Sony’s New 70-200 f/2.8 Leaks, Is King of Switches

Yes, it does appear that the new Sony 70-200 f/2.8 GM lens has an aperture ring, imitating a signature Canon RF lens feature. Yes, it’ll have a switch to turn off that ring’s clickiness. That ring also appears to have some teeth on it that just might be tall enough for an external aperture servo for the video crowd.

[Update, the lens launched this morning (10/13/2021). It will cost a couple hundred dollars more than the original, has lost 1/3rd the weight of an already relatively light lens, and has a center of balance just above the tripod lug.]

More than half the lens elements in the 17-element design have one of four special materials or aspherical shapes for various corrections. And it appears to have a four focus motors, which should make for a pretty zippy autofocus speed.

The control panels on the side of the lens contain at least eleven switches – a record for a non-super-telephoto lens. Included are four prefocus buttons, AF/MF, full-time manual focus, focus limiter, image stabilization switch, stabilization mode switch, and a locking switch that looks like it may simply lock all the other switches (lest you do something dangerous like actually hold the lens). You know a lens has a lot of switches, when it needs to add a switch to manage the switches.