I’ve been testing the Sony 100-400 GM lens. I really needed something with more reach then the 70-200 that I have, and this one seemed like the best alternative. It’s not a fast lens, it’s variable aperture with the low end only f4.5, but the reality is, most of my shooting situations with this lens are either going to be daylight or on tripod, so not having f2.8 didn’t really seem to be a barrier to me for what I shoot.
I wasn’t sure I would like the telescoping front end, and I needed to test the weight over a longer shooting session. I did that today. I was at the zoo by 8:30am and headed home about 12:30… so a good 4 hours of carrying the lens around. I did take the monopod, so I had it supported for some of the day. While my arms were rubber by the time I quite, I was still happy with the performance and the trade-off of 400mm and the weight. The other nice thing about these Sony lenses, is the focus button on the lens. I set it to toggle to the APC mode, so when I need it, I can instantly jump to 600mm. On the Sony A7Riii I still get an 18MPix image (5168×3448) which is fine.
Most of the day I manually focused because I still have not stopped to upgrade my camera software to the new versions that include the “Animal Eye Focus” tracking mode. So I practiced with manual focus most of the day both with the monopod and hand held. While hundreds of the captures ended up in the bit bucket, I did get several keepers. I plan to purchase the lens.
Here are just a few of them:
terributlerphotography, #www.thepixelmixer.com, #stockimages, #digitaldownloadsforsale, #stockalternative, #imagestock, #http://shutterstock.com/g/terributlerphotography, #https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/206561680/Terri
