p.19 #2 · Sony FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS Image Thread
mogul wrote:
I own all the above lenses, and surprisingly, the 400/800 is my favorite for birds. I thought the darkness would be a no-go, but it hasn't been a problem. The 300 is my next favorite. I am getting too old to comfortably take out the 400f2.8 or 600f4.
Yeah, my 600 GM has been collecting dusts since I bought the 300 GM (used with the 2X TC) and the 400-800;
p.19 #3 · Sony FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS Image Thread
Cooper's hawks are beginning the yearly ritual of nest building, my favorite time of year to photograph my favorite bird. And of course, one has to eat when burning so many calories on nest building. A1 with 400-800. Tucson, AZ.
p.19 #11 · Sony FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS Image Thread
dolina wrote:
Awesome images everyone.
A question, who here replaced their Sony 200-600mm to a 400-800mm because they found themselves using 600mm nearly 100% of the time?
I bought my 400-800mm for two reasons. The first was that I did end up taking most images with my 200-600mm at 500 to 600mm. Going through my lightroom catalog showed that was very much the case. I took very few at shorter focal lengths. Interestingly, in a recent trip to Yellowstone, I could have used the 100-400mm range a bit more. Second, the reviews predicted it was sharper than the 200-600mm.
My experience has been that while my 200-600mm was very good, my 400-800mm is indeed sharper. I have really appreciated the extended range to 800mm, though have found that at times that can be tricky to work with as technique at that focal length can matter, particularly in low light. I was worried about the f/8 at the long end, but that has not been as much of a limitation as I anticipated. I have used it extensively as my wildlife lens and am very happy with it. I might pick up a 100-400mm at some point to pair with it as that will give me short to mid telephoto range I am now missing with the 400-800. Using a 2x on my 70-200mm G ii to cover 140-400mm at f/8 min aperture is a bit limiting.
p.19 #12 · Sony FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS Image Thread
CPWarner wrote:
I bought my 400-800mm for two reasons. The first was that I did end up taking most images with my 200-600mm at 500 to 600mm. Going through my lightroom catalog showed that was very much the case. I took very few at shorter focal lengths. Interestingly, in a recent trip to Yellowstone, I could have used the 100-400mm range a bit more. Second, the reviews predicted it was sharper than the 200-600mm.
My experience has been that while my 200-600mm was very good, my 400-800mm is indeed sharper. I have really appreciated the extended range to 800mm, though have found that at times that can be tricky to work with as technique at that focal length can matter, particularly in low light. I was worried about the f/8 at the long end, but that has not been as much of a limitation as I anticipated. I have used it extensively as my wildlife lens and am very happy with it. I might pick up a 100-400mm at some point to pair with it as that will give me short to mid telephoto range I am now missing with the 400-800. Using a 2x on my 70-200mm G ii to cover 140-400mm at f/8 min aperture is a bit limiting. ...Show more →
It is impressive to hear people find the 400-800mm sharper. The reason I say that is not my disbelief in what they report, or in Sony's ability to make a superior optic, but just my experience with the realities of managing longer optics. Heat shimmer and atmospheric haze, handholding techniques, and even tripod and monopod use still will suffer more from vibrations, wind, etc at longer focal lengths.
It probably means this lens is more than just marginally better but truly is superior to go against all that and still yield a noticeably better result... and also probably speaks to the high caliber of Pro, Semi-Pro, and Advanced Amateur photographers we have on this forum buying this lens that already have good techniques.
I hope to be join those people soon and be able to make the 400-800mm look good in my hands. My CC almost has enough air miles to cash in and get me more than halfway there, I just gotta keep finding ways to pay my larger bills on the CC, and more importantly, keep the wife from finding another use for those air miles.
p.19 #13 · Sony FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS Image Thread
Erictator wrote:
It is impressive to hear people find the 400-800mm sharper. The reason I say that is not my disbelief in what they report, or in Sony's ability to make a superior optic, but just my experience with the realities of managing longer optics. Heat shimmer and atmospheric haze, handholding techniques, and even tripod and monopod use still will suffer more from vibrations, wind, etc at longer focal lengths.
It probably means this lens is more than just marginally better but truly is superior to go against all that and still yield a noticeably better result... and also probably speaks to the high caliber of Pro, Semi-Pro, and Advanced Amateur photographers we have on this forum buying this lens that already have good techniques.
I hope to be join those people soon and be able to make the 400-800mm look good in my hands. My CC almost has enough air miles to cash in and get me more than halfway there, I just gotta keep finding ways to pay my larger bills on the CC, and more importantly, keep the wife from finding another use for those air miles.
Oh, don't think for a second that heat shimmer at long distances is not an issue. However, no lens will solve that issue. What you should hear is that in the 400mm-600mm range in good conditions, my 400-800mm is better than my 200-600mm was. I thought my 200-600mm was good, but my 400-800mm is simply better. Beyond 600mm, you had to use the 1.4x with the 200-600mm and that significantly degraded optical performance in my experience. So at 800mm, the 400-800mm is indeed better than the 200-600mm with 1.4x. None of those statements are commenting on technique or atmospheric effects. Those issues can and will affect the image quality achieved with either lens. Your ability to hand hold at those focal lengths does lean on good technique as well as the excellent OSS in the lens. Keeping shutter speed up to eliminate motion blur is a balance with ISO, but that is the tradeoff on the 400-800mm. It gives flexibility of focal length, and reasonable weight, but you give up the speed of the 600mm f/4.
p.19 #14 · Sony FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS Image Thread
I received my new 400-800 a few days ago and photographed some backyard birds yesterday and then went out to a pond today to photograph ducks, geese, and a swan. I would say that 95% of the images are soft, even when shot using a gimbal and on static subjects. Some images came out nice and sharp, but very few. Is this common with this lens, or do I have a lemon?
I will post a small selection below - a set of full frame and then the cropped versions. While I know that the birds are not large in the frame, I still would expect better sharpness. These images are of a swan that is not moving around, and a duck that is moving slowly. All shot using a gimbal on a tripod.
BIF were all terribly soft, although that may have been in part due to the shutter speed that I was using (1/2500 and 1/3200), although in all honesty, they were softer than they should have been. My 300 with the 2x is miles ahead of this 400-800.
Would appreciate any thoughts that you might have. At this point, I plan to return it unless there is something that I am doing wrong that can correct the problem.
p.19 #17 · Sony FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS Image Thread
Thank you. Another person also thought that it could be atmospheric distortion.
I am not good at estimating distance, but these were probably shot at around 40 ft I guess. So, it was definitely not close. I have shot many times at that pond with both my 300mm (with and w/o teleconverters) and my 200-600mm and have never encountered this kind of softness.
When I photographed backyard birds, a quite high number of those were soft too and they were only about +/- 15 ft. Some were sharp but I was really surprised at how many were soft.
If the weather cooperates, I’ll give it another try tomorrow. Really appreciate the input.
p.19 #20 · Sony FE 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS Image Thread
Did you do back to back comparisons with the 300mm f/2.8+2X and your 400-800mm? That might be useful. It could certainly rule out atmospheric distortion if the 300mm+TC produces superior results. One other thing to try is to make sure you have the full time DMF turned off. I have had issues with bumping that and messing up my shots. Try shooting with that off.
