Sony 400-800 f/6.3-8 G lens coming in Feb EDIT: It's here and Steve has it!!

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It looks like a good solid lens at a decent price. I think I'd add it to my bag if I was shooting Sony. Might be a good alternative for traveling if you didn't want to or couldn't take a big prime.
 
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If I was in the market for the 200-600 or 400-800 I think after watching Steve's video I would likely go to for the 400-800.
I think if anyone is going to spend more than 25% of their time at 601mm and above then the 4-8 makes more sense.
If one rarely needs more than 600 then I think the 200-600 makes sense. And yes, Steve goes over all this at the end of the video.

The downside is the 2/3 stop light loss at 600mm. But at least with my copy of the 200-600 I had to stop down to 7.1 or 8 to get really good sharpness and it looks like the 400-800 is good wide open at 800mm. I think the AF speed advantage and IQ at 800/840mm is going to be a big advantage to the 400-800 as one would expect. At 800/840 you are now 1/3 stop advantage over 200-600/1.4TC and even more like 2/3 to 1 stop as the 2-6/1.4TC did better at f/10 or f/11 at 840mm.
 
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ajrmd said:
After watching Steve's video (and I admit I had to x it as it was 42 min) I was more sold on Sony's ability to eye detect and capture sharp images than anything else. This might be enough for me to think about ditching Nikon.
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come... join me on the dark side!:D

I can confirm that right out of the box with the A1 II, AF was significantly better than the Z8/Z9 in my experience. for both obtaining and staying locked on with focus. the Z9 II / Z8 II have some big shoes to fill ahead.

back to the topic at hand of the 400-800, when it was released I immediately dismissed it as having no interest for me. the more I read and after watching Steve's video - I think I might give it a shot. it could be great for shooting loons, where I'm always sitting at 800mm and f8+ or slower anyways.

feedback has been mixed in my group of local shooters. almost all of them have the A1 + 200-600. a lot of them wanted a refresh for the 200-600. those who regularly use the 1.4x sound like they'll be opting for the 400-800.
 
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nmerc_photos said:
come... join me on the dark side!:D

I can confirm that right out of the box with the A1 II, AF was significantly better than the Z8/Z9 in my experience. for both obtaining and staying locked on with focus. the Z9 II / Z8 II have some big shoes to fill ahead.

back to the topic at hand of the 400-800, when it was released I immediately dismissed it as having no interest for me. the more I read and after watching Steve's video - I think I might give it a shot. it could be great for shooting loons, where I'm always sitting at 800mm and f8+ or slower anyways.

feedback has been mixed in my group of local shooters. almost all of them have the A1 + 200-600. a lot of them wanted a refresh for the 200-600. those who regularly use the 1.4x sound like they'll be opting for the 400-800.
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Sony is accomplishing what Canon did not and while the later produced the huge telescopic 200-800 f/6.3-9, the Sony seems much more useful. While Nikon focused on producing a wide array of very useful lenses for WL, two years later, I still can't get beyond the Nikon AF "issues". As Sony continues to flesh out its lens offerings, the barrier to entry is the A1II price at $6500. One could purchase almost two Z8's for that cost! Now that I am retired and not producing revenue from my photography, switching to Sony would be a big stretch. Plus, I think Sony has the worst color science of the big three (Canon>Nikon>Sony) and back when I was shooting the A9(I&II) and A7rIV, it was a major negative. There's little question that if I were sitting on a pile of cash and just entering the WL fray that Sony would top my list.
 
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Sony engineers knew that 800mm was important and also the overall weight and cost to produce this lens. They decided to have 400mm to 800mm instead of 300mm to 800mm as has been done by others including Sigma. It was a good decision as it makes for a much more affordable lens for their customers. Always good to see R&D invested in producing new zoom lenses for the non-pro photographer.
 
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Calson said:
Sony engineers knew that 800mm was important and also the overall weight and cost to produce this lens. They decided to have 400mm to 800mm instead of 300mm to 800mm as has been done by others including Sigma. It was a good decision as it makes for a much more affordable lens for their customers. Always good to see R&D invested in producing new zoom lenses for the non-pro photographer.
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Depending on how you define "pro", I suspect that many "pro's" could find use for this lens in a variety of situations. I may just pick one up and adapt it to my Nikons while I consider my ultimate fate with the Nikon system.
 
With limitations as noted it looks nice especially for the price.

A couple of handy features this lens has are the short, light zoom throw, this was something I wished the 100-400 GM had, and one of the reasons I sold the 100-400. The other handy feature is the filter rotation door on the hood. I'd be unlikely to use a polarizing filter with an f/8 lens but by positioning the hood with the door at the bottom and opening the door there's better air circulation reducing the chances of a warmer or cooler bubble of air getting trapped in the hood and causing atmospheric distortion.
 
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This new Sony 400-800mm lens surprises me, and I think I will be getting one even though I have the 600GM.
The 600GM however, great as it is, is a very big lens with quite a bit of bulk and weight, and I sometimes want a lens a bit smaller and lighter.
Comparing this lens to the 600GM with the bulky hood and 1.4TC, it is going to be around 800gr lighter and quite a bit shorter and smaller in diameter.

F8 is not great, but I anticipate using it at or close to 800mm most of the time.

What has changed my opinion on this lens most of all though, is the combination of dual focus motors with a DMF switch on the lens.
I recently re-purchased the 200-600G lens for a trip abroad, and optically it was very nice, but I did not like the AF at all, as it would often focus to the background and it was really inconvenient to get it back, because of the lack of a DMF switch. It made the AF experience really unispiring compared to the 600GM.
Also the hood attachment is great, Sony apparently put some extra effort in upgrading this lens compared to the budget 200-600G.

Together with the seemingly very good sharpness, this is looking like a surpisingly good Sony release for wildlife/birding.
 
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ChrisM said:
This new Sony 400-800mm lens surprises me, and I think I will be getting one even though I have the 600GM.
The 600GM however, great as it is, is a very big lens with quite a bit of bulk and weight, and I sometimes want a lens a bit smaller and lighter.
Comparing this lens to the 600GM with the bulky hood and 1.4TC, it is going to be around 800gr lighter and quite a bit shorter and smaller in diameter.

F8 is not great, but I anticipate using it at or close to 800mm most of the time.

What has changed my opinion on this lens most of all though, is the combination of dual focus motors with a DMF switch on the lens.
I recently re-purchased the 200-600G lens for a trip abroad, and optically it was very nice, but I did not like the AF at all, as it would often focus to the background and it was really inconvenient to get it back, because of the lack of a DMF switch. It made the AF experience really unispiring compared to the 600GM.
Also the hood attachment is great, Sony apparently put some extra effort in upgrading this lens compared to the budget 200-600G.

Together with the semmingly great sharpness, this is looking like a surpisingly good Sony release.
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I own the 600 gm as well and still use my 200-600 very often. This new lens is very tempting to replace it for sure. It’s really nice going out at times without carrying the giant prime imo
 
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Looks like an interesting and useful lens. As a Nikon shooter, I'd like to see Nikon do something like this. I have more than my share of Nikon Z telephotos, including both zooms and primes. But this could be a useful zoom range.
 
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Jan Wegener has some good info in a vid about this lens, and doing lens comparisons in the Sony world:

Very interesting stuff. The "blue dot" issue he mentions at the end with the TC is quite strange - clearly visible on some of the video he posts. Cheers!
 
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Saw Jan Wegener's review. If I was shooting Sony, I'd buy this lens.
Still no arca-swiss lens foot but otherwise, value for money, it seems like a great lens, only real drawback seems to be that VR is not as good as Canon/Nikon. Looks very sharp and her in Germany a 400-800 would be more useful than a 200-600 in many situations (unless, of course, it it was a 4/200-600TC :) )
 
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Great video and as a Nikon shooter I was wondering if the Sony E to Z adapter really works and if this lens works with a Sony E to Z adpters such as the Megadap ETZ21 or the FotodioX pro? @Steve - have you tested any of these adapters? If they work well, I would love to see a video review of the Sony 400 to 800 on a Z8/Z9 using one of these adapters.

Thanks
 
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RichF said:
Great video and as a Nikon shooter I was wondering if the Sony E to Z adapter really works and if this lens works with a Sony E to Z adpters such as the Megadap ETZ21 or the FotodioX pro? @Steve - have you tested any of these adapters? If they work well, I would love to see a video review of the Sony 400 to 800 on a Z8/Z9 using one of these adapters.

Thanks
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I'm not Steve, but can confirm the Megadap ETZ 21 works excellently with the Sony 300GM + 2x on the Nikon Z8/Z9.

If I was still shooting Nikon, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a 400-800 to use with it.
 
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mjais said:
Saw Jan Wegener's review. If I was shooting Sony, I'd buy this lens.
Still no arca-swiss lens foot but otherwise, value for money, it seems like a great lens, only real drawback seems to be that VR is not as good as Canon/Nikon. Looks very sharp and her in Germany a 400-800 would be more useful than a 200-600 in many situations (unless, of course, it it was a 4/200-600TC :) )
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I would too…but I’m shootings Nikon.
 
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BillW said:
Looks like an interesting and useful lens. As a Nikon shooter, I'd like to see Nikon do something like this. I have more than my share of Nikon Z telephotos, including both zooms and primes. But this could be a useful zoom range.
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It would be interesting to have something like that on Nikon. I don't know if it's possible or not but a Nikon PF version of this that is maybe 6.3 on the 800 end would be pretty neat. Still, if I was a Sony person I'd probably get this if I didn't have something "better" already. But I'm sticking with Nikon anyway. Every time I try something else I just don't seem to get along with it.
 
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nmerc_photos said:
I'm not Steve, but can confirm the Megadap ETZ 21 works excellently with the Sony 300GM + 2x on the Nikon Z8/Z9.

If I was still shooting Nikon, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a 400-800 to use with it.
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do you AF, aperture control, etc. Other than the lens being white, do you notice a difference between a Sony lens w/ the Megadap and a Nikon lens?
 
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