It's been exactly a year and I don't regret buying the lens.
Three photos from my first day with it. First has been posted in other threads but not this one. The other two have never been posted...
Sony ILCE-1
FE 600mm F4 GM OSS
ƒ/4.0 600.0 mm 1/2500 500
Sony ILCE-1
FE 600mm F4 GM OSS
ƒ/4.0 600.0 mm 1/2500 500
Sony ILCE-1
FE 600mm F4 GM OSS
ƒ/4.0 600.0 mm 1/2500 500
And my most recent shots with it one year later. I am not 100% comfortable shooting and processing backlit.
Sony ILCE-1
FE 600mm F4 GM OSS
ƒ/4.0 600.0 mm 1/2500 100
Sony ILCE-1
FE 600mm F4 GM OSS
ƒ/4.0 600.0 mm 1/3200 500
Sony ILCE-1
FE 600mm F4 GM OSS
ƒ/4.0 600.0 mm 1/6400 500
Use my 600 w the 1.4 on most of the time. I took it off this week when I noticed a slight loose mount on the TC. Still works but walking on the jetty I din't want it to loosen. If Sony made a 600 w Built in TC I would probably buy it. If like the Nikon you could still add an additional TC. With John's short hood I carry the 600 hand held 99% of the time with a strap and leash. LOVE IT!
By the way some of these images you guys are posting are off the hook great!! TFS
1
ILCE-1FE 600mm F4 GM OSS lens600mmf/4.01/3200s320 ISO0.0 EV
2
ILCE-1FE 600mm F4 GM OSS lens600mmf/4.01/3200s500 ISO0.0 EV
3
ILCE-1FE 600mm F4 GM OSS lens600mmf/4.01/4000s800 ISO0.0 EV
4
ILCE-1FE 600mm F4 GM OSS lens600mmf/4.01/4000s640 ISO0.0 EV
From this morning - I took several hundred images, including plenty of in-flight images, using the A1 with the latest FW and it seems to perform just fine…
Thanks. Harriers here let people get really close. Loose dogs are what usually chase them off perches.
For all the complaints about the new A1 firmware, I haven't noticed issues. This was not cropped heavily and launch shots have quick movement, even if harriers themselves don't fly all that fast once airborne.
One more from the sequence, with eye contact
Sony ILCE-1
FE 600mm F4 GM OSS
ƒ/4.0 600.0 mm 1/2500 4000
A few swallows (@840mm) - definitely recommend the 200-600 or 100-400 though, super tough capturing swallows with this lens! The biggest issue is that they fly through the focus plan so quickly because the DOF is very shallow and then it is impossible to find them again!
No problem tracking them though and eye af seems to pick up the eyes pretty frequently, IF you can keep them in the frame though.
Does a nicer job on the background though but I think it will be next to impossible to really fill the frame and get the same detail as the zooms.
You need to be Arnie Schwazenegger to handhold this lens chasing swallows in flight though.
Over here (UK) harriers (especially hen - or northern as yours are known) you've slim to no chance of getting close like that, even from a pop-up hide they're a tough one. Decades of persecution have contributed to that (still persecuted) though a lot of UK species are just not as confiding as you get in the US.
TGPhotography wrote:
Thanks. Harriers here let people get really close. Loose dogs are what usually chase them off perches.
For all the complaints about the new A1 firmware, I haven't noticed issues. This was not cropped heavily and launch shots have quick movement, even if harriers themselves don't fly all that fast once airborne.
- Thank you very much, Alex! 
. From looking at my uploaded file folder, it doesn’t look like I have posted these here. If I have, I apologize…
