telephoto lenses Archives - Orion's Cold Fire

Guest Contributor – TomD – 18JUL2023 – Photo

July 18, 2023July 18, 2023 photog Guest Contributors, Photography, TomD photography, telephoto lenses, TomD

I find myself gravitating to nature photography. My “long” lens used to be a Sony G 70-300, A mount that worked (via adapter) with all my previous E mount Sony cameras.A supurb lens. Until I got to the A7IV series, that is, same camera as yours.

I tried to replace it with a Tamron 70-300 but the image is missing something. The Tamron does workman like images, see image below, but it is missing the “pop”, I don’t know how to describe it, the something special that I got with the Sony. I go back through my photos and am really surprised at how many of my very best came from that lens.

I’m now lusting for the very new, now really released yet but heavily reviewed Sony 70-200 F4 GII lens. Apparently it also takes incredible images through a 2x converter or I could also shoot it through my ASP-C sensor A6400, which would change it to a 105-350 mm in case I need something taller. It seems to have the same, how do you say, ‘glow” as my 10-year-old lens does/did.

In the meantime, my Tamron is sitting dejected over in the corner saying, “What am I, chopped liver?” No, actually pretty damned good for the price but when you’re reaching for the stars—–

Tamron Shots below

Pretty good lenses don’t have to cost a lot. Here’s a 30mm f2.8 Sigma on my Sony A6400.

Another Tamron

Sony Super-Telephotos Announced

June 13, 2019June 13, 2019 photog Photography, Photography Reviews photography, Sony, telephoto lenses

Sony has just announced their new super telephoto prime (600mm f/4) and zoom (200 – 600mm f/5.-6.3). Of course, the 600mm f/4 is completely outside of the budget of anyone except the wealthy or the dedicated professional photographer (~$13,000). But the 200 – 600mm zoom is $2,000 which is possible. What I’m thinking of doing is renting the 200 – 600 and the 100 – 400 zooms and using the Sony 1.4X and 2X teleconverters compare the quality of the images between the zooms. After all, a 100 – 400mm zoom is a pretty useful thing whereas the 200 – 600 zoom is a beast. Now, the 100 – 400 is actually $500 more expensive than the 200 – 600 so I wouldn’t be shocked to find out that the 100 – 400 could match the 200 – 600. Either way it’ll be an interesting experiment. The 200 – 600 comes out in August stay tuned.

After you’ve read enough sexbot articles on Drudge maybe switch to something interesting

Sonyalpharumors Thinks There is a New Sony Wildlife Lens Coming Out Next Week

May 30, 2019May 30, 2019 photog Photography, Photography Reviews Sony Alpha Rumors, telephoto lenses

Our wacky friends at Sonyalpharumors have an SR4 (almost a certainty) alert out about a new lens that they think will be a long telephoto 400 – 600 range).

(SR4) Sony likely to announce a new new wildlife/sports lens on June 5/6!

I find that very interesting. I’m in the market for a long lens and I have toyed with the idea of getting the Sigma 150 – 600 but I’d love to see Sony give us a native lens. I figure the native autofocus would be amazing. What might also be amazing (in a bad way) is the price. Sony lenses have e a pretty stiff premium and anything north of $4K would start seeming exorbitant even to me. But I’d still rent it to try it out so bring it!

Sony’s First Real E-Mount Sports Lens is On Its Way

February 13, 2018February 13, 2018 photog Camera Reviews, Photography, Uncategorized Sony 400mm f/2.8, Sony A9, telephoto lenses

Sonyalpharumors.com has a photo of this new pro sports lens discovered out in the wild (https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sony-400mm-f-2-8-versus-canon-lens/) . At over $10,000 each probably the only buyers will be pro sports shooters (and a few old rich guys, of course). Looks like Sony is serious about the sports market. I’m guessing at some point if the market materializes for them they’ll put out a 600mm f/4. Of course, they might get some competition from sigma. They’ve got some telephotos and unlike with wide angles the long lenses would easily adapt onto the e-mount with no need to change the lens formula. Should be an interesting situation for the Canon and Nikon pros. I’m sure being able to use the no-blackout, 20 frames per second A9 for football or soccer would be a very tempting choice for the guys who do that for a living. Good work Sony. Now let them come out with the A7 III. I hope it has the same good autofocus as the A9.