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Sony A long glass

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
Agreed. I shoot with A7RII series cameras with the battery grip. I prefer the heft on my A7RII and A7II vs the skinny raw A7 series (although the A7s I like as a small handheld night camera).

i can post in a couple of weeks how well the A7RII/150-600 performed on a full wimberley on my Gitzo GT1588 (which seems to intimidate everyone who sees it! ;) )
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Great responses folks, this will help a few folks out. Myself I'm on hold for the really long stuff but wanted to know what folks thought.
 

UHDR

New member
i own 70300G and 70400G, both mk 1. there is certain rendering style with the 70400G that i rarely see in other lens. the best way to describe it is probably say it has certain 3D-ness and silkiness associated with it. i put it down to the G coating.

the 70300G can do similar style rendering in 50-60% of the situation. but i very rarely use the 70400G due to size and weight. on A7R (mk1) with LAEA4, 70300g balance/handle quite well. im waiting for the 70300G mk2 so i can see the improvement in AF speed.

(See attachments, both from 70400G with a77 mk1. I dont have the original files at hand [moving house at the moment]. i just download/re-upload some of my facebook pictures which lost some of its sharpness)
 

Attachments

mwalker

Subscriber Member
thanks for starting this thread Guy, I too have been looking for longer glass for the 7R2. I purchased the Tam 150-600mm until Sony/Zeiss makes a FE mount so I'll stay tuned to this thread.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Thanks it was really inspired by Mike Evanglest as he was asking me some questions in this area and I'm a little lost on the long stuff so I agree a great thread as we are learning a lot here. Great stuff folks it's why Jack and I started this place. It's threads like this
 

dmward

Member
Took the 150-600 Tamron out for a test drive this afternoon.
There was an antique Mustang Car Show at the Autobahn Country Club as well as practice for members on the other track. The show cars got a chance to cruise on the south track.

The truck was shot at 330mm, F5.6, ISO 400, 1/2000.

The BMW as shot at 600mm, F8, ISO 800, 1/2500.

The BMW is going much faster than the truck. ;)

Camera was set to AF-C, medium flexible spot, burst mode. I had the camera and lens mounted on a gimbal and monopod.

The lens performs as I expected. I'll have to get much better at panning.

I'm acquiring focus, with multiple green squares in the focus zone, then, while continuing to pan fire off 3 or 4 images. The bit that I've checked it appears that I have at least one acceptable image per burst which I consider acceptable given the nature of this shooting.


20150913DSC09192.jpg

20150913DSC09686.jpg
 

dmward

Member
I noticed, when reviewing the images from the track yesterday that it appears the first image in a burst sequence is better focused that subsequent images. This suggests that the lens is only focusing for the first image. Anyone with some experience that can either support or refute the observation?
 

dmward

Member
Which burst speed did you use?
Good question.
I just selected the burst mode icon. Didn't notice that I had a choice about high or slow. Based on the number of frames per burst I'm going to guess slow since I could consciously decide to stop and only one additional frame was fired. None of the bursts are more than 4 or 5 frames.

Update: I just checked and the lens does support H and L burst modes and I had it on H.
 
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ErikKaffehr

Well-known member
Hi,

I own some long Sony glass. The 70-300/4.5-5.6G, the 70-400/4-5.6G and the 400/4.5APO. Of these I use the 70-400 mostly. It works on the A7rII and is decently sharp, but nowhere as good as the 90/2.8 macro.

AF works accurately for static subjects.

Will post some images end of september, don't have the bandwith now.

The 70-300 is not as good as the 70-400. But all lenses I have used on the A7rII worked well. Better than expected.

Best regards
Erik


I'm at a disadvantage here since I never shot Sonys long zooms past the 70-200. Forget price for a second what's the best they make I know they have a 70-300 and a 70-400 but which lens is better and lets go a step further better than the Sigmas and Tamron lenses. Also which works better now with the new A7rII. Certainly like to see them using the LA-E3 adapter too for the extra AF points and functions.
 

dmward

Member
Was at the BMW Championship today. It was a Pro-Am so was able to take camera onto the site without photographer credentials.

Here is a shot made with 150-600 at 600mm. Also cropped from full frame. to about 4700 pixels per side.

I did not take a monopod so I decided to set the aperture at F8, Shutter speed at 1/2500 and then use Auto ISO to get exposure in matrix mode.

Some processing in Lightroom to open shadows. There was a strong sun backlighting so shadows were set to +100. Highlights brought down at least -25, then black point was set to ensure there really is something black in the image.

Handheld. One of the accredited photographers was standing next to me but inside the ropes, he had a Canon 1D something with 200-400 zoom. He commented on my camera and the good things he had heard about it.

20150916DSC00115.jpg


HERE are some more pictures from the day. Bill Murray was a crowd favorite. He grew up one street over from my wife. One of his best friends is a friend of her's as well. That's what started the conversation on the side of the practice green.
 
but the 70-400 also seems like an interesting choice. These appear used often enough.
One just came up on Amazon Warehouse Deals for $1700, so I decided to give it a whirl. (It's returnable.) Looking forward to comparing it to the Tamron personally.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Mike I was in Tempe camera Friday and a customer was buying a A7rII and he was heading out to shoot a football game of his son. Long story short the sales guy did not know the system. Of course I jumped in and they had the Silver 70-400. So had them put a LAE-3 on and it worked pretty nice in the store. Want to hear your thoughts. I forgot to get the price though
 

uhoh7

New member
Hard to get a long lens with decent speed and the kind of sharpness we are used to.

My longest lens with these attributes is the Nikkor 180/2.8 AIS ED. It is a great lens, no caveats. The sony 70400 can be decent, especially once you hit 5.6 or 8.

Now I'm looking at a nikon 300/2.8 AIS ED, which is a monster, but supposedly great at 2.8 and you can find them under a grand.

Yes it's MF :) For me that's OK.
 

frozenbb

Member
One just came up on Amazon Warehouse Deals for $1700, so I decided to give it a whirl. (It's returnable.) Looking forward to comparing it to the Tamron personally.
I think you'll enjoy it. It's the best long zoom in this range I've ever used, and at 400mm more or less the equal of Canon's 400mm 5.6 prime. It's sharp, contrasty, quick to af (this is where the g2 version really shines), etc. Also, aberrations are quite well controlled - better than Nikon 300mm 2.8 AIS in that respect.

I'll be curious about the comparison with the Tamron, as I'm sure that extra reach is hard to give up. It's really too bad Sigma decided not to release a version of the 150-600mm OS Sport in A-mount or e-mount. I bet that lens would really shine on an A7RII.
 

doug

Well-known member
Hard to get a long lens with decent speed and the kind of sharpness we are used to.

My longest lens with these attributes is the Nikkor 180/2.8 AIS ED. It is a great lens, no caveats. The sony 70400 can be decent, especially once you hit 5.6 or 8.

Now I'm looking at a nikon 300/2.8 AIS ED, which is a monster, but supposedly great at 2.8 and you can find them under a grand.

Yes it's MF :) For me that's OK.
I've started using the Canon FD 300mm f/4 L. Manual focus, decent lens once you correct for lateral CA. About US$400.

full image:



crop (open in new tab for full resolution):



EDIT: my bad I'm using it on E-mount, not A-mount.
 
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Hausen

Active member
I recently bought the Canon 200 2.8 for a tele option for my long exposure kit. Really impressed with the lens and it is pretty small, especially when you compare it to the big zooms. The Metabones firmware update yesterday means it now has AF on the A7RII. Worth considering if you don't want long long.

Speaking of tele lenses, I was a little bored yesterday and took out my Canon 90TSE and my Minolta M 90/4 to see which I preferred the look of for LE. Was surprised that the cheap little Minolta looked better to my eye, but the interesting thing for me was that it appeared that the M lens was easier to focus than the Canon on the A7RII. Not sure why but the evf seemed sharper more contrasty, has anybody else found this with M lenses?
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
Limited wifi and cell coverage where I am in Kruger. NP but what I can say is that the Tamron 150-600 is stellar - but really only with the lea4, not the lea3 which I found to be severely lacking in compatibility overall with the A7RII overall. 399 focus points are nice but worthless if they don't work reliably with the lea3 vs seamless with lea4.

pics to follow when I get back on saturday.
 

doug

Well-known member
Speaking of tele lenses, I was a little bored yesterday and took out my Canon 90TSE and my Minolta M 90/4 to see which I preferred the look of for LE. Was surprised that the cheap little Minolta looked better to my eye, but the interesting thing for me was that it appeared that the M lens was easier to focus than the Canon on the A7RII. Not sure why but the evf seemed sharper more contrasty, has anybody else found this with M lenses?
The Minolta M (actually C) mount 90/4 lens was made by Leitz. Lenses with more contrast have always been easier for me to focus.
 

dmward

Member
... the Tamron 150-600 is stellar - but really only with the lea4, not the lea3 which I found to be severely lacking in compatibility overall with the A7RII overall. 399 focus points are nice but worthless if they don't work reliably with the lea3 vs seamless with lea4.
Graham,
So far I've been pleased with the 150-600 performance with the LEA3. I'm not attempting to do birds in flight or similar. I have used it to shoot cars on a race track moving at an angle across the frame and panning.

What specific performance benefits are limited to the LEA4?
 
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