AGeoJO
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Optically, the 3 Canon lenses, EF 400mm f/2.8 Mark II, EF 400mm f/4 DO Mark II and EF 600mm f/4 Mark II, I had were superb. I had the 400mm lens the longest and it was carried over from my Canon days. I bought the DO lens later since I thought there was a need for a lighter and more compact lens for a trip to Costa Rica but I ended up taking the f/2.8 lens and it worked out great for 2 birding trips there. However, it a 400mm felt too short on many occasions and I ended up using TC or double TCs (FYI, you can stack TCs using Metabones V).
The supply of the Sony 400mm f/2.8 GM lens was limited in the beginning and the lens would not give much advantage, if any over the Canon in terms of focal length. Since the progress of the firmware development of adapters on both Metabones and Sigma, I ended up buying or re-buying a Canon 600mm lens and I started this thread.
The AF performance of adapted Canon lenses on Sony cameras varies widely from lens to lens. In general, the newer lenses perform better. I would strongly suggest to try it first before committing of buying. The 3 Canon lenses performed pretty much among the best out there on the A9. They can track larger birds in flight, such as cranes, geese, even eagles as long as their flight path is predictable or in a known pattern. No problem for slowing moving/swimming ducks, of course and for 4-legged animals. But those lenses show their weakness for small birds that fly erratically.
So, when Sony introduced the 600mm GM in August, I bought it. I took that Sony lens to Ecuador last month. The shooting circumstances are similar to those in Costa Rica. I ended up taking less images there and the ratio of well focused and blurred images is significantly larger than that of the 2 trips in Costa Rica and that with the A7r IV. As such, I only took some 25% less images than the previous 2 trips to CR.
I never had the Canon 200-400mm f/4 lens but from what I could gather it is big and heavy. Of course, the built-in TC is a significant advantage over a regular and similarly specified lenses. However, the new Sony G 200-600mm lens is a formidable lens, quite light and not as bulky. The big advantage of that lens is the native AF performance of Sony cameras and even more so, it is priced very competitively. Yes, it is a slower lens relative to the Canon 200-400mm but the difference is almost negligible if you use the TC and then the reach is a tad shorter.
I am bringing a new perspective to the original intention of this thread...
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