Sharpness at 70mm

For this test, the Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS lens was attached to a Sony A7S body, which in turn was mounted on a sturdy tripod. Exposure delay mode was activated. Tonal and colour variances across the crops are due to changes in natural light during the session.

The full frame at 70mm

Centre-frame sharpness at 70mm is very high at all focal lengths, apart from f/22 where diffraction softens things slightly. Corner sharpness is ever so slightly softer than the centre of frame at f/4.5 and f/5.6, but at f/8 there’s barely any variation in sharpness across the frame.

These detail levels remain fairly constant as focal lengths increase, with maximum sharpness reached between f/8 and f/16, and minor softening at extreme apertures. On the whole, sharpness from the FE 70-300mm comes impressively close to that produced by the new FE 50mm f/1.8 lens when comparing optimal apertures.

Aperture	Centre Crop	Edge Crop
f/4.5
f/5.6
f/8
f/11
f/16
f/22