Thypoch 24-50mm f/2.8: Half the Price of Sony's Version, But Is the Image Quality There?

Thypoch built its reputation on manual focus prime lenses, so when the company announced an autofocus zoom, nobody saw it coming. The Thypoch 24-50mm f/2.8 is not only the brand's first zoom lens, it's the first autofocus zoom lens to come out of China entirely, and it lands at $619 on Sony E-mount, undercutting the Sony 24-50mm f/2.8 G by roughly half.

Coming to you from Christopher Frost, this detailed video puts the Thypoch 24-50mm f/2.8 through a full evaluation on a 61 MP Sony a7CR, which is about as demanding a test as you can run. Frost covers build quality, autofocus performance, distortion, vignetting, flare resistance, bokeh, and sharpness at multiple focal lengths and apertures. The build quality impression is genuinely positive: a plastic body with a solid feel, metal lens mount, weather-sealing, a USB-C port for firmware updates, and a 450 g weight that keeps things manageable. The autofocus, which was arguably the biggest question mark given Thypoch's background, turns out to work quietly, accurately, and quickly in both single and continuous modes across the zoom range.

Where things get more nuanced is image quality. At 24mm and f/2.8, center sharpness is strong, but the corners are soft with noticeable color fringing. At 50mm and f/2.8, even the center loses contrast, which Frost notes looks worse on a 61 MP sensor than it would on a 33 MP one. Stopping down improves things considerably, and by f/5.6 the lens is performing well across most of the frame. Distortion is average, flipping from barrel at 24mm to moderate pincushion at 50mm, but vignetting is surprisingly low across the range. One standout quirk: the sun stars produced by this lens are among the largest Frost has ever seen, appearing even at f/4 and growing dramatically as you stop down further.

There are a few other things in the video worth seeing for yourself. Frost looks at close-up image quality, chromatic aberration across multiple apertures, and how the lens handles flare when shooting directly into bright light. He also gives his honest take on how this lens stacks up against the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 and the Sony G lens in terms of value and whether the optical tradeoffs are acceptable given the price. Check out the video above for the full breakdown from Frost.