Sony has just released the latest in their Power Zoom lineup — the Sony PZ 16-35mm F4 Lens. I was able to test out the lens, so let’s take a look at what you can expect of Sony’s newest product.
A Unique Way to Zoom
To me, a gimbal felt like the perfect way to test this lens for a number of reasons. In this case, I used the Zhiyun Weebill 2 Pro Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer. Balancing a gimbal is a game of millimeters. Move the camera ever so slightly and the entire balance of the gimbal will be thrown off. Many zoom lenses physically telescope in and out when zooming. Just this tiny shift in weight can cause undue stress to the gimbal motors and ruin them over time. Although, with the Sony PZ 16-35mm f4 Lens, all the movement happens inside the lens body. This means your camera stays perfectly balanced no matter the focal length.
The Sony PZ 16-35mm f4 Lens has an electric zoom function powered by four completely silent linear XD motors. Traditional zoom rings found on normal lenses can be less than ideal when working with a gimbal. Constantly twisting the lens back and forth adds a considerable amount of torque to motors and will also wear on them over time. Fortunately, Sony has included several different options for controlling the zoom on this lens.
Customizable Zoom Direction and Speed
As with a normal unpowered lens, you’ll find a traditional zoom ring on the body of the lens. Since this is electronically and not physically controlling the lens, you can change zoom direction and zoom speed in the camera/s custom function settings. For gimbal operation, I prefer to use the rocker switch mounted on the side, as it is easy to each and doesn’t add any extra torque to the motors. You can even control zoom wirelessly using a remote or the Sony smartphone app.
Speaking of zoom, sometimes 35mm isn’t quite long enough. Instead of swapping lenses right away and having to rebalance everything, this lens’ side-mounted assignable button gives you another option. Any time a lens has an assignable button like this one does, I map it to toggle APSC mode. This punches in on the full-frame sensor and effectively bumps your focal length to around 56mm while still giving you full 4K video output. In addition to the assignable button, there’s a manual focus switch, an aperture de-click switch, and an iris lock to further customize your shooting experience.
Small Form Factor
The size of the Sony PZ 16-35mm f4 Lens also makes it a great gimbal lens. Unlike most powered zoom lenses, this thing is tiny! In fact, at just 12.4 ounces, it’s actually the lightest f4 wide-angle mirrorless zoom available today. This makes a huge difference after a long day of gimbal shooting. Your arms will definitely thank you for it.
Pristine Autofocus
While I don’t always use autofocus when shooting on a gimbal, it can be super helpful when shooting fast-moving subjects during action sports. The Sony PZ 16-35mm f4 Lens handles autofocus flawlessly thanks to its two completely silent XD linear focus motors. These motors are so fast that when shooting on the Sony A1 body, it can accurately maintain focus even while shooting 30 images per second!
You can already tell this lens is optically beautiful, but I would be remiss if I didn’t explain why this is so. The Sony PZ 16-35mm f4 Lens is built with 13 elements in 12 groups and is sharp throughout the entire zoom range. Not only is it sharp, but Sony has done work to suppress focus breathing and the lens will hold focus even while zooming. This makes it great for trick shots such as dolly zooms. Sony really nailed it with this lens. Due to its compact form factor, power zoom, and razor sharp optics, Sony has created a lens capable of tackling nearly anything you can come up with.
The lens will be available for preorder tomorrow (March 23rd).
