I have been shooting a decent amount with my Sony a7R these days and I have run into some auto focus speed issues along the way. I have found that Sony’s hit rate of moving subjects is noticeably lower than what I have been used to with my Canon gear. This issue rang especially true while I was shooting some soccer this summer with the Sony E-mount 70-200mm f4 G OSS. Since I have a Canon EF 70-200mm f4 IS I thought it might be interesting to do a little real world test of these to lenses head to head. Even thought I had an idea of how the test would go from my past experiences with both lenses, I was surprised at end result of this one.
For this video I employed my two children to help me out. My 6 year old son Joshua was my 2nd camera man and my 4 year old son Cameron was the test subject :). Oh and by the way, if you have a youtube account please subscribe to my channel. I am going to try and do a lot more videos than I have been doing. YouTube.com/user/RobMoses 👍
Thanks for stopping by, Rob
Rob Moses Photography 
I love the comment heard off screen at the end: “I’m tired!” Great family and great video.
LOL 😅 Glad you caught that! Makes me laugh every time. So funny!
And if you try this with the SONY A7rII?
I don’t have a a7Rii.
Get one 🙂 I think there is nothing wrong with the SONY lens; it’s the A7r body that causes the bad autofocus results. I own a SONY A7 and the AF can’t compete with the Nikon D700, I still use. With the A7rII SONY now has their first camera that can AF is accurate as the Canon/Nikon’s we were using. I liked your test and you have a great son. See you!
I think you are completely right that a lot of the autofocus issue falls not the body, however the lens it self is not completely at fault either. I could have put the Canon lens on a T3i and got the same result. It is my opinion that the Canon lens is superior to the Sony. I also have a hard time beleveing that the a7 has better autofocus than the D700, but I have never owned a D700 so I will have to take your word on that one. By the way, I have recently got a A7ii, so we’ll see how that compares to the 5D mark iii. I don’t expect it to be on the same level as Canon or Nikon, but I do expect it to be better than the a7r. It has been well documented by a lot of other photographers that these cameras just do not compete with a DSLR in terms of autofocus speed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not shitting on the Sony cameras, I like them, but I am also not so in love with the cameras that I can’t see their short comings. Thanks for sharing your opinion and for watching and liking my video. Oh and thanks about my son too ;).
Great review!
Thanks pal! 🙂
Interesting comparison
Thanks Nelson.
Hey Rob; I think there is some misunderstanding here. You are completely right that the D700 has the better AF. (I thought I said that as well…) The A7 has troubles in low light and when the subject is moving; but for patterns, structures, landscapes, etc. it’s a good camera, with lots of detail. I’m looking forward to your experiences with the A7rII; because a smaller, lighter full frame camera with a good live view and an AF as good as a DSLR would be great. (and I don’t have a 70-200mm. SONY so I don’t know how good it is) Enjoy the weekend!
Oh ok, sorry I misunderstood regarding the D700 comment. Thanks again and have a good weekend! 😀