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

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robert_in_ca said:
Surprise to see you went ahead with the A1ii given its price point. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
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Price point in Canada was a steal compared tp the US if we take into account the current exchange rates. Sony priced the A1II in Canada with a 1.31x rate. Current real rate if I used a CC to buy in the US would be 1.49x. With my discount I got on the A1II I paid the equivalent of about $5400 USD for the camera. Then after I sell my A1 for maybe 4500-5000 CAD the actual upgrade cost is reasonable to me. In contrast Sony just used a 1.41x rate to price the 400-800G lens so that is not such a great deal and over $4K CAD. I have a feeling Sony will raise the A1II price in Canada soon.

There is really only one feature on my A1II wish list that it didn't get and that was an increase to 60FPS. Now that was a top 2 feature so it stings a bit. But there are a lot of other smaller upgrades that when taken as a whole make it worth it to me. And of course the precapture is my top reason to buy it.
 
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RikWriter said:
Upon further consideration, I think I'm going to hold off for now. I want to wait until I actually see production models in the field.
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Same here, I put in a pre-order to get in the queue but finally decided to cancel it.
Bit too big and heavy for my use cases, the lightweight 300 GM (out to 600/900mm) has spoilt me!
Maybe when it is available grey market or used I might pick one up.
 
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So adapted for Nikon Z with a Megadap you'd lose in camera corrections. How significant would that be?

Would you also lose 5 axis stabilisation?

And maximum fps would be....?
 
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So, the ETZ21 Pro manual says it handles Nikon VR but not whether that's lens only or all 5 axes. I've sent a query.

In camera corrections would depend on the lens being in the body database and we can assume that it's not.
 
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I just went ahead and ordered the thing plus a Megadap adapter. Darn those torpedoes! It seems to work just fine; I do not know about those "in camera corrections."
I also just purchased a small arca plate for the existing foot instead of holding out for another expensive custom Arca mount foot.
 
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Frankly I wish Sony had brought out a 200 600 f 5.6 lens instead of a 400 800
Since u was shooting more & more videos apart from stills, u bought a 399 f 2.8 ( with 1.4 & 2 TC) . While I am happy with the lens, I do miss my 200 600 specially when shooting animals
I do remember how popular was Nikons 200 500 & i am sure with modern tech, a 200 600 f 5.6 can be made lighter or the same weight as Sonys 200 600
 
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Venkatesh VT said:
Frankly I wish Sony had brought out a 200 600 f 5.6 lens instead of a 400 800
Since I was shooting more & more videos apart from stills, I bought a 300 f 2.8 ( with 1.4 & 2 TC) . While I am happy with the lens, I do miss my 200 600 specially when shooting animals
I do remember how popular was Nikons 200 500 & i am sure with modern tech, a 200 600 f 5.6 can be made lighter or the same weight as Sonys 200 600
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I doubt it could be made that weight without it costing a heck of a lot more. Not to mention, very few people would buy it for that tiny improvement.
 
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Venkatesh VT said:
I would certainly not call one stop as a tiny improvement
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A 600mm f/5.6 lens has a (600mm/5.6=107.14mm) 107mm entrance pupil. The new 400-800mm zoom has a 100mm entrance pupil. The 600mm f/5.6 would bring about a 14% bump in light gathering; possibly noticeable when comparing photos at 100% but not a significant gain.

In comparison with the current 200-600mm zoom (95mm entrance pupil), a 600mm f/5.6 lens would have about a 27% advantage in light-gathering; noticeable but not a game-changer.
 
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FWIW - I had the 400-800, tested it for a few hours and sold it.

Ultimately I realized a few things:
  • I don't value zoom versatility, I prefer to just get framing right with my feet or prime focal length
    • on the 400-800 more than any other lens, I kept bumping the focal length ring and would end up all over the place. very annoying. wish they included a lock
    • also, I probably am not the intended audience since I would pin that lens at 800mm for 90%+ of the time
  • The OEM foot and hood both suck. I expect Wimberley/Zemlin will fix that eventually
    • foot is far too small, hood is too large and heavy
  • IQ of the 400-800 was very good when filling the frame, but fell off fast when cropping
  • Rampant CA with the 400-800 more than any lens I've ever used
    • hopefully should be an easy fix with software when DXO gets around to it
  • I got much better results IQ wise with the 300GM + 2x and then cropping to 800mm equivalent FOV, than with the 400-800
    • for this reason, that will be my choice. significantly smaller and lighter, while being faster and better IQ.
  • The 400-800 is what I consider a big and heavy lens
    • if I'm going to take a big and heavy lens out (as opposed to 300GM), I may as well just take a 600 f4 out. they feel the same, fatigue the same, both need support, etc.
Reviews overall have been pretty mixed. People coming from 100-400s and 200-600s seem to be pretty impressed. Those with access to 300 f2.8s, 400 f2.8s or 600 f4s are less impressed. As expected I suppose. I think I fell victim to the hype train reviews and expected far more out of the lens than I should have given it falls into the "budget" category.

Of our local group - most shoot Sony now and 6 of us got our hands on the lens. 5 of us have or are reselling it. But then again - all of us have the 300GM, 600GM, or both.
 
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