In summary
This lens will be of particular interest to professional sports and wildlife photographers who use Sony’s mirrorless, full-frame cameras. Its size and weight are well-matched to the larger camera bodies, whereas it would be difficult to balance on a smaller and lighter, cropped-sensor body.
Being able to focus to within less than one metre while delivering a maximum magnification ratio of almost 1:3 (1:2.86 to be precise), it can also be used for taking close-up shots of flowers and other still life objects. Focus hold buttons make it easy to lock focus and recompose shots and are useful when waiting for subjects to be correctly positioned within the frame.
Full review
Announced in April 2007 at the same time as the Alpha α9 camera, the Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS lens was the longest lens in Sony’s mirrorless lens line-up until it was surpassed by the FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS in mid-2019. Made for ‘full frame’ cameras, it is solidly built with dust and moisture resistance and comes in a pale grey livery with a matching, cylindrical lens hood. As a G Master lens, it is designed to deliver high resolution with minimal aberrations and carries a ‘Made in Japan’ label.
Side view of the FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS lens without the supplied lens hood. (Source: Sony.)
The optical design of this lens is complex, with 22 elements in 16 groups, among them two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) and one Super ED elements. Nano AR coating has been applied to suppress ghosting and flare and the front element has a fluorine coating to repel dust and grime and provide extra protection and easier cleaning.
Although made mainly from magnesium alloy, the lens is relatively heavy at around 1395 grams without the supplied add-ons.
This lens combines a double linear motor with a Direct Drive SSM (DDSSM) to provide internal focusing, which is fast quiet and precise. A floating elements system benefits image quality when working at close distances with relatively high magnification.
Bundled with this lens is a colour-matched cylindrical hood that is lined with black flocking to prevent internal reflections. It also sports a locking button and a sliding hatch that lets users adjust polarising filters without removing the hood.
The tripod collar and foot are also colour-matched and equally robust. The collar can be rotated and there’s a large locking screw to keep it in place. The foot itself is individually removable.
Who’s it For?
This lens will be of particular interest to professional sports and wildlife photographers who use Sony’s mirrorless, full-frame cameras. Its size and weight are well-matched to the larger camera bodies, whereas it would be difficult to balance on a smaller and lighter, cropped-sensor body. Its high price tag also puts it beyond the reach of many keen enthusiasts.
Being able to focus to within less than one metre while delivering a maximum magnification ratio of almost 1:3 (1:2.86 to be precise), it can also be used for taking close-up shots of flowers and other still life objects. Focus hold buttons make it easy to lock focus and recompose shots and are useful when waiting for subjects to be correctly positioned within the frame.
Build and Ergonomics
As you’d expect from a lens built in Japan, this lens has been constructed to high quality standards. It’s also very well designed and, although relatively heavy, feels well balanced when attached to a camera like the Sony α9 Mark II, which we used for our tests.
Angled view of the FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS lens on the Sony α9 body. (Source: Sony.)
At the 100mm focal length, the lens is 205 mm long with a maximum diameter of 93.9 mm. The hood is 75 mm in length and reverses over the outer barrel for transport and storage. Zooming from 100mm to 400mm extends the inner barrel (which is also colour-matched to the outer barrel’s pale grey) by 75 mm, bringing the overall length of the lens at full extension with the hood attached to approximately 350 mm.
At the front of the inner barrel is a bayonet mounting for the lens hood, behind which is an 11 mm wide metal section that is fixed in place. Immediately behind it on the outer barrel lies the focusing ring, which is 26 mm wide and almost entirely clad with a ridged rubber grip band. This ring turns very smoothly, including when the camera is powered-up and in manual focus mode.
A 12 mm wide fixed section of the outer barrel behind the focusing carries three focus hold buttons, which are located to provide easy access when shooting in both landscape and portrait orientations. They’re large enough to be easily found by touch.
The zoom ring, which is 45 mm wide, lies just behind this section of the barrel. It carries a 37 mm wide band of rubberised ridging starting at its leading edge, while its training edge has marks for the 100, 135, 200, 300 and 400mm focal lengths stamped on an un-ridged band. These marks line up against a short black line on the fixed section of the barrel behind the zoom ring.
The zoom ring’s tension can be adjusted with a ridged ring located between the zoom ring and the camera body. This adjustment replaces the conventional zoom lock and is arguably more versatile. However, at the ‘smooth’ end of the scale some zoom creep will occur if the lens is carried pointing downwards, which is very inconvenient in a lens of this size. In contrast, at the ‘tight’ end, the lens can be difficult to extend so it’s best kept at the default intermediate position.
Behind the adjustment ring is a 28 mm wide section of the barrel that contains four control switches that handle AF/MF, focus range (FULL – ∞-3m), Optical Steady Shot (On/Off) and OSS mode (1 and 2). Mode 1 compensates for normal camera shake, while Mode 2 is for panning.
The tripod collar fits in behind this section in a 35 mm wide strip of the barrel, which slopes inwards towards the camera before levelling out for about 18 mm at the lens mount. The tripod collar is attached via a clamp with a large knurled screw to make it removable. Unfortunately, we were unable to shift the screw and remove the tripod mount, although we were able to detach its foot, which is attached with a large wing nut and slide-on fitting.
Performance
We tested the review lens on the new α9 Mark II camera and found that, while it came very close to meeting expectations for the 24-megapixel sensor with JPEG files, it comfortably exceeded expectations for raw files. Although we were only able to take measurements for the 100mm, 135mm and 200mm focal lengths due to the limitations of our testing area, the results showed resolution remained high throughout most of the aperture range, right up to f/11 where diffraction began to reduce sharpness, as shown in the graph of our test results below.
The best results we obtained were at f/8 with the 135mm focal length but centre resolution remained high, even at the widest apertures, for all three positions we tested. Subjective assessments of test shots showed little evidence of edge and corner softening at all focal length settings.
Chromatic aberration is not an issue with this lens since, even without in-camera corrections activated, it remains well within the ‘negligible’ limits. In-camera corrections reduce it to barely-detectable levels, as shown in the graph of our test results below. The red line marks the border between negligible and low CA.
Autofocusing was also very fast and accurate, with the focal hold buttons providing surety for sharp focus upon off-centre objects and when panning to follow moving subjects. The only issues we found were with the 400mm focal length where the lens could occasionally be a little slow to re-focus when changing from distant to close subjects.
Flare and ghosting were also handled extremely well. It’s difficult to force this lens to flare, thanks in part to the generous lens hood and no loss of contrast was found when shooting backlit subjects.
Vignetting at wide apertures was also effectively negligible, even in uncorrected raw files. As expected, for a long zoom lens, rectilinear distortion in uncorrected raw files was barely discernible.
Bokeh was generally smooth and attractive throughout the zoom range with only occasional faint traces of outlining around bright highlights. The camera’s in-built image stabilisation system was able to work with the OSS mechanism in the lens to ensure shake-free shooting in most situations. Subject tracking was also competently handled.
Conclusion
Please Login or Register to access the Conclusion.
SPECS
Picture angle: 24 degrees to 6 degrees 10 minutes
Minimum aperture: f/32-f/40
Lens construction: 22 elements in 16 groups (including 2 ED and 1 Super ED elements)
Lens mounts: Sony FE-mount
Diaphragm Blades: 9 (circular aperture)
Focus drive: Direct Drive SSM system
Stabilisation: Optical SteadyShot built in
Minimum focus: 98 cm
Maximum magnification: 0.35x
Filter size: 77 mm
Dimensions (Diameter x L): 93.9 x 205 mm
Weight: 1395 grams (without tripod mount)
Standard Accessories: Lens front and end caps, lens hood (ALC-SH151), tripod mount, case
Distributor: Sony Australia; 1300 720 071
TESTS
Based on JPEG files.
Based on ARW.RAW files converted into 16-bit TIFF format with Adobe Camera Raw.
SAMPLES
Vignetting at 100mm f/4.5.
Vignetting at 135mm f/5.
Vignetting at 200mm f/5.6.
Vignetting at 300mm f/5.6.
Vignetting at 400mm f/5.6.
Rectilinear distortion at 100mm.
Rectilinear distortion at 135mm.
Rectilinear distortion at 200mm.
Rectilinear distortion at 300mm.
Rectilinear distortion at 400mm.
100mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/320 second at f/8.
135mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/320 second at f/7.1.
200mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/250 second at f/7.1.
300mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/250 second at f/6.3.
400mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/200 second at f/6.3.
Close-up at 100mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/1250 second at f/4.5.
Close-up at 135mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/1250 second at f/5.
Close-up at 200mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/800 second at f/5.6.
Close-up at 300mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/800 second at f/5.6.
Close-up at 400mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/800 second at f/5.6.
Slight highlight outlining at 100mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/1000 second at f/4.5.
Backlit close-up at 100mm focal length, 1/320 second at f/5.6, ISO 100.
Backlit close-up at 400mm focal length, 1/500 second at f/5.6, ISO 100.
400mm focal length, ISO 125, 1/500 second at f/5.6.
Crop from the above image magnified to 100%.
400mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/800 second at f/5.6.
400mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/500 second at f/5.6.
400mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/800 second at f/7.1.
400mm focal length, ISO 400, 1/400 second at f/5.6.
400mm focal length, ISO 160, 1/500 second at f/5.6.
400mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/500 second at f/5.6.
345mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/320 second at f/6.3.
400mm focal length, ISO 320, 1/500 second at f/5.6.
300mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/500 second at f/6.3.
Additional image samples can be found with our review of the Sony α9 Mark II camera.
Rating
RRP: AU$3488; US$2498
- Build: 9.0
- Handling: 8.9
- Image quality: 8.9
- Autofocusing: 9.0
- Versatility: 8.8
BUY