Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 OSS G

Flickr launched on February 10 2004. In May 2014, a bit more than ten years’ later, there were a series of photowalks organised by Flickr. I went to the London one. Not really knowing what I’d be photographing I took an all purpose lens, the (wonderful) Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM on my Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Here are the photos from that walk.

In 2019 I made the jump to Sony and the A7RIII. The one lens I missed most was this Canon lens. I could use the adaptor, but it made an already chunky-ish chunkier. So I sold the Canon 24-105mm (for only £195, sadly) and bought the Sony equivalent. And it’s a hell of a lens.

Mount	Sony E (full frame compatible)
Weight	663g
Purchased	6 October 2019
From	Jessops
Price	£1,140 (yeah, I know)

If your first response to that is “For that money it really should be a good lens” then I’m with you. It’s fairly well built and easy to use, which I’ll cover below, but most importantly it helps take lovely photos.

In February 2024, with Flickr now being 20 years old, Flickr organised a 20th anniversary photowalk. It was a pretty short walk; fortunately the London Flickr group added a decent extra bit to the walk. So the 24-105mm once again came out, this time the Sony version.

The lens is snappy and very quiet to focus; you can zoom in fast and move the lens and as long as the camera can keep up you’re fine. Getting a quick shot of something that will be soon gone is easy without some of the hunting I sometimes see on other lenses.

At 24mm f/4 isn’t particularly special. It’s possible to get decent out-of-focus areas, but you’re going to need to be close to the subject (the minimum focusing distance is 38cm away). f/4 is easier to work with on the full frame cameras; you’re getting less noise over the image for an equivalent photograph so you can afford to increase the ISO. This is a fixed maximum aperture lens, so while f/4 at 24mm is nothing to shout about, f/4 at 105mm is more like it. You can nicely isolate subjects at this end of the zoom range (see the above photo where the shop is pretty close behind them, but you still have a pleasant difference between them and the shop-front).

Where this excels is in sharp, clear images with low distortion (at either end of the zoom range). There’s a bit of vignetting (easily corrected; I like it so I leave it in). There’s very little flare; you can make it flare, but you have to try and really direct it in to the sun – here’s an example photo.

However much a zoom lens can seem like it makes life too easy (and maybe discourages you to find a better position to stand and take a better photo), there is a lot to be said for the reach of this lens. 24-105mm is a really good range and the lens works great right next to the subject but also excellently when you’re some way away. Sharpness is great throughout.

The zoom ring is decent if not amazing; it perhaps doesn’t have enough distance between 24-105mm which makes smaller adjustments harder, and it’s got a bit of zoom creep (where the lens will extend by itself) if you hold the lens facing down. There is a switch on the lens to turn on or off image stabilisation; it is annoyingly easy for it to get knocked off when I pull the lens out my bag; I wish it was a bit firmer. I’ll confess I’m not sure I’ve ever manually focused this lens.

Ever since I bought this lens, it’s been my go-to. If I’m rushing out the house and can’t think what to take, I take this. It’s not the lightest, widest-aperture, highest-quality, widest zoom or furthest telephoto I own, but it’s utterly dependable and has a consistently high hit rate.

Is it worth the cost? This is not possible to answer – it depends on what you want. I’ve taken it out so many times over nearly five years now and it has never really let me down. There are some alternatives that interest me: the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II is the first lens I reviewed here, and is just wonderful. It’s also nearly twice the price of this lens. Sony have released a 24-50mm f/2.8 that is £1,150 at the time of writing, so smaller zoom range, but a stop lighter. You lose the stabilisation; this is less of an issue given in-body stabilisation in Sony cameras now. Tamron have a 28-75mm f/2.8 for about £900 that is pretty well reviewed.

One day I’ll get the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II. Until then this is going to be with me my Sony cameras more often than not. And I hope Flickr stays with me too; my anniversary on the site comes next year, where I’ll mark 20 years of uploads.