SONY’S NEW STANDARD ZOOM GOES WIDER THAN MOST

FE 20-70mm F4 G is unveiled as a “new concept” for standard zooms

Sony has announced the FE 20-70mm F4 G, a new standard zoom that’s designed to address an issue many photographers have with such lenses, which is that they don’t go wide enough.

Most standard zooms have a minimum focal length of 24mm, which is reasonably wide, but while the 20mm of Sony’s new lens might not sound a dramatic improvement, it opens up a far wider range of subjects.

It’s not one of Sony’s celebrated G Master lenses, and it has a constant maximum aperture of f/4 rather than f/2.8, but for many that will be a price well worth paying to get the increased wide-angle capability. Sony has clearly put a lot of effort into the design, claiming superb corner-to-corner resolution and fast and silent AF. And, while it’s designed to be light and portable, the FE 20-70mm F4 G is also dust and moisture resistant, and has a fluorine-coated front element.

The optical construction includes two advanced aspherical elements and one regular aspherical element, three extra-low-dispersion elements and one regular ED element, a 9-bladed circular diaphragm mechanism and dual XD Linear motors. Sony says this enables the 20-70mm to focus 60% faster than its predecessor, though it is using the older Zeiss 24-80mm f/4 as a comparison, not Sony’s newer ownbranded lenses.

The lens is designed for video as well as stills, with a de-clickable aperture ring, linear response manual focus and an iris lock switch. It’s also designed to suppress focus breathing optically, though it also works with the focus breathing compensation feature on the latest Sony Alpha bodies.

The Sony FE 20-70mm F4 G will go on sale in February or March, priced at £1,399 / $1,099.