Sony FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* SEL2470Z

 
Lens Reviews / Sony Lenses i Lab tested

Most people tend to think of image stabilization as being mainly for telephoto lenses. While it's true that their longer focal lengths tend to magnify the effects of camera shake, image stabilization can provide a very useful assist at wider angle focal lengths as well; anyone who's ever tried to blur the image of a waterfall, while keeping the surrounding landscape tack-sharp knows exactly what I'm talking about.

At 24mm, we see ...

Mouse over this chart to show results with IS activated.

Zoomed in to 70mm, we see...

Mouse over this chart to show results with IS activated.

Sony's Optical SteadyShot helped increase usable shots at both wide and telephoto focal lengths. At 24mm, the OSS systems is less beneficial, only providing about 1 stop or so of stabilization. However, at 70mm, it was much more helpful, providing around 3 stops of improvement.

IS systems tend to provide more benefit to less-stable shooters than very steady ones, so most users will see the same or greater amounts of shake reduction as we measured here. You can read more about our IS test methodology here: SLRgear IS Test Methodology, v2.