Review on Sony SEL24240 24 240Mm 3 5 6 3 Mirrorless by Siu Yun ᠌

Name: Sony SEL24240 24 240Mm 3 5 6 3 Mirrorless
Item: Sony SEL24240 24 240Mm 3 5 6 3 Mirrorless
Rating: 4

September 13, 2022

The right product for me, the price suited me.

This lens is the reason I switched from the Canon EOS 6D+24-105/4L to the Sony A7III. For cycling trips, I needed a universal zoom that would allow me to shoot EVERYTHING without constantly changing optics.

In terms of mechanics, the lens is a very solid amateur. Moisture protection is declared, although it is not visible from the outside. Autofocus is excellent - silent and fast enough, although in difficult conditions it is not so reliable. The build quality is high, despite the plastic, nothing dangles (like some amateur Canon zooms). The zoom ring rotates smoothly and quietly, with an adequate level of resistance, and you can zoom in when shooting video without any problems.

The lens has good image quality, although in laboratory conditions it is weaker than primes and 3-5x zooms (weird if it were the other way around). Quality in the 24-100mm range is very similar to my old EF24-105/4L. The farther beyond 100mm, the weaker this lens is, however, at 240mm it remains quite decent in the center (but soft around the edges). I am attaching a 100% crop from a frame shot at 240mm f / 6.3.

I note that on Dxomark, the technique of stuffing the quality of 10x zoom into a single number clearly fails here, giving too much importance to weak angles at 240mm. Whereas in the standard range from 24 to 70-100 mm, this lens competes with Sony 28-70 / 3.5-5.6, Zeiss 24-70 / 4, Canon 24-105. It would be naive to expect an amateur 10x zoom to be comparable to something like 24-70/2.8 or primes.

The variation in quality in specimens 24-240 mm is very large! But it can be fixed for free. See the description in "disadvantages".

24-240mm may not be your only lens. It is designed for conditions where maximum versatility is required, and at the same time it is not possible to carry / change several lenses. Moreover, all this should take place outdoors, it is better not to use anything darker than F / 4 for indoor photos.

Personally, my 24-240mm is perfect for cycling and video shooting. For other tasks, there are 28/2 and 55/1.8.

Pros

- Convenient for situations where it is not possible to change optics. - Saves a lot of mass and volume compared to a couple of conventional zooms covering the same range. - Allows you to instantly switch between 24 and 240 mm, which sometimes gives great pictures, while others frantically change optics. - Silent, fairly fast and efficient autofocus. - Excellent mechanical quality for an amateur lens. - Worthy approximation, shooting "semi-macro" is possible. - Some semblance of moisture protection is declared. - Decent image quality for an ultrazoom, especially in the middle of the frame, especially up to 100mm. - Reasonable weight and dimensions for a full-frame zoom, differs little from the EF24-105 / 4L. - Great for amateur video, both in terms of quality and mechanical part (noiselessness and smooth focusing and zooming).

Cons

— Not the best for shooting in low light. - Unreliable autofocus performance in dynamic scenes and in low light. - The image quality (in particular, at a long focus) is expectedly not up to more specialized optics. - High price for an amateur lens. - Huge scatter and unpredictable quality of each individual instance, which is natural for ultrazoom. After the purchase, my lens required adjustment in the official service (under warranty, it took a month), because at 35 mm the right side of the picture was soapy. For optics of this class, this is NORMAL. When buying a 10x full-frame amateur zoom, you need to lay a month in advance for possible adjustment. If every lens had been so carefully adjusted at the factory, it would have cost twice as much.