Sony has announced a new telephoto zoom lens, the Sony 70-200mm F4 OSS Mark 2, which has the potential to be an incredible lens for video shooters. The Mark 1 version of this lens came out in 2014 and has gotten pretty old. This lens predates the a7ii. And I have it right here with me. So let's talk about this new lens and what you can expect.

Right out of the gate, the new Sony 70-200mm OSS F4 mark 2 looks better than the original version in several ways.

Sony has promised better autofocus, and I'm inclined to believe them as their newer lenses have performed well for me thus far. It's insane how good autofocus has gotten. Sony says the lens could focus up to 20% faster than the Mark 1 version, which is already excellent as the original version focused quite well.

The most significant change for this lens is the size. Sony has removed a few glass elements and lightened this lens by 46 grams over its predecessor. I originally picked up the 70 to 200 f4 because it was so much lighter than its Gmaster equivalent, and this new lens...even lighter.

It's also 26mm shorter than the previous version.

How did they do that?

Here's one aspect that may be polarizing to video shooters. Sony has designed the Mark 2 version of this lens with an external trombone-style zoom mechanism instead of the original internal zoom mechanism. This feature mirrors the collapsable zoom mechanism of the 70-200mm Gmaster lens.

This choice is excellent for keeping weight and size down, allowing you to construct an overall smaller lens. However, video shooters may encounter newfound difficulties balancing the lens on stabilizers and using matte boxes, and the lens's size and centre of gravity change as you zoom.

I wouldn't say I like this change for those reasons, but I appreciate the size and weight reduction.

Increasing the versatility of this lens is that they've drastically improved the close focus distance from 1 meter away on the original to just .26m away on the Mark 2 version giving the lens macro-like capabilities.

This addition is an excellent addition to this zoom lens because it allows you to frame your subjects even tighter. Shooters in the wildlife category will love it.

Another benefit and one of my original pet peeves with the mark one version of this lens was the use of teleconverters. The mark one version could not use the excellent Sony teleconverters designed to work with the 70 200 f/2.8 Gmaster lens. However, this new lens does support teleconverters meaning you can get up to double the reach of a traditional 200mm lens and turn it into a 400mm lens at the maximum zoom.

This new capability is tremendous and one of my favourite new features.

Sony has also included a new mode-enabled steady shot, which uses a camera shake algorithm to correct and stabilize your frame when shooting moving subjects.

One thing I don't like but I can understand is the price increase. The lens price has increased from $1500 originally for mark one to $1700 for Mark 2. While this is an increase, I don't mind this as much as some other lenses.

This lens will likely be worth the price and is expected to arrive in stores as early as September 2023.

In conclusion, I'm excited to see a new lens in the Sony line up. And it's not just any old lens. It's an innovative revision of a crowd favourite and Sony's 50th lens in the e-mount system. Hard to believe we're already at 50 lenses.

Not only does the FE 70-200MM F4 Macro G OSS II contain superb high-speed and high-performance AF unique to G lenses, but this is also the world's first zoom lens to offer half macro capability throughout the zoom range, with a maximum magnification of 0.5x. In addition, with a teleconverter (sold separately[3]), super-telephoto shooting up to 400mm and life-size 1:1 magnification macro shooting throughout the entire zoom range is possible[4].

The weight savings, teleconverter compatibility, and 1:2 macro mode easily make this lens one of the most exciting Sony lenses of the year, and that's before all the other incremental improvements like autofocus and stabilization.

Knowing that this new lens is out, there will be tough to look at my Mark One.