camera with a native EF mount any longer, the EF 100L Macro has stayed with me because it just keeps working so well. The lens that may finally bump it out of my kit may have arrived, however, and that is in the form of the excellent new Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM. This is an updated version of the lens designed specifically for Canon’s new RF mount (for the EOS R mirrorless system). The new RF100M (as I’ll call it for brevity) takes a lot of the things that made the EF lens special and ups the ante in several ways.

The the first and most obvious upgrade is that this is not just a 1:1 macro lens anymore, but now we have the ability to go as high as 1.4x magnification. Does that make a difference? It definitely does. Here’s the difference between a 1.0x magnification and a 1.4x magnification:

That’s getting you significantly closer, and the potential of more magnification is always very useful when you want to get in close!

Canon has also added a unique spherical aberration (SA) control to this lens, which allows you to play with the bokeh and focus in a creative way, which we’ll detail more later in the lens. For some people this will probably be more of a gimmick, but there are some who will squeeze some creativity out of it.

There’s a lot to love here, but as per usual, you’ll have to pay for it. The US price for the lens is $1399 USD, or about $1849 here in Canada. The general trend is that RF lenses have essentially all been priced higher than their EF equivalents (sometimes significantly so). What’s unique here is that the price of the EF 100mm F2.8L Macro has been creeping up over the past year. It’s currently priced at $1299 USD, which is the highest price I’ve ever seen for this lens. It debuted at $999 USD MSRP (I believe), and had trended down to $899 after a few years. It has steadily crept upwards since mid-2020, however, and now sits at this premium. I believe that supply chain issues have been cited, but it’s very odd for a lens that has been on the market for 11 years to have a price point over 30% higher than its launch. So, at the moment, that makes the price premium for the RF version more palatable, but only through a rather complicated backstory. So is it worth that premium price?

If you use a lens like this the way that it should (for general purpose, portraits, etc… along with macro), I suspect the correct answer for many the answer will be yes, but you can find my more detailed thoughts by watching my long format definitive or standard video review below…or just keep reading!

Thanks to Camera Canada for loaning me this lens for review. They are my personal source for my gear and have been great to work with. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and the photos shown in this review have been taken on my 45 MP Canon EOS R5.

Canon RF100M Build and Handling

I was unsurprised to find that the size of the new RF100M had grown relative to the EF version, as that seems to be par for the course. The size difference is pretty significant, though. The new lens is 148mm, which is about as long as the Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 zoom for Sony. That’s a 25mm growth over the EF version, and makes it roughly 60mm longer than the RF 85mm F2 Macro. The diameter is only slightly larger (81.5mm, leaving the same standard of 67mm for the filter thread), but the weight is up to 730g vs 625g for the EF version. You can see how the two compare here:

That length does have some real world consequences, namely that it will change the calculus about what bags you can use to carry the lens mounted on a camera. In my standard top-mount bag (Cecilia Tharpe 8L), the RF100M mounted on the EOS R5 leaves me unable to correctly close the bag, whereas I don’t have that problem with the EF lens. Then again, by the time I add an adapter to the EF lens (which I have to do these days), the difference in length is basically gone.

The RF110M is a professional grade lens, with a high quality build that features advanced weather sealing. It starts with a robust gasket at the lens mount, roughly 12 internal seals, and a fluorine coating on the front and rear elements to help resist moisture and fingerprints. This is clearly a very well built, high quality lens.

The maximum aperture here is F2.8, though it is important to recognize with all macro lenses that as you approach 1:1 macro (and, in this case, beyond), the laws of physics dictate that the effective aperture changes. The physical aperture does not (the physical opening will still be 1:2.8), but less light passes through that physical aperture, meaning that you’ll need something like 2 stops of additional light if you are shooting at macro levels relative to what you will need at a portrait distance. I’ve gotten many, many questions on my YouTube channel of people afraid that something is wrong with their lens because of this behavior. This is normal behavior.

The RF 100mm macro is an unusual prime lens due to having three separate rings on it. Typically a prime lens will have only ring (manual focus), though some will have an aperture ring. Canon’s RF lenses have a control ring (more on that in a moment), but in this case we’ve also got the SA Control ring, which is actually closest to the lens mount. I don’t love this position, actually, as I feel even though this ring is thinner than the focus ring, you do tend to reach for it instinctively because it comes first. If you don’t actually end up using the SA Control (and I’ll guess that the majority of users won’t), you will probably end up wishing that Canon had not included this feature. I’m afraid this is going to go the way of the touchbar from the original EOS R as something that seemed like a good idea but never really took off.

I’m also reminded of Canon’s Dual Pixel RAW tech that debuted with the 5D Mark IV, which seemed innovative on paper but I never could really find a use for. I owned the 5DIV for something like 4 years and never used DPRaw outside of initially testing it. It was a tech with potential that never realized, and I hear little about it today. From what I can see, SA Control is going to go a similar route.

Let’s pause and explain the idea. Canon says, “The RF100mm F2.8 L MACRO IS USM features Canon’s first adjustable Spherical Aberration (SA) control ring on the lens barrel that allows you to adjust the depiction of the image’s background bokeh. Used to add a unique emphasis to your imagery, the SA Control Ring allows the user to change the shape and character of the foreground and background bokeh. A minus setting creates a dreamy, soft-focused look, while a Plus setting creates a bubble-bokeh-type look.” There are four steps of control in either the minus or plus direction. The midpoint between the two is zero, which would typically just be called normal. Here’s what our test subject looks like at zero or normal:

If we go all the way to the (-) position, here’s what that same image looks like:

It’s hard to see why someone would choose the latter image. There is this “80s’ soft-focus look”, with some halation and light blooming. The subject is also smaller in the frame, which shows that there has been some shift of the optical path that diminishes magnification. The bokeh doesn’t look any more pleasing to me, but that’s because in this case it would work to improve foreground bokeh…though obviously at the cost of serious sharpness on your subject.

Now we’ll go all the way to the (+) extreme:

There’s that soft focus look again, though slightly less extreme, and in this case the subject has gotten larger. At least here there is some tangible benefit to the bokeh, which is larger and rounder…though also with more outlining, so that will have to be a look that you specifically want.

Obviously the three steps in between zero and the extremes will moderate that effect.

I did not enjoy the effect at all for portrait work, as I saw little benefit to the look of the bokeh (a little “faked” looking) while the cost to sharpness was palpable.

I also found that the “bubble bokeh” was quite distracting in this portrait shot (disregarding the soft focus look of the subject). It made the background look somewhat busy.

If you don’t mess with the SA ring, this is an amazing portrait lens (more on that in the IQ section), but I can’t perceive any reason to use the SA effect for portraits unless you REALLY loved the 80s!

My chief complaint about all of this, though, is that while there is a detent at the zero position, it isn’t a hard or strong one. Certainly not enough to really lock the lens into the zero position, so I’ve noticed a few times that the ring has gotten shifted a bit one way or the other, which obviously could have negative consequences to image sharpness. Fortunately this lens does have a locking switch on the far side of the barrel which I missed at first. This is obviously not to prevent zoom creep (no zoom!) but it does allow you to lock in the zero position to essentially keep the SA ring from moving at all. You can only lock it in the zero position, and I suspect that most people will lock the SA ring there and probably never use it.

My take: the liabilities of this new SA ring outweigh the potential benefits. This falls in the “gimmick” status for me, though your findings may vary.

The middle ring is the focus ring, which moves smoothly and with decent damping for a “focus-by-wire” lens. All mirrorless autofocusing lenses employ this manual focus method, which routes input on the focus ring through the focus motor. I thought I could detect the slightest amount of lag when moving quickly, but it was so faint that I couldn’t quite be sure. Like many photographers, I use manual focus quite often for macro work, as autofocus is a bit inconsistent and often too imprecise. Manual focus gives the best control, and I felt I quickly forgot about focus and just got the photos that I want, so that is really the standard that matters to me.

The final ring is the control ring, a feature unique to RF lenses. It utilizes a unique diamond texture pattern that allows you to easily find it by touch. You can choose what function to assign to that ring, and it does have faint detents (clicks) as you rotate it, which gives you tactile feedback so that you know the changes you are making. Canon says this, “For photographers and moviemakers who would prefer a silent control ring, the clicking mechanism can be removed at a Canon Factory Service Center location for a fee.”

The included lens hood is more shallow than the very deep hood found on the EF version, making the two lenses more comparable in length with the hoods attached (the EF version is actually slightly longer with the hood attached). The lens hood has a fairly matte finish that matches the rest of the lens, and includes a small locking button to keep it bayoneted in place until you want to remove it.

Like other RF lenses, the RF100M does employ the 12 pin communication that allows Canon to do more with the RF mount, which is part of what enables some of these new features.

The IS in the lens name refers to Canon’s Image Stabilization, and it is a highly effective application. The lens IS is rated up to 5 stops (which is very high!), but in theory you can reach as high as 8 stops when paired with the In Body Image Stabilization (IBIS) of certain Canon cameras, like the EOS R5 I did this test on. I have found these claims personally a bit hyperbolic, as I’m certainly never been able to realize those kind of figures myself. That would mean being able to handhold a 2.5 second shot effectively, which I doubt anyone is pulling off. I don’t want to come off as negative, however, as I actually think this is a great IS system and works well in concert with my high resolution R5. This shot isn’t perfectly sharp at 1/4th of a second, but it is acceptably sharp, and that’s roughly 5 stops of handholding.

I don’t frankly see a lot applications for handholding slower shutter speeds than this, but what mattered more to me is that I was able to get very steady handheld video shots or reasonable macro shots. Canon says, “Equipped with the Hybrid IS technology, the Image Stabilizer of the RF100mm F2.8 L MACRO IS USM effectively reduces blurring in handheld macro photography by compensating for both angle and shift camera shake.” I’ve found the system in the EF lens (the first to utilize hybrid IS, I believe) to work very well over the years, and it does feel that the RF lens is more stable still. Video IS works very well for static shots or shots with small, controlled movements. Walking with the bare lens doesn’t have the same smoothness as gimbal footage, though it is much better than without stabilization! The stabilization is otherwise very mannerly and quiet. It gets the job done very nicely and adds to the usefulness of the lens in lower lighting conditions, like this shot where I was able to shoot at 1/40th second and keep my ISO at 800:

You can focus down as closely as 26cm (around 10″) which is only 4 cm closer than the EF version of the lens, but that version focus breathes more. The improved MFD combined with the lack of focus breathing is what allows for that higher degree of magnification. Here’s a look at the degree of magnification at MFD:

It’s worth noting that while some lenses give you higher magnification but at the cost of lower up close performance, the opposite is true here. I prefer the MFD performance of the new RF lens over the older EF lens, which I find has a little cleaner color rendition, better contrast, and slightly more detail:

All of this is very positive.

Like most other equivalent Canon zooms, there are nine rounded aperture blades in the aperture iris. This seems to keep a fairly circular shape as you stop the lens down.

The lens is made of a tough polycarbonate with a very fine flocking. It is not quite a matte finish, but close to it. My experience with these L series lenses is that they hold up very well over the long haul, and it’s not unusual for photographers to have used them for 10-20 years and they still look fairly good. The only other features on the lens is a small bank of three switches, starting with a three position focus limiter (useful in a macro lens), an AF/MF switch and a ON/OFF for the IS.

There are no IS modes here, but Canon’s IS systems are “smart” and detect when things like panning are happening and adjust accordingly.

All told, this is a nicely made lens that gives a lot of great features along with a highly professional build.

The primary negative in the build is the additional size and weight. As you can see above, once you mount that lens hood, this is not a small combination. The weight has proven heavy enough to call for a tripod collar in my use, but Canon does sell one that will work with an adapter. It’s not included, though, and is fairly pricey. You’ll probably want to learn to live without having one, and I haven’t personally found it an issue for anything.

Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS Autofocus Performance

The RF100M employs my favorite Canon focus system – Nano USM. This is a focus motor similar to what Sony calls a Linear Motor, which drives the focus group of elements back and forth rather than rotating them. Macro lenses can be slow focusers because they have such long focus throws (many more focus possibilities in the macro range that most lenses don’t have), so Canon has gone a step further and employed dual Nano USM motors here to help keep focus snappy. There’s a huge difference between the quality of focus of the 100L Macro and the cheaper 85mm F2 Macro. I ended my review of that lens very conflicted, as while I loved the optical performance, the autofocus performance was very disappointing. If you are looking for the single most compelling reason to spend the extra money and get the RF100M, this may just be it.

Autofocus was generally excellent with only a few caveats. Everything was very positive with a person in the frame, and I got excellent focused results with casual shots:

Portrait results were excellent, with excellent focus results at a variety of focus distances, like up close:

And if further away.

I really loved this lens as a portrait lens, and I’ve felt that same about the EF version over the past decade.

The caveat I referred to is that I often found the lens reluctant to focus at a point closer to the camera even if I put a focus point right one the blurred out foreground object, like this:

This is, frankly, one area of Canon autofocus that seems to lag behind the better Sony cameras. I really like the AF of the EOS R5 overall, but it isn’t as good in this kind of situation. This was the focus point that I wanted:

Sometimes choosing a higher contrast area closer to your desired focus distance helps, or manually focusing enough to get you “in the zone” before reengaging autofocus. What’s interesting is that using the focus limiter doesn’t always help in this situation. It’s my only real complaint about the autofocus.

In general, however, autofocus worked well in terms of focus accuracy.

My video results were also good. Focus pulls were quiet and smooth, with a well damped feeling that wasn’t too fast or twitchy. I saw moderate focus breathing during focus (often not a strength for macro lenses) and heard next to no focus sound even in a quiet environment. The microphone didn’t really pick up anything, so this will be a non-issue in real world video work.

I didn’t utilize autofocus a lot at macro distances, as manual focus is preferred there, but I did use it for close focus results in the field, and autofocus was accurate even up close like that.

One other negative to report is that if you are stopped down, the lens does seem to exhibit some focus shift. I had a sequence where I was taking photos of Loki with the morning light on him, and I inadvertently still had the aperture at F5.6. I noticed that basically all the photos were backfocused a bit, like this:

You can see that though Eye AF easily locked onto the very visible eye, the focus is on the fur further back. I was also testing the new RF version of the Viltrox AF 85mm F1.8, an inexpensive third party lens, and the focus results were perfect in the same sequence. I did a little research and found that Bryan Carnathan experienced something similar and confirmed the issue with Canon’s engineers.

So a bit of a mixed bag on the autofocus. Canon beefed up the autofocus system for this lens, and it shows. It’s definitely faster in focus than, say, the EF version, and quieter and smoother on top of that. But it also has a few issues, namely the focus shift problem and also a fairly typical Canon reluctance to grab focus on closer objects without some coaxing.

RF100M Optical Performance

Macro lenses are often very sharp lenses by necessity, as they need to have the acuity to accurately reproduce fine details. The Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro has 17 elements in 13 groups, and this optical design is a winner. Center sharpness is excellent (resolving about 90% at the 30LP/mm level according the MTF chart below), but it also holds that performance well into the corners, where the lowest resolution score in the extreme corner is about 78%.

A quick look at the MTF charts for the EF version confirms what my real world results show – the difference is minimal in the center of the frame, but the advantage for the new RF lens grows the further you move out from the center. This adds up to a lens that packs a lot of punch, with great contrast, resolution, and color rendition.

There are not going to be many optical flaws to point to, but I’ll break down things for you anyway. Here’s a look at vignette and distortion:

There’s a negligible amount of pincushion distortion there (-2, which is not enough to mess up anything and just enough to make portraits a bit more flattering). Vignette is also fairly well controlled (a rarity among Canon RF lenses!) with only a +43 required to correct it. All good on this front.

There is a bit of longitudinal chromatic aberration, though it is exaggerated here by using a very shiny, metallic surface with a lot of light on it.

In this image there is still a lot of potential for LoCA, but I don’t really don’t see much of it.

I don’t think that this will often be a real world issue, but there is a bit more than, say, the Laowa 100mm F2.8 Macro due to that lens’ Apochromatic optical design.

I didn’t really see any evidence of lateral chromatic aberrations even in the bare branches along the edges of the frame here:

All told, we are off to a great start here. There are minimal optical flaws among these typical sore spots.

So how about the resolution? Here’s a look at the test chart we use for these tests:

Here are wide open crops from the center, mid-frame, and far right corner (all tests on the 45MP sensor of the EOS R5):

The results from across the frame are consistently good. If we compare to the EF lens, we find that contrast and detail advantage over much of the frame from the RF lens, though it does appear that EF image is a bit brighter. The EF lens seems to have a bit better light transmission (possibly due to having fewer elements).

There’s no question that this lens is sharp, though. Just take a look at this deep crop from an F2.8 portrait:

Stopping the RF100M down to F4 further improves contrast and allows the lens to eke out even more detail.

Unfortunately the focus shift does rob some of the apparent sharpness at F5.6 on my test chart. F5.6 looks a tiny bit softer at some points in the frame than F4, but I suspect that is due to focus shift rather than actual optical performance. In real world results, I found the RF100M slightly sharper at F5.6 than at F2.8 at infinity, for example, though by a tiny margin. Here’s a landscape shot with comparison crops from the center and edge:

If you are manually focusing (as with macro), the focus shift is not really a problem. My close macros looked great at F5.6:

Here’s another example:

I also feel like the quality of the bokeh is quite good from this lens (whether you are messing the SA Control or not!). Here’s a frosty image that I love:

Moving back a little also produced nice looking bokeh:

Here’s another example that has a lot of nice looking bokeh in it. This will be a great choice for wedding photographers:

The only image I didn’t love the bokeh in was this one with some foreground bokeh, where I felt things were just slightly busy.

Canon colors are generally pretty great, and you can usually trust them to take lovely photos right out of camera.

It’s not unusual for telephoto lenses to struggle with flare resistance, but I felt like that was another area of strength here. I shot this same scene with another telephoto, and it really fell apart by comparison. The “Super Spectra” coatings are obviously doing their job.

All told, there is a lot of optical strengths here and little negative to report outside of the bit of focus shift. This is a lens that takes the excellence of the EF version and raises it a few notches. Feel free to check out more images and draw your own conclusions by visiting the image gallery here.

Conclusion

The Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM is a (mostly) excellent upgrade to the outstanding Canon EF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS. It gives higher magnification, better resolution, and faster, quieter autofocus. The improvement to the 1.4x magnification is always welcome, as when you are doing macro work you want as much flexibility as possible.

There are a couple of misses here. The focus shift issue will impact image sharpness in some situations, and I feel like the SA Control feature is largely going to be a gimmick for most users. There’s also the reality that the lens has grown a fair bit in size relative to the EF version. It’s also the best macro option available on RF right now, and the images that it produces are genuinely gorgeous. Rich color, excellent contrast, and fabulous detail regardless of your distance to the subject.

The price hike is both unwelcome and expected, as this has been the case for almost all the L series RF lenses. You get what you pay for here ($1399 USD), as this is a lens with a lot of capabilities, a high grade build, and an autofocus system that is both fast and quiet. Where or not SA Control is for you, the RF100M is a macro lens with a lot of versatility and high performance, and is a welcome addition to the growing catalog of RF lenses.

Pros:

High grade of build
Professional grade of weather sealing
Magnification up to 1.4x
Dual Nano USM delivers fast, silent focus
Image Stabilizer works effectively
Excellent sharpness across the frame
Beautiful color and great contrast
Chromatic aberrations well controlled
Good flare resistance
Very nice bokeh and general rendering
Makes for an excellent portrait lens

Cons:

SA ring feels more like a gimmick (and thus liability to handling)
Focus shift is a serious problem
Some AF reluctance to focus on close objects at times

Gear Used:

Purchase the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Purchase the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS @B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3HG7lPc | Amazon https://amzn.to/3nC0bnd | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/39jfr | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3nyjduF | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/32lVmX3 | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3kXBrUD | Ebay https://ebay.us/3b3GVf

Keywords: Canon RF 100mm F2.8L IS, Canon RF 100mm F2.8L IS Review, Canon RF 100L Macro Review, Canon 100L Macro, 100mm, RF 100L, Macro, 1.4x, F2.8L, IS, USM, Review, RF 100L Review, Canon EOS R5, EOS, R5, EOS R5, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R5 Review, Canon R5 Review, Canon EOS R5 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, Astro, 45Mp, EF 100L Macro, Canon

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

November 24th, 2021

The Canon EF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM holds a very unique place in my personal lens kit; it has lasted longer than any other lens. I have had dozens of lenses come and go since I purchased the 100L Macro back more than a decade ago. I’ve changed cameras a number of times, and even though I don’t even own a camera with a native EF mount any longer, the EF 100L Macro has stayed with me because it just keeps working so well. The lens that may finally bump it out of my kit may have arrived, however, and that is in the form of the excellent new Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM. This is an updated version of the lens designed specifically for Canon’s new RF mount (for the EOS R mirrorless system). The new Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro takes a lot of the things that made the EF lens special and ups the ante in several ways.

The the first and most obvious upgrade is that this is not just a 1:1 macro lens anymore, but now we have the ability to go as high as 1.4x magnification. Does that make a difference? It definitely does. Here’s the difference between a 1.0x magnification and a 1.4x magnification:

That’s getting you significantly closer, and the potential of more magnification is always very useful when you want to get in close!

Canon has also added a unique spherical aberration (SA) control to this lens, which allows you to play with the bokeh and focus in a creative way, which we’ll detail more later in the lens. For some people this will probably be more of a gimmick, but there are some who will squeeze some creativity out of it.

There’s a lot to love here, but as per usual, you’ll have to pay for it. The US price for the lens is $1399 USD, or about $1849 here in Canada. The general trend is that RF lenses have essentially all been priced higher than their EF equivalents (sometimes significantly so). What’s unique here is that the price of the EF 100mm F2.8L Macro has been creeping up over the past year. It’s currently priced at $1299 USD, which is the highest price I’ve ever seen for this lens. It debuted at $999 USD MSRP (I believe), and had trended down to $899 after a few years. It has steadily crept upwards since mid-2020, however, and now sits at this premium. I believe that supply chain issues have been cited, but it’s very odd for a lens that has been on the market for 11 years to have a price point over 30% higher than its launch. So, at the moment, that makes the price premium for the RF version more palatable, but only through a rather complicated backstory. So is it worth that premium price?

If you use a lens like this the way that it should (for general purpose, portraits, etc… along with macro), I suspect the correct answer for many the answer will be yes, but you can find my more detailed thoughts by watching my video review or reading the text review here…or just enjoy the photos below.

Thanks to Camera Canada for loaning me this lens for review. They are my personal source for my gear and have been great to work with. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and the photos shown in this review have been taken on my 45 MP Canon EOS R5.

Images of the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS

Images taken with the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS

Gear Used:

Purchase the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Keywords: Canon RF 100mm F2.8L IS, Canon RF 100mm F2.8L IS Review, Canon RF 100L Macro Review, Canon 100L Macro, 100mm, RF 100L, Macro, 1.4x, F2.8L, IS, USM, Review, RF 100L Review, Canon EOS R5, EOS, R5, EOS R5, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R5 Review, Canon R5 Review, Canon EOS R5 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Focus, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, Astro, 45Mp, EF 100L Macro, Canon

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 OS Sport Review

Dustin Abbott

March 8th, 2019

Sigma has produced perhaps more lenses than anyone over the past five years, but few of them are as important as the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS | Sport. Not only does this complete Sigma’s “trinity” of fast aperture zooms (14-24mm F2.8 ART, 24-70mm F2.8 ART), but there are few lenses more indispensable to professional photographers than a 70-200mm F2.8. Speaking personally, I can safely say that when I shoot weddings, events, and even portrait sessions a 70-200mm F2.8 is the first lens I reach for. The challenge for Sigma is that because this is such an important lens, a lot of lens makers have invested time and effort in developing good lenses in the class. Sigma doesn’t just face competition from Canon and Nikon, but Tamron’s excellent SP 70-200mm F2.8 G2 already provides a solid third party alternative at a fantastic price point. Sigma absolutely has to get this one right, as response to their 24-70 ART was somewhat tepid and many reviewers (including myself) declared the Tamron 24-70mm F2.8 G2 the better lens. Don’t expect Sigma to get outdone again, however, as the Sigma 70-200mm Sport is a serious, professional grade lens that is going to challenge everyone in the class on merit alone. The downside is that it is a (slightly) bigger and definitely heavier lens than competitors. The 70-200S is Sigma’s answer to the major players at this most important of focal ranges. But is it enough? Read on to find out.

Prefer to watch your reviews? Watch my thorough video review to get all the details!

Sigma 70-200S Build and Handling

If you want a nice, close look at the lens and its features, I recommend that you watch this video episode here:

Size and weight seems to have stopped being a consideration for Sigma about the same time as they switched to their new “Global Vision”. Their serious lens releases since that point have typically been the largest and heaviest in the class, and that’s no different here. 70-200mm F2.8 lenses have never been known for being petite, but Sigma delivers a lens that increases the weight over competitors by more than 300 grams. The Canon L III weighs 3.26lb (1480g), the Tamron G2 lens weighs 3.31lb (1500g), and the Nikkor ED VR lens weighs 3.15lb (1430g). The Sigma Sport? It comes in at a hefty 3.97lb (1800g). That’s nearly a pound heavier than the Nikkor lens. And, unlike the competitors, the tripod collar on the Sigma is not removable (it can be fully rotated but not removed), and so you can’t reduce that weight if you don’t need a tripod mount. I often shoot the Tamron 70-200 G2 without the tripod collar attached, so when I weighed it as I typically use it, it came out at 1387g. The Sigma tipped my scales (without caps) at 1812g; a little over its listed weight.

The 70-200S is also the longest lens in the class, though this is by a fairly tiny measure. It is essentially 8″ long (203mm), making it only a half millimeter longer than the Nikkor lens, 9.5mm longer than the Tamron, and 3mm longer than the Canon. Where the extra weight comes into play is more due to the diameter of the 70-200S. It is 3.71″ (94.2mm) in diameter and sports a larger 82mm filter thread (every other 70-200mm F2.8 lens I’ve used has been 77mm). All the other lenses are within a millimeter of each other in diamter, at roughly 88.5mm, making the Sigma nearly 6mm wider (which is accounted for in that larger filter size).

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that this is a very, very well made lens. It feels more professional grade than any 70-200mm lens I’ve used before. The Tamron G2 that I have on hand for comparison feels very well made. It is sleek and modern, but when I compare the two the lens the Sigma feels more “military grade”. It employs more of a flocked matte finish that seems highly resistant to either fingerprints or scuffing (something that the Tamron is less immune to). The feel of the rings are more robust. Sigma tends to give its Sport lenses the highest grades of build, and that seems very true here. The barrel is made from magnesium alloy, which is the same extremely tough material used in pro-grade camera bodies.

Included in the build quality is a thorough dust and splash proofing, including a rear gasket, internal seals, and coatings to the outer element surfaces to resist moisture and oils (fingerprints). These make the elements easier to clean, too.

One new design element that I’ve not seen previously on a Sigma lens is a locking mechanism on the lens hood. While I’m not personally convinced that a lock is necessary, I know that others do value this. I also noted that Sigma has done the best job I’ve seen with such a locking mechanism. It’s wide, easy to depress, and has nice mechanical functionality to it. The lens hood is nice and lightweight as well, and has other nice Sigma touches like a soft touch transition area and ribbed section that makes it easier to twist free.

Another new feature is the inclusion of a custom button on the lens (often reserved for very expensive super telephotos). This button is repeated on three sides of the lens to make it easy to access in multiple orientations.

There are various options you can assign to the custom button. On a Nikon body you can program this only through the Sigma USB Dock (and the Sigma Optimization Pro software). Since I have a Canon EF mount lens, that option is greyed out in the software, and the value is assigned in the Canon camera menu (see photo).

In my case, I programmed the button to switch between Single Shot and Continuous AF modes. This is really useful to me when I’m shooting events or weddings, as different modes suit different moments. I consider this a useful addition.

Also useful is the two custom modes included on the CUSTOM switch. These values are programmed through the USB Dock. I chose to program C1 to unlock the Faster Speed Autofocus option (more on that in a moment) and assigned C2 to a third OS (Optical Stabilizer) mode. Sigma allows one to choose autofocus prioritity (speed, accuracy, or the standard mode which tries to balance the two). Many have noted that the Speed option gives a bit more speed without any real accuracy cost, and that appears to be the case here. Speed is mildly faster and accuracy seems about the same.

As for the OS mode, I prefer Tamron’s approach where their VC switch has 3 different options. Modes 1 and 2 are fixed (standard and panning, as they are here on the Sigma), while Mode 3 can be programmed in two different directions (one video-centric mode which stabilizes all the time and a dynamic mode that focuses on stabilizing the final image without affecting the viewfinder much). Sigma has a similar mode to this, which I’ve programmed to C2, but I like Tamron’s approach better as it groups the stabilizer options together. Sigma’s approach means that you have to choose C1 or C2, so in my case I can have the faster AF option or the stabilizer option that I want, but I can’t have both at the same time. Still, having more options here is welcome, so kudos to Sigma for that.

I did find that using the programmable Mode 3 made a difference. I took these shots while being waist-deep in snow and with an outside temperature of -20C. The shot is 1/13th second at 200mm. In the first shot (one of about four with similar results), I used the standard mode (1). I could not get a steady result (a lot of motion blur). I switched to the Mode 3 that I programmed to C2, and got a much better result with my first try.

If you don’t need a super-steady viewfinder, this is going to give you the best final results. This is one area where Sigma lags a little behind Tamron, however, as the G2 is rated at 5 stops of assistance in this mode while the 70-200S is rated at 4 stops.

Other switches include controls for the OS, a focus limiter with Full and 3m-∞ options, and the control switch for the autofocus.

There is a distance window and various lens designations on the barrel. The closest ring to the camera is the manual focus ring, which is about an inch wide and has a high-quality feel to the rubberized materials. The ring moves fairly well for an autofocusing lens. The zoom ring is the farther ring, and I like the fact that there is a bevel mid-way through it that makes it very easy to find by feel. It’s about twice as wide as the MF ring, and the zoom action has a very precise damping that feels more professional-grade than the Tamron, which feels a little looser and more inconsistent by comparison. The 70-200S both zooms and focuses internally, so, while large, the outer dimensions of the lens never change in operation.

I’ve riffed on the tripod collar a bit, but I do want to balance that with some praise. The tripod foot is a little more robust than Tamron’s and also shares its Arca-Swiss compatibility, which is a big deal to me. Canon still neglects to do this at times, but it is so helpful to be able to just mount the lens on a tripod without messing with a quick release plate. Every tripod foot should have this compatibility. The collar also has easy-to-feel detents at the four points of the compass and the locking knob has a quality feel to it.

The 70-200S is compatible with, well, a lot of things. It works with the USB dock as mentioned, and is eligible Sigma’s lens mount conversion. It’s also (importantly!) compatible with Canon’s Lens Aberration Corrections, which means that JPEGs receive in-camera correction for Distortion, Vignette, Chromatic Aberrations, and Diffraction just like a Canon lens would. This is a definitely advantage over Tamron, and if you favor shooting JPEGs, it is huge! RAW files will need correction in post just like other lenses.

I’ve noted a secondary advantage for Sigma lenses that are supported like this. Because the camera accurately recognizes the lens, it means that certain lenses (like this one) play better with Canon’s own teleconverters. Both Sigma and Tamron make their own TCs, of course, and would recommend that you use them, but I’ve heard a lot of comments from my viewers that suggests that many photographers are uninterested in dropping another $400+ on a branded TC, particularly if they already own one for Canon or Nikon. The Tamron G2 lens does not play well with my Canon Extender 1.4x III, but the Sigma 70-200S works just fine. It reports fine, focuses fine, and produces good quality results.

In fact, the lens is also eligible with Sigma’s MC-11 converter, which means that 70-200S behaves better on a Sony body than any other non-Sony telephoto that I’ve used. It works fairly close to a native lens, which I certainly can’t say for the Tamron or Canon 70-200mm lenses that I’ve tested on it in the past. What’s more interesting, though, is that it also works fine with the Canon 1.4x III attached to the MC-11 and my Sony a7RIII. Autofocus continues to work fine (a little more hunting in difficult situations but otherwise good), image quality is good, and everything reports correctly save the lens designation (the lens now reports as DT 98-280mm F0 SAM). A small price to pay for that additional functionality! Here’s a few samples shot with that combination:

These are some real advantages over Tamron (and even Canon or Nikon) if they apply to you and further extend the value proposition of the Sigma.

If adding more size and weight to an already large class of lens doesn’t turn you off, then I suspect nothing else about this design will. This is one of the best built, best executed Sigma lenses that I’ve used.

Sigma 70-200S Autofocus

Before elaborating on autofocus in the native Canon EF mount that I’m reviewing here, I first want to reiterate that if you are looking for a lens to use on dual systems (Canon and Sony), the Sigma is most definitely the way to go. Sigma did a very clever thing when they introduced the MC-11 mount converter. It is a great adapter (my favorite, actually), in its own right, but more importantly, it has given Sigma lenses a “baked-in” advantage over all other lenses when it comes to adapting them to Sony bodies. It is fine-tuned to Sigma’s focus algorithms and they have been very proactive about keeping it updated. I’ve seen a steady improvement with the quality of focus that it produces with my non-Sigma lenses, but the advantage is even clearer when using Sigma lenses. Adapted Sigma lenses are the closest thing to native AF performance from a non-E-mount lens, and that’s certainly true here. When shooting in AF-C mode there is a bit of sound as the autofocus continually makes microadjustments (different focus motor than the typical mirrorless lens), and there is a little more sound even in AF-S for the same reason, but this is essentially true of all lenses without the stepping/linear motors more typically used in mirrorless lenses. The 70-200S focuses quickly and confidently on my Sony a7R3 body. Functions like Eye-AF are well supported.

Image quality with my a7R3 is unsurprisingly excellent. It has a great sensor, and the great resolution of the 70-200S pairs nicely with the camera. Take a look at the detail captured in this 100mm shot at F5.6:

Another thing I enjoy about using such a lens on Sony is that I have APS-C/Crop mode mapped to my C1 button, where at the press of the button I can switch to a cropped mode where I’ve got 300mm of equivalent reach at a still very useful 18 MP. Yes, I could achieve the same thing by cropping later, but often when shooting an event or something similar, getting the framing I want in the moment is more important. Take a look at this two orchid shots: one is in FF mode, the second in APS-C mode. Being able to make this choice in the moment is very useful, and you can see autofocus is nailed in them both:

The lens reports accurately on a Sony body in every way, and that further extends the usefulness when sorting and cataloging in Lightroom or Luminar’s library module. Here’s a few more Sony shots:

In the past I’ve frequently criticized Sigma lenses for inconsistent autofocus accuracy, but fortunately that has really changed in the past year. I’ve reviewed about 5-6 straight Sigma lenses that have shown markedly improved autofocus accuracy, and that includes the 70-200S. I address a minor front-focus tendency through a quick AFMA, and have had nicely accurate focus results since. This includes using points outside of the center group on my Canon 5D Mark IV.

I had good results in a portrait session as well, with good focus results on the face:

Autofocus speed (after enabling focus speed priority in the USB Dock) seemed roughly on par with the Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 G2, so roughly on par with competing lenses. This is a lens that is going to meet the needs of the average photographer just fine. If you are a professional sports photographer on the sideline of a major event, you might want to elect for the Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS III for the peace of mind in autofocus speed, but I’m not sure there’s much of a difference.

All in all, Sigma has done a solid job here with the autofocus. The HSM (Hypersonic Motor) gets the job done without any major missteps that I’ve spotted.

Sigma 70-200S Image Quality

Whenever I review a lens that has thrown out either price constraints or size restraints as a part of their design philosophy I tend to be a little more critical. Sigma has shown restraint with pricing on this lens, but they have given us a larger, heavier lens than competing lenses, so I feel that needs to counterbalanced by build and image quality gains. We’ve seen that this is true to some degree with the build quality, but how about the optical performance? I did a lot of direction comparisons of the lens with the Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 VC G2, which I consider to be the main competitor to the lens on either Canon or Nikon. We’ll break down my observations into two categories: Resolution and Rendering.

It should be noted that Sigma didn’t skimp with expensive elements in this optical design. There are nine top-grade FLD (Fluorite Low Dispersion) elements and an SLD (Special Low Dispersion) element in the optical path, which is the most complex of competing lenses with 24 elements in 22 groups.

I’ve observed that in the internet age people want clear-cut answers. They want to be able to Google “which 70-200mm F2.8 lens is the best/sharpest” and get a simple answer. As someone who spends extensive time with dozens of new lenses every year, I can safely tell you that this is rarely the true reality when testing modern lenses. The answer is inevitably much more nuanced. Is the 70-200S the best 70-200mm F2.8 lens on the market? After weeks of extensive tests, I can’t answer that question, but I can safely say that this is a truly excellent optical instrument.

Sigma 70-200S Resolution

The best way to view my findings as I compared the 70-200S and the Tamron 70-200 G2 is by viewing this video episode.

The first thing to note is that the Sigma actually shows a smaller amount of barrel distortion at 70mm than competing lenses. That’s very clear when compared with the Tamron:

While there isn’t yet a standard profile in ACR/Lightroom for the lens, I was able to easily manually correct for distortion and vignette, which makes it clear that the profile will be able to fix this easily:

My hope was that the larger diameter of the 70-200S along with the larger filter size would result in less vignette and better light transmission. I did not find that to be the case, however, for while there was some give and take, the Sigma showed roughly equal amounts of vignette as the Tamron (less at some focal lengths, more at others). The Tamron actually exhibited slightly better light transmission, too. The added complexity of the Sigma’s optical formula could contribute to that. Consider me slightly disappointed on this point, as I expect there to be a tangible tradeoff if I’m accepting more size and weight.

As I noted before, the end results when you look at the resolution are somewhat nuanced and can vary depending on where you look in the frame. At 70mm my conclusion was that the lenses showed a roughly even amount of resolution with give and take at different points in the frame. I do like the contrast better from the Sigma along the edge wide open. Stopping down a bit produces an uptick in sharpness and contrast to excellent levels all across the frame. Once again I slightly favor the contrast from the Sigma.

At 100mm both lenses are excellent in the center of the frame wide open but the Tamron is clearly stronger at the edge of the frame. Stopping down to F4 only widens the gap for the Tamron on the edge.

AT 135mm both lenses exhibit a very strong center performance (a theme across the focal range!) and a very strong edge performance. Stopped down they are roughly equal in resolution, but I slightly prefer the Sigma contrast:

Before moving on, let’s step back for a moment and consider just how good this performance is in the real world. It’s easy to get lost in pixel-peeping and the nth degree of comparisons without considering how good these lenses actually are. Here’s a real world wide open shot from the Sigma at 135mm along with a detail crop:

Pretty fabulous, no?

Moving on to 200mm is where I saw the biggest advantage for the Sigma (at least with the copies I’ve compared). In the center of the frame the difference is slight, with the Sigma showing a little stronger contrast and a tiny bit more resolution, but the difference is a little more pronounced on the edge. Stopping down closes the gap but the Tamron doesn’t quite catch up.

This advantage at 200mm also translates into better performance with a teleconverter attached. As previously noted, the Tamron does not communicate properly with the Canon 1.4x III attached. It acts like a 2x converter is attached for some reason. So, despite what the results say, this is at 280mm comparison at F4 for both lenses:

You can see the Sigma retains more contrast and a bit more resolution…plus it behaves properly. This would obviously not be a problem if I were using a Tamron TC with the Tamron, but the same would be true of the Sigma with the Sigma TC. I would argue that 200mm is the most important focal length in this zoom range, and a strong performance there is very important. That strong teleconverter performance further extends the usefulness of the 70-200S. This real world shot looks pretty great!

While I haven’t yet tested the Canon 70-200mm F2.8L III, I did spend extensive time with the Mark II while doing my review of the Tamron G2. To summarize my comparisons there and how they play out here, I would say that the Sigma is stronger than the Canon from 70-135mm and is roughly equal from 150-200mm. That means that the Sigma is competing at all tested focal lengths and is delivering arguably the most consistent performance across the range. So while Sigma isn’t “blowing away” any of the competitors in terms of resolution, it is the near the top of heap and represents essentially as good a performance as you are going to find in a zoom lens covering this focal range.

Sigma 70-200S Rendering

Beyond resolution there are still a lot of important considerations. In a second video episode I covered those other factors.

YouTube is prone to extremism. One reviewer or influencer notices something, makes a big deal about it, and that becomes the defining factor for a new piece of gear for a while until cooler heads moderate that reporting. That defining issue for the Tamron was “focus breathing”. In this context it means that the Tamron behaves as a lens with a much shorter focal length at close focus distances. It’s not until about 30 feet that the Tamron behaves like a true 200mm lens. One of the first questions I got about the 70-200S was whether or not it had the same issue.

It doesn’t.

It behaves similarly to the Canon or newest Nikkor lens (the previous model also struggled with this) with a near identical minimum focus distances and magnification. This is definitely my preference, though I will note a few areas of nuance here. With both lenses at their minimum focus distances you can see a notable difference in their degrees of magnification.

The Tamron can focus more closely, so if your subject is at the same distance (say six feet or a couple of meters), the amount of difference in magnification would be even more pronounced. Case closed, right?

For some, yes, but if you care to take a closer look, you find that the truth is a little more complicated.

First of all, the nature of the Tamron’s design means that while it has poorer magnification, it also produces better image quality at minimum focus distances:

The second truth is that the disadvantage on the 200mm end becomes an advantage at the 70mm. If you are in a room where you have limited space, you will find the Tamron the more flexible instrument. Look at this comparison at about nine foot away. The Tamron has about 25% more in the frame.

As I said, nuances. Still, in many situations the Sigma will have the advantage. At close to medium focus distances it will allow one to more strongly compress the scene, giving a more defocused background. Look at how lovely the defocused backgrounds are here:

I suspect that portrait photographers will prefer the Sigma for this reason. It will give more separation of your subject from the background at most portrait distances. It is definitely a lovely portrait lens:

Bokeh is a somewhat subject measurement, and I found the bokeh from the Tamron and Sigma lenses more similar than different:

I noticed a couple of minor differences. I do think that the Sigma grabs a few more hard edges at longer focal lengths, which is perhaps unsurprising considering that it has a little more contrast. Strong contrast doesn’t disappear in the defocused regions. The second difference is that I found the geometry of bokeh highlights gets a little more “squeezed” along the edges of the frame on the Tamron than on the Sigma, which is a positive for the 70-200S. The Sigma has a unique 11 bladed aperture to help keep bokeh highlights very circular, and it does a great job.

Chromatic aberrations are very well controlled. In field (real world) use, I didn’t really see any even in very high contrast situations:

All in all the Sigma 70-200S provides images with a lot of punch. It seemed competent for everything that I threw at it over my review period. If you’d like to see more images, check out the Image Gallery here!

Conclusion

Sigma is, in many ways, the latecomer to the party here. Tamron has released two generations of their 70-200mm F2.8 VC lenses since Sigma’s EX lens was released in 2010. Both Canon and Nikon have released newer versions of their own 70-200mm F2.8 lenses in that period as well. If Sigma had released this lens 3-4 years ago, it probably would have been heralded as the undisputed champ. In today’s market it is unquestionably still near the top in terms of build and performance, but Tamron’s 70-200mm F2.8 G2 is such a strong entry that the choice today is a little more complicated – particularly considering that the Tamron is an absolute bargain at $1299 USD. There’s no question, however, that the Sigma is also a strong value at $1499 USD. I feel that its build is a cut above that of the Tamron and every bit as good (if not better) than the Canon or Nikon versions. It’s performance is perhaps the most even of any of them, too, with no significant flaws that I could spot.

The Tamron SP 70-200mm F2.8 G2 is still the best value in the class, and I would choose it if I A) valued size and weight 2) didn’t plan to ever shoot it on Sony. If you are a Canon shooter and like shooting JPEGs, the fact that the Sigma has access to Canon’s corrections, works better with Canon teleconverters, and essentially lacks nothing that the more expensive Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS III lens has makes it a compelling choice. If you want to also shoot your lens on Sony, don’t even think twice about it – the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport and the Sigma MC-11 are the way to go. If you are a Nikon shooter, I can’t really think of any reason why one would pay the additional $1300 premium to go the Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8E VR unless they were seriously paranoid about third party lenses (are there still people that feel that way?) The only fly in the ointment here is the additional weight of the Sigma. But if that doesn’t put you off, I suspect that you will love this lens if you add it to your kit.

Pros:

“Military Grade” build – extremely robust
Good weather sealing
AF hold and custom function button and switches
Fast, accurate autofocus
Great image quality across the focal length
Good performance with teleconverters
Canon’s Lens Aberration Corrections support
Works well with the Sigma MC-11 on Sony bodies
Few optical flaws
No focus breathing

Cons:

Bigger and heavier than competing lenses
Tripod collar cannot be removed

Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) for the loaner!

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Keywords: Sigma 70-200 Sport, Sigma 70-200 Sport Review, Sigma 70-200mm Sport, 70-200mm Sport, 70-200 Sport Review, 70-200mm Sport Review, Dustin Abbott, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport Review, Sport, 70-200mm, Sigma, Sport, OS, 1.4x, 2x, Extender, Sigma MC-11, Sony, Canon, A7RIII, 5D Mark IV, Review, Hands On, Comparison, Test, Sharpness, Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, CA, Video Test, Video, Sample Images

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Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

February 5th, 2019

Sigma has produced perhaps more lenses than anyone over the past five years, but few of them are as important as the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS | Sport. Not only does this complete Sigma’s “trinity” of fast aperture zooms (14-24mm F2.8 ART, 24-70mm F2.8 ART), but there are few lenses more indispensable to professional photographers than a 70-200mm F2.8. Speaking personally, I can safely say that when I shoot weddings, events, and even portrait sessions a 70-200mm F2.8 is the first lens I reach for. The challenge for Sigma is that because this is such an important lens, a lot of lens makers have invested time and effort in developing good lenses in the class. Sigma doesn’t just face competition from Canon and Nikon, but Tamron’s excellent SP 70-200mm F2.8 G2 already provides a solid third party alternative at a fantastic price point. Sigma absolutely has to get this one right, as response to their 24-70 ART was somewhat tepid and many reviewers (including myself) declared the Tamron 24-70mm F2.8 G2 the better lens. Don’t expect Sigma to get outdone again, however, as the Sigma 70-200mm Sport is a serious, professional grade lens that is going to challenge everyone in the class on merit alone. The downside is that it is a (slightly) bigger and definitely heavier lens than competitors. We’ll examine in this review series whether the performance is worth the tradeoff.

Photos of the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 Sport

Photos Taken with the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 Sport (Canon 5DIV)

Sigma 70-200mm Sport + 1.4x Extender (Canon 1.4x III)

Sigma 70-200mm Sport + MC-11 (Sony a7RIII)

Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) for the loaner!

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Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

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Keywords: Sigma 70-200 Sport, Sigma 70-200 Sport Review, Sigma 70-200mm Sport, 70-200mm Sport, 70-200 Sport Review, 70-200mm Sport Review, Dustin Abbott, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport Review, Sport, 70-200mm, Sigma, Sport, OS, 1.4x, 2x, Extender, Sigma MC-11, Sony, Canon, A7RIII, 5D Mark IV, Review, Hands On, Comparison, Test, Sharpness, Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, CA, Video Test, Video, Sample Images

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Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS Review

Dustin Abbott

December 7th, 2018

The Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS is Fuji’s most important lens in a long, long time. Not because of how many people it will impact; this is a $6000 lens, after all! It is important in the sense that the Ford GT is important to the Ford brand, or any “halo” car to any brand. Ford will only make and sell 250 GT’s this year, which is a small audience by any measure. Why make a $450,000 car for a tiny audience when the average car transaction is only 7% of that? The simple answer is, “To show that you can.” That proof of concept shows just what a car maker is capable of, and the hope is that people will think that the maker of a supercar like the GT will inject a little of that DNA into the $30,000 car that they can afford.

Since starting this review I’ve had people ask me, “Who is this lens for?” or “Why?” The answer to the latter question is similar to my example above; to show the market what Fuji is capable of developing. The answer to the first question is also simple: the same kind of photographers that want and purchase a Canon 300mm F2.8L IS II for Canon bodies or a Nikon 300mm F2.8G VR II lens for their Nikon cameras. People who shoot sports, wildlife, or other subjects where extreme image quality, focus ability, and light gathering potential is need in a durable, pro-grade housing. These lenses (which are similarly priced) are the true comparisons for the XF 200mm, as, unlike them, this 200mm F2 is designed for an APS-C mirrorless system and thus will behave similarly on a camera like the Fuji X-T3 that I tested it on. It has a full frame equivalent focal length of 305mm, and an effective aperture (for depth of field) of F2.8 (though it gathers twice as much light as an F2.8 lens).

I feel that this lens is particularly important, as it not only demonstrates Fuji’s ability to build such an extreme instrument, but it also tests the market to see if there is an appetite for more supertelephoto lenses for Fuji X cameras. Photographers, like most people, like to complain. Often on the Internet, people might complain that “Fuji (or Sony) has no serious telephoto lenses” even if they have no actual intention of paying the high price of what such lens cost. People have been calling for a lens just like this for Fuji; the question now is whether or not they will buy it. If they do, expect to see more super telephoto lenses for Fuji X in the future.

A lens like this could probably only happen on the Fuji platform, as Fuji has elected to focus its development on APS-C (and, to a lesser extent, on Medium Format) and have bypassed full frame altogether. That puts them in a unique position, for while most camera makers produce APS-C bodies, few of them spend much development on serious APS-C lenses. Most often their APS-C lenses are mass-market, budget lenses. Because Fuji has stayed locked into APS-C, they have developed serious, pro-grade APS-C lenses in a way that no one else has. I can’t imagine a Canon EF-S 200mm F2 lens, nor could I a Sony E-mount (APS-C) version. But it’s not so unthinkable on Fuji, and so this may be the most expensive, most extreme APS-C only super telephoto lens ever developed.

But is it worth buying? Read on to find out….

Prefer to watch your reviews? My thorough video review can be seen here:

Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS WR Build and Design

I recommend that you watch the following video to get an interactive, close-up look at the build, design, and features of the XF 200mm.

Fuji absolutely had to get this one right. You can’t charge $6000 for a lens (a price equal to the leading players in the market) without delivering the goods. The XF 200 is nearly three times as expensive as the next most expensive XF lens (the XF 100-400mm OIS). While it is hard to argue for any extremely expensive piece of camera gear as being “worthy of its price tag” (that’s pretty relative), there’s no question that the build grade of the XF 200 is equal to the very best made super telephoto lenses.

This is an attention grabbing lens. Being seen in public with this lens was like becoming an instant celebrity. I was in a park with it and I had a man asking if he could take photos of the lens and of me holding it. I can assure you that this is not typical for me! I shot at an event with the lens, and when I pulled it out I was soon surrounded by the photographers and those interested in photography. It’s big, beautiful, and dwarfs the little X-T3 that is clinging precariously to the back of it. This is very much a case of the “tail wagging the dog”!

The lens is actually nearly as large as the Canon 200mm F2L IS lens despite that lens being designed for a full frame sensor. The Canon is 5.04 x 8.19″ (128 x 208 mm), while the XF 200 is 4.80 x 8.07″ (122 x 205 mm). The Canon weighs 5.54 lb / 2520 g while the Fuji weighs 4.98 lb / 2260 g. It’s a big lens, and you will definitely be primarily supporting the lens and operating the camera rather than the other way around.

While other Fuji XF lenses have adopted a more traditional black finish (along with a few primes that have an alternate silver finish), the XF 200mm is a unique pearlescent color (Fuji calls it “matte silver”) that is to my eye more attractive than the finish on the Canon “great whites” when viewed up close. They’ve also elected to use a near-neon-green accent ring at the front of the lens hood. If bold is your thing, you’ll love it. If you are a more subtle person, you may find it a little garish.

The lens hood is substantial (pretty typical for a lens like this), but is relatively lightweight, which does help the balance of the lens. It appears to be made of engineered plastics, but of the high-end materials that feel premium and sturdy. The whole interior is lined with a felt material that will keep stray light from bouncing around in there. A clever touch is a soft rubberized ring at the very front of the lens hood that will help there be a soft-touch surface for setting the lens down face first on hard surfaces. The lens hood attaches via tension knob on one side, which is basically standard for this size of lens hood.

There is also a little window along the bottom of the lens hood that gives one access to a filter mounted on the lens. This is useful when using a circular polarizer, which requires one to rotate the filter to the proper angle to get the desired effect. It would otherwise be hard to do with such a deep lens hood.

The lens itself requires a large 105mm filter size, but you can use traditional screw-in filters. It has a large pinch cap at the front. The front element has a fluorine coating, which is the first of the weather sealing elements of the lens. The lens itself actually has 17 different weather sealing points and, somewhat uniquely, has a temperature rating (it is rated to perform in temperatures as low as -10 C). I live in Canada, and we have very long winters where I live. I’ve used a wide variety of camera gear in extremely cold conditions and rarely had a problem with any of it, so I’m not sure what to make of this.

The lens body is made of magnesium alloy, the same stuff often used to build cameras, so we know it is a tough material. The first feature on the lens barrel are four buttons at the four points of the compass. These can be programmed to preset functions, including a preset focus distance (if you have pre-focused on a key area during a sporting event, for example, you can touch the button and instantly return to that focus point). You can also program it to AF-ON and Focus Lock alternatively.

This functionality can be set by selecting a function via the Preset Switch and using the “Set” button underneath (if for a focus preset). Other switches include a Focus Limiter (Full and 5m to Infinity are the two choices) along with an ON/OFF switch for the OIS. Some alternative lenses have multiple modes for the Stabilizer, but Fuji claims that this is an “Intelligent Stabilizer” that senses the mode needed and adjusts automatically. It seems to work.

I have to pause and comment on the effectiveness of this OIS system, because it is pretty awesome. It is a very quiet system, with faint whirring only detectable when you stick your ear right next the barrel. It is also incredibly smooth in operation, with no real evidence of when it comes on and off. It is completely unobtrusive, but it does a fantastic job stabilizing the viewfinder and the final image. The rock-steady viewfinder gives you a lot of confidence to shoot at low shutter speeds, but it should be remember that no matter how steady the viewfinder is, it won’t help if your subject is moving. If have a static subject, however, it is easy to get very steady shots despite the very long focal length. All of these are taken at shutter speeds 1/30th or less, including some as low as 1/10th second – which equals 5 stops of support.

Now, the practical applications of shooting with this low of shutter speeds with a long telephoto are limited, as most of the time you will want to keep the shutter speed up to freeze action (which the huge F2 aperture certainly helps with!). However, here’s one practical application: creative “dragging”. This might be applied to a panning shot, but in this case I wanted to capture the effect of the snow’s movement around this lamppost. A fast shutter speed would freeze the individual flakes, but I wanted to capture a sense of the swirling of the snow. While the image isn’t technically perfect, as the main subject isn’t perfectly still (not helped by it being cold outside!), I like the overall look of the image, as it achieved my vision of what I wanted to capture.

While I wish that the new X-T3 body had in body image stabilization, you won’t miss it when using this lens!

Another feature of the lens is one common to Fuji XF lenses, but one I really like. It is a manual aperture ring that also gives you the option to switch into Automatic mode where either the camera can control aperture or you can control aperture from the camera body. I am personally always very intentional about aperture, as for many types of photography selecting the correct aperture really makes or breaks the shot. I don’t trust such a key component of my photography to the camera. I really like the dual approach, which allows me to select aperture quickly right on the lens if I so desire (and I often do). I also like that the aperture ring has detents at one-third stops, which gives you more finite control over the aperture.

There is also a manual focus ring, which is nice and wide and finely ribbed in a rubberized material. Like other Fuji XF lenses, this is a focus-by-wire application, which means that there is no direct mechanical coupling and all input is routed through the focus motor. The camera must be on and in the proper mode for input on the focus ring to make a difference. This was the one area where I did not enjoy the XF 200. You can select a number of different focus aid options within your camera, so it’s not hard to achieve accurate focus, but I found the actual focus process a little frustrating.

First of all, the default focus speed sensitivity is really low, so you turn and turn and turn to make any kind of significant focus changes and it often feels like you are accomplishing very little. Secondly, magnifying the image (which will often happen automatically with input to the focus ring unless you set things up differently in the camera body) is somewhat less helpful due to the long focal length. The magnified image is moving around so much due to the extreme magnification (one hand is twisting the manual focus ring, so it can’t support the lens to the same degree). The nature of focus-by-wire lenses is that there is no real tactile feedback from the focus ring, so when making a big focus change you are often not even sure if you are going the right direction. I like what the new Canon EOS R does in this situation (at least with native RF lenses), which is to automatically show a distance scale on the screen or viewfinder when manually focusing.

Fortunately, there was only one situation where I actually needed manual focus, and that was to get the shot above. The light was extremely low, I was using the 1.4x TC (more on that in a moment), and I was near the minimum focus distance of the lens (though within range). The camera/lens refused to focus on my subject, so I switched to MF and experienced deep frustration. I finally achieved the end result (an image I like!), but resolved to explore the manual focus behavior of the lens more carefully later (where it was less cold!) My conclusion is that you may want to dive into the menus and change the focus ring behavior from linear to non-linear with this lens (I typically prefer the other way around, but this allows for faster focus changes) and perhaps also use MF more to fine tune focus in that rare situation that AF doesn’t do what you want. Still, this is not the lens’ strength, in my opinion. Thankfully it has a fantastic autofocus system and you should rarely need to use that MF ring!

The lens also has an incorporated tripod collar with a number of great features. It has a couple of anchor points for attaching a strap for the lens (one is included), which helps to alleviate stress on the lens mount. The tripod collar can be unlocked and easily rotated to any position but loosening the tension knob. I like the fact that there are detents at the four points of the compass, making it easy to rotate to 90, 180, or 270 degrees with precision. Finally, the tripod foot itself is Arca-Swiss compatible, meaning that you can crank it down on most tripods without the need for a quick release plate. It’s a little feature, perhaps, but it always blows my mind when someone doesn’t include that feature (hello, Canon!)

At the lens mount there is a weather sealing gasket. The mount looks tiny compared to the massive lens.

Something else that looks tiny is the little 1.4x Teleconverter that is included in kit with the XF 200. It’s a clever move on a couple of fronts. First of all, this is a unique TC specifically designed for this lens. It gives much better performance when compared to existing teleconverters. Fuji tells me that it is compatible with older lenses that can use a teleconverter, but that only it should be used with the XF 200mm F2, as it is optimized uniquely for use with a lens with a maximum aperture of F2. It is extremely small and lightweight, but is well made and fully weather-sealed. When you attach it to the lens, you get a 280mm F2.8 lens, or the full frame equivalent of 427mm. This is obviously a great secondary focal length that allows the lens to become an even more serious wildlife option.

Fuji has included a very nice padded nylon case for the lens, and there is a special padded insert that has a place to secure the TC to it so that it is always along. I also found removing that insert left room for me to put the lens in the case with the X-T3 attached, and that was my favorite way to transport the combination as it gave quick access to the camera/lens combo. In this scenario, you would need to have a secondary way to transport the little TC.

All in all, this is a beautifully made, highly functional lens that I found easy to use and adjust to other than the quirk with manual focus. The XF 200mm should have no problem standing with the super telephotos of other brands in terms of its build and feature set.

Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS WR Autofocus Performance

Let me preface my remarks in this section by acknowledging that I had to learn both this lens and the Fuji X-T3 (my first ever Fuji camera or lens) over the course of this review period. I am not pretending to have a vast amount of experience with the system. That being said, the X-T3 has a new and improved focus system that no Fuji shooter really has experience with, and I’m not exactly a novice in learning new systems after doing many, many reviews. Still, I wanted to clarify that my best with this combination may not represent the best achievable by someone with a lot of experience with getting the most out of Fuji cameras. Still, I think I did pretty good:

The more robust focus system in the X-T3 is a great match for the great focus system in the XF 200mm. According to Fuji, “The lens uses linear motors to achieve fast, silent, and high-precision AF performance. There is also a new mechanism that fixes the focus motor group when the camera is not in use, which reduces any vibrations that may occur from the linear motors’ magnets being disengaged.” The autofocus is both fast and silent in practice, an impressive feat considering how much glass the focus motor has to move.

First, let’s consider basic autofocus accuracy. For general purpose, portrait, or event work, the lens was simply flawless. I shot a religious event in Toronto with the lens and found that my accuracy with the lens in the varied lighting conditions within the venue was perfect. As you can see from the photos below, the accuracy on the faces of speakers was perfect. Most of these were from at least 40 feet away, and yet you can see perfect skin details at F2.

This very early shot (below) was taken when I was still learning everything…and it really impressed me. Not because of the technical perfection of the image (it’s rather bland), but when I zoomed in to look at the details. There is a lot of potential distractions in this shot, and the cat is partially hidden behind a little oak sapling. I was roughly 50 feet away for this shot, and yet the little oak is not in focus, but the cat behind it (my subject) is perfect in focus. That’s when I realized that the focus combination of the X-T3 and the the XF 200mm was a pretty sophisticated one.

Eye AF seems to work very well with the XF 200mm. I shot a portrait session with the lens and got consistently perfect results even though my working distance was pretty long considering the extreme nature of the focal length. At one point I got my subject to whip her hair around to give it motion, and I still got consistently good focus accuracy on her face and eyes despite the motion.

General purpose shooting produced accurate autofocus results regardless of where I composed. One of the beautiful things about the increasingly sophisticated focus systems of mirrorless cameras and the way that they operate is that you neither need to worry about calibrating focus accuracy or be concerned about where you compose a shot.

But the paramount concern here is, “will it track?” This is a more sports/action oriented lens (and camera, for that matter) than your typical Fuji, and being able to track fast moving action is one area where a lens like this needs to justify its lofty price tag. Fortunately the answer is definitely “yes”, though I’ll offer a few suggestions on how to get the best out of the package.

First of all, in a camera like the X-T3 you have the opportunity to select different AF-C custom modes, though my Fuji expert (one of the Fuji Guys!) feels like the standard “Multi-Purpose” mode often does the best job. I tried a few different modes but didn’t notice a major difference in the effectiveness. Still, it’s worth taking a look and trying to match the mode to your priorities for a given sequence. The other thing that I noticed was that I got much better results when I started off a sequence with focus locked rather than trying to pick it up on a moving target while already taking photos. I think you are better served by taking a second and locking focus on the moving target before holding the shutter button down and bursting.

My “torture test” has been tracking our dog (about a 23 pound King Charles Cavalier Spaniel) playing high speed fetch. It’s a fairly small subject moving at a very high rate of speed, and inferior focus systems just can’t track this combination. This is compounded in this case by the fact that a 200mm lens at F2 on an APS-C body has a depth of field at 20 feet of less than 3 inches (8 cm or so). That’s a very small margin for error, and thus it is a very, very demanding scenario. I found that when I started a sequence with focus locked, I was able to have accurate focus on a high percentage of the frames in a burst (and at 11 frames per second on the X-T3, those add up quickly!). Here’s one such sequence:

You can see that focus remained locked until the subject got too close to the camera. Here’s another favorite little sequence because of the nature of the shots with my Bengal cat chasing the dog rather than the other way around:

I also had excellent success when tracking a panning sequence, though in many ways this is less demanding as the distance between the subject and the camera changes less significantly. What this sequence shows, however, is that the focus system effectively keeps from being “distracted” away from the subject.

I’ve done a little post-processing on one of the photos from the burst and added a crop so that you can just how well focused these images actually are:

If I didn’t start off with focus lock and just started a burst, however, my success rate went way down, with the camera/lens often not picking up focus until late in the burst (if at all). With such a small margin for error (shallow DOF), even a minor miss is pretty obvious.

I don’t doubt that with more familiarity with the combination, I could get even better results. Still, what I’ve seen is enough for me to know that this will make a very effective action pairing (X-T3 + XF 200) for photographers. If I can get successful results with the scenario described above, then more typical action (larger target and lower rate of speed) should be very easy.

Other than my frustrations with manually focusing the lens, I would say that the XF 200’s autofocus is a definite plus. This is a serious lens that can achieve seriously good action/sports/wildlife results.

Fujinon XF 200mm F2 Image Quality Breakdown

As above, I do think the best way to parse the results from my image quality tests can be found by watching this video episode where I interactively break that image quality performance down.

As I’ve noted, if you slap a $6000 price tag on a lens it pretty much has to deliver in every category, and that certainly includes image quality.

Mission accomplished.

In most metrics, the image quality from the XF 200mm F2 OIS is pretty much perfect. There’s one flaw (kind-of), but it’s mostly nitpicking. When I went to do my standard resolution/contrast/vignette test, there was basically nothing to correct. The image was flawless in every way across the frame. Now, to be fair, Fuji’s approach to this is that there is some measure of correction built into the RAW files, but that doesn’t change the fact that what you will actually see (be it JPEG or RAW) will look amazing without any further work from you.

Here are crops from all four corners of a wide open, F2 image moving clockwise and starting with the upper left corner.

There’s no vignette, no distortion, and no CA. Just amazing detail. Here’s a few world examples and crops. This lens mounted on the 26MP Fuji X-T3 delivers incredibly detailed images:

Stopping the lens down does not produce more sharpness. In fact, I would say that there is a mild regression across the frame when comparing F2 to F2.8:

This is clearly a lens optimized for wide open performance, which, to be fair, is the most important application of this lens. A lot of lenses cover this focal length at F4 or even F2.8, but very, very few cover it at F2. You are paying the big bucks for the F2 performance, and this lens delivers that in spades. It is one of the most perfectly corrected lenses (from corner to corner) that I’ve ever seen.

Stopping the lens on down to landscape apertures like F5.6 does provide a mild uptick in edge sharpness and contrast:

There are landscape applications for a lens like this (if you are working with a big scene), and you can produce wonderfully detailed, crisp landscape shots that are pixel perfect.

It is also a beautiful portrait lens, though once again you will need to have a good working distance. You have the ability to completely blow out backgrounds, or to compress them and bring them close while still having amazing delineation between your subject and background.

That leads me to my “pseudo-criticism”. I don’t find the bokeh as creamy and special as a lens like the Canon EF 200mm F2.8L IS. My experience with highly corrected lenses (like, say, the two Apochromatic lenses in my personal kit – the Zeiss Milvus 2/135mm and the Voigtländer 65mm F2 Macro) is that the complete lack of aberrations sometimes makes for a slightly busier out of focus area. That perfect degree of contrast and resolution is sometimes hard to “turn off” after the plane of the focus, and some lenses that are highly prized for their bokeh (like, say, the Canon EF 85mm F1.2L II), actually have a fair amount of chromatic aberrations and slightly lower contrast…which actually pays off in the bokeh region.

Take this shot, for example. You can tell that the bokeh circle shapes are a little irregular and slightly busy.

In this cat portrait, the bokeh actually looks pretty good, but there are also a few artifacts that catch the eye.

Even in the portraits above, the background “creaminess” isn’t as perfect as what it would be with the Canon 200L. In many situations, however, the sheer amount of defocus/compression that this lens can create will make for beautifully defocused backgrounds:

Yes, I’m definitely nitpicking. Lens makers have to choose their priorities, and in this case Fuji chose to deliver a perfectly corrected, incredibly sharp lens with essentially zero aberrations. The bokeh is still pretty nice, so I’m not really complaining.

As might be expected with such a massive, massive amount of glass up front, the lens can exhibit a bit of veiling with the sun in or right out of frame. I’m not seeing any kind of ghosting at wide apertures, but you can see from the second photo (stopped down to F11) that some ghosting will show up with the lens stopped down. I don’t foresee a major issue for anyone with this, as the most likely scenario would be a portrait or action shot at a wide aperture where there might be a bit of a loss of contrast, and all it takes is sliding over the “Dehaze” slider in Lightroom or ACR to recover that lost contrast (as shown in the third image).

The bare lens is an incredibly amazing optical instrument with very, very few flaws.

As noted above, the lens also comes with a 1.4x Teleconverter in kit with it. When you mount the 1.4x TC, the focal length becomes 280mm with a maximum aperture of F2.8, or the full frame equivalent focal length of 427mm. The lens remains very sharp with the TC attached, though I did notice a slight loss of contrast, with a bit of haze on textures not seen with the bare lens:

As you can see, though, it is still incredibly sharp across the frame in an absolute sense. Stopping the lens down makes little difference other than a very slight contrast improvement. This real world shot wide open shows amazing sharpness and contrast despite being shot at ISO 6400 (nearly dark outside).

As these other samples show, the combination is very useful and will give photographers an additional amount of reach and another framing option while retaining very good image quality.

I think this was a very smart move by Fuji, as it allows the lens to be a more credible option for wildlife work.

Conclusion

In my video review, I jokingly referred to this lens as a “gateway drug”. People could get addicted to this kind of quality and want more…like a 300mm F2.8 and 400mm F4…and that’s exactly what Fuji wants. It will be the response of the paying audience that will determine if there are more lenses like the Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS in the future. This is a transition focal length, not so long as to be inaccessible, and not so expensive as to deter everyone. It is an extremely expensive lens, but a lens like a 300mm F2.8 or 400mm F2.8 is often more like a ten thousand dollar purchase, so it makes sense that Fuji has chosen a lens like this to dip their toes into the super telephoto pool. As a proof of concept, a halo car, so to speak, the Fujinon XF 200mm makes a pretty compelling argument. It is is clear evidence that Fuji is very capable of making extraordinarily good super telephoto lenses. Here’s hoping that this won’t be the last!

Pros:

Exceptional pro build quality
Very striking lens design
Great features and handling
Fast, accurate, and quiet autofocus
Strong tracking performance with a body like the X-T3
Perfectly sharp, perfectly corrected F2 performance
No visible vignette
No chromatic aberrations of any kind
Excellent OIS performance

Cons:

Large and expensive
Manual focus experience somewhat frustrating
Bokeh not as creamy as Canon competition
Umm, large and expensive

Gear Used:

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Keywords: Fujifilm, Fujinon, Fuji 200mm F2, Fuji 200 F2, Fuji 200 F2, Fujinon 200mm, Fujinon 200 F2, 1.4x, Kit, Dustin Abbott, Fuji 200mm F2 Review, 200mm, F2, F/2, XF, OIS, WR, Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS, Fuji 200 F2 OIS Review, Review, Hands On, Video Test, Sharpness, Resolution, Autofocus, AF, OIS, Wildlife, Super-telephoto, Telephoto, Lens, Comparison, Test, Dustinabbott.net

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Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS WR Image Galleries

Dustin Abbott

November 16th, 2018

I’ve just started a brand new partnership with FUJIFilm where I will start to spend some time reviewing some of their products, and I’ve started with the newest and brightest – their X-T3 Flagship camera body and the monster XF 200mm F2 OIS lens. This is a high-end, high-priced super telephoto with the build, performance, and image quality to back up the price, and it marks new and exciting territory for the Fuji X-mount platform. It’s got a beautiful, pearlescent finish that sets it apart from the “great-whites” from Canon or Sony. It also takes some amazing photos! I’ll be putting the lens through my typical review process, and, as always, I’ll be sharing photos along the way right here…so stay tuned!

Photos of the Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS WR

Photos taken with the Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS WR

Photos taken with the Fujinon 200m F2 + 1.4x

Gear Used:

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Check me out on:

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

Keywords: Fujifilm, Fujinon, Fuji 200mm F2, Fuji 200 F2, Fuji 200 F2, Fujinon 200mm, Fujinon 200 F2, 1.4x, Kit, Dustin Abbott, Fuji 200mm F2 Review, 200mm, F2, F/2, XF, OIS, WR, Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS, Fuji 200 F2 OIS Review, Review, Hands On, Video Test, Sharpness, Resolution, Autofocus, AF, OIS, Wildlife, Super-telephoto, Telephoto, Lens, Comparison, Test, Dustinabbott.net

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Sony FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II Review

Dustin Abbott

July 12th, 2023

SLE70200G II Build and Handling

Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G II Autofocus Performance

Sony SEL70200G II Image Quality

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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Sony 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

July 12th, 2023

Photos of the Sony 70-200G II

Photos Taken with the Sony 70-200G II

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Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM Review

Dustin Abbott

November 26th, 2021

Canon RF100M Build and Handling

Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS Autofocus Performance

RF100M Optical Performance

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

November 24th, 2021

Images of the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS

Images taken with the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS

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Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 OS Sport Review

Dustin Abbott

March 8th, 2019

Sigma 70-200S Build and Handling

Sigma 70-200S Autofocus

Sigma 70-200S Image Quality

Sigma 70-200S Resolution

Sigma 70-200S Rendering

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

February 5th, 2019

Photos of the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 Sport

Photos Taken with the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 Sport (Canon 5DIV)

Sigma 70-200mm Sport + 1.4x Extender (Canon 1.4x III)

Sigma 70-200mm Sport + MC-11 (Sony a7RIII)

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

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