Some more. Since everyone is interested in birds, I did manage a quick shot of the blue jay, he was not very cooperative. Shot from the same distance, again the 600mm cropped to show the same fov as the 1200. Could not test with the 1.4x here.
The garden gnome was even farther away than the bird. Again, I am very impressed. I think it may be hard to tell which one was shot with the TC on these web-sized images.
All I've done is what I always do, minimal sharpening and adjust color balance and exposure.
Pradeep
ILCE a9, 600mm GM, at 600mm, f4, 1/800, ISO 640
ILCE a9, 600mm GM, plus 2xTC at 1200mm, f8, 1/400, ISO 640
ILCE 600mm GM, at 600mm, f4, 1/800, ISO 640
ILCE a9, 600mm GM plus 2x TC at 1200mm, f8, 1/400, ISO 640
Primus wrote:
Joshua, man you are knocking them out of the park here!
Just started trying out the new lens. Here are some quick test shots in the backyard, nothing fancy. All taken with the rig on the tripod, too impatient to handhold, plus wanted to test without having lens shake etc.
Tried to crop the images to match the final size on screen. The 1200 mm images are uncropped, the others cropped to match the 1200mm fov. Tested with bare 600, then with the 1.4x TC then with the 2x TC. Was not able to do much as the light was low.
To my mind, seems like the lens does just as well with the TCs as it does without, which is absolutely mind-blowing. Never saw this with my Canon 600 MkII and the Canon TCs. Truly incredible. I think Sony has a home run here.
What is equally amazing is that while I was focusing on the face, the camera used eye-AF even though it is a sculpture.
I'm finding this lens to be very easy to handhold especially coming from the Canon 600/4 vII. AF is undoubtedly better and the TC, as you say, feel just as fast as without. By the way, my eagle shot above, was handheld from a boat. Of course, hand holding with the 2x @ 1200mm is much more difficult.
Too much boat traffic this afternoon so this guy decided to find a good vantage point to watch from.
Thank you very much, Bob! I am impressed that you could handhold that lens plus 1.4X from your boat and the result speaks for itself. Well done!
Primus wrote:
Joshua, man you are knocking them out of the park here!
Just started trying out the new lens. Here are some quick test shots in the backyard, nothing fancy. All taken with the rig on the tripod, too impatient to handhold, plus wanted to test without having lens shake etc.
Tried to crop the images to match the final size on screen. The 1200 mm images are uncropped, the others cropped to match the 1200mm fov. Tested with bare 600, then with the 1.4x TC then with the 2x TC. Was not able to do much as the light was low.
To my mind, seems like the lens does just as well with the TCs as it does without, which is absolutely mind-blowing. Never saw this with my Canon 600 MkII and the Canon TCs. Truly incredible. I think Sony has a home run here.
What is equally amazing is that while I was focusing on the face, the camera used eye-AF even though it is a sculpture.
Yes, that lens can take either TC really, really well. It is more up to us now how to handle and operate the gear to take sharp images home. Nicely captured blue jay there.
At least right now, I'm finding this lens so much lighter. Granted, the bigger the waves in the lake, the more difficult it is. I tried the 2x TC but the waters were too rough to hand hold. Here's a few more just messing around and seeing how incredibly sharp this lens is.
AGeoJO wrote:
Thank you very much, Bob! I am impressed that you could handhold that lens plus 1.4X from your boat and the result speaks for itself. Well done!
Thank you very much, Pradeep!
Yes, that lens can take either TC really, really well. It is more up to us now how to handle and operate the gear to take sharp images home. Nicely captured blue jay there.
I believe the a7r4 and the 600 with or without the TCs will be a deadly combination. You have the option of cropping deeply into an image that is sharp enough to begin with. Imagine shooting at 1200mm, then cropping into the image from 60MP to say 20MP, which is more than enough to generate a 24X36 print IMHO.
fuzzykeys wrote:
For those of us who don’t shoot wildlife and can’t afford this lens anyway, please post some landscapes or portraits! I am beyond curious!
Matt, I happened to take a few portraits using Sony’s lens and camera during the Sony Event day in LA in June. They setup 2 settings; one with continuous light and another with strobes. Sony didn’t hire or provide any model for the strobe setup and I asked a young lady that happened to be there with her husband or boyfriend whether she would be willing to pose for me. She agreed and I did take some 10 images or so of her. Again, all Sony gear but I used my SD card. To my dismay, the files were way over exposed, like +3-stop over. I assumed that Sony would check the setting previously. Well, to a certain degree it was my fault, too. I should have viewed the histogram after the first image. I posted the image here on this forum. Anyway, here is the image and the crop but those files were only edited using LR. I did make the adjustment as much as I could using LR from quite severely overexposed files. The skin tone is off....
Here we go... First, the full image and second, the crop from same.
mitesh wrote:
@shalu@, I have never seen so many great shots at 1200mm with the degree of difficulty that you’re posting! And you are just nailing them! Fantastic work! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Thank you very much, @mitesh! I have shot the 400mm GM mostly using 2X for BIF for almost a year now, and was comfortable at 800mm. The main reason I bought the 600GM is to use as 1200mm BIF lens, and it does not disappoint. This is my go to lens now, and will only use the 400GM for really low light or air travel.
shalu wrote:
Thank you very much, @mitesh@! I have shot the 400mm GM mostly using 2X for BIF for almost a year now, and was comfortable at 800mm. The main reason I bought the 600GM is to use as 1200mm BIF lens, and it does not disappoint. This is my go to lens now, and will only use the 400GM for really low light or air travel.
AGeoJO wrote:
Shalu, are using a tripod or monopod for those 1200mm shots or did you handhold the gear? Again, another awesome and and sharp image!
Thank you Joshua. I hand hold all my BIF shots, since swinging the gimbal/tripod for fast birds is too cumbersome and I would miss most of the shots. For perched birds under low light, I occasionally use gimbal/tripod for slow shutter.
shalu wrote:
Thank you Joshua. I hand hold all my BIF shots, since swinging the gimbal/tripod for fast birds is too cumbersome and I would miss most of the shots. For perched birds under low light, I occasionally use gimbal/tripod for slow shutter.
Thank you, shalu and yes, I would not use my tripod for fast flying little suckers; it is too restricting. I just came back from my favorite burrowing owl site and I handheld my 600mm but I cheated a little and used a BushHawk though . I didn't feel quite comfortable with the calibration of the dot sight today since I didn't use my tripod to do so. And as such, I left a little room for slight misses. I got great actions shots though but a tad too far away. But by the next outing on Friday, I will calibrate the dot sight using a tripod and I will get "greedy" and put my 1.4X TC for more reach. But, no, I am not quite brave to handhold using the 2X TC .
Thank you, shalu and yes, I would not use my tripod for fast flying little suckers; it is too restricting. I just came back from my favorite burrowing owl site and I handheld my 600mm but I cheated a little and used a BushHawk though . I didn't feel quite comfortable with the calibration of the dot sight today since I didn't use my tripod to do so. And as such, I left a little room for slight misses. I got great actions shots though but a tad too far away. But by the next outing on Friday, I will calibrate the dot sight using a tripod and I will get "greedy" and put my 1.4X TC for more reach. But, no, I am not quite brave to handhold using the 2X TC . ...Show more →
That is just perfect for the dot sight! I devised my own but not that good. So, I have been getting more and more peak action shots with the dot sight and that hot shoe adapter is just perfect for that since the front lens diameter and the lens hood does obstruct the total view of that dot sight. Thank you very much, @shalu. I just ordered mine.
AGeoJO wrote:
That is just perfect for the dot sight! I devised my own but not that good. So, I have been getting more and more peak action shots with the dot sight and that hot shoe adapter is just perfect for that since the front lens diameter and the lens hood does obstruct the total view of that dot sight. Thank you very much, @shalu. I just ordered mine.
Do you think that both of these items should also work well with the 200-600mm G as well as with the 600mm GM lens?
Rich
Rich, it will work fine for other lenses too.
That adapter page I linked had two models. one for PC connection and one for Sony. I ended up getting the wrong model by accident, but it does not matter for the Dot Sight, both will fit perfectly. But if you get the Sony model, you can also use Canon flash on Sony camera!
Do you think that both of these items should also work well with the 200-600mm G as well as with the 600mm GM lens?
Rich
Rich, as @shalu mentioned, yes, it works fine for the 200-600 or any long lenses for that matter. You don't need the device that shalu suggested for that lens because the diameter of the front lens is not that big relative to that of the GM 600mm. The BushHawk worked great, too on the lens. I don't feel tired using the GM lens on and off for about 2 hours this morning.
Primus wrote:
Shalu and Joshua, thanks so much, this will make life so much easier for me as I've always had problems with BIF and long lenses.
Just ordered both items.
Pradeep
You are very welcome, Pradeep! We all need every little things to help us take better pictures and I am dead serious that my keepers in getting peak BIF actions have increased significantly. I will post some pictures later on. Ironically, the best inflight images of owls catching bugs mid-air so far was taken using the 200-600mm lens. It has to do with the distance where the action took place and I happened to have that lens there on the camera when it happened.
I have been using the Olympus sight for a while and I agree it is very useful for acquiring the subject. One caution is that the adjustments to center the dot are easy to inadvertently change and getting them reset can be a pain if you don't have a tripod.
image!
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