Sony FE 70-300mm 4.5-5.6 G OSS

Honestly, the Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS disappointed us a little. You are buying such lenses primarily for its potential at the very long end of the range which is where the performance may not be bad but it certainly doesn't reflect the promises of a G-class lens nor its high price tag. Now that being said - the center quality is still very good at 300mm and that's where most of the action is at this setting - you rarely care for corner performance here. The quality is much better in the lower to mid range with a very sharp center and a generally decent outer image field. Lateral CAs are low. The distortion figures are well controlled for such a lens even without distortion correction. The quality of the bokeh is a bit of a mixed bag. Out of focus highlights are nothing short of rough whereas the general blur is fairly smooth. Bokeh fringing isn't relevant on a lens with a max. aperture of f/4.5-5.6. In terms of construction quality there isn't much to complain about. The used material are of high quality and Sony implemented weather sealing. The lens extends quite a bit when zooming but then this is normal in this lens class. The AF speed is Okay on an A7R II. Sony's image stabilizer (Optical Stead-Shot) is good enough for a gain of around 3 f-stops which is roughly in line to what we've seen from other lenses in this class. Coming to the final verdict … well, we have doubts here. The lens is a bit expensive relative to its performance. If you want to have 300mm, you just don't have another choice at the moment but if you can live with a little less we'd rather recommend the Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS instead.