How is the AF noise on other people's 400? Mine makes a slight chattering sound when in AF-C and tracking birds moving fast. I've read a few people say theirs is silent so wondering if mine might have an issue.
Finally it is in my hands. Just shooting around the neighborhood will try some birding this week.
What I dont like is the size of the hood. It is massive as in they focused on reducing everything on the lens but just threw the hood on. With my 70-200 I put on one of those rubber hoods so i can pack it easier (I have filters on to protect the main lens element) But I cant find that for the 95mm. I can use the soft wrap hood that I had on my 200-600 but it is big even laying flat.
I have seen some shorter hoods on amazon for 95mm but not sure how they would be.
I almost never use the hood on my 400, the front element is recessed enough I'm not worried about accidentally damaging it. I only put it on if I think I'll be shooting sorta close to into the sun for some backlit scenes.
I got one like this. I think mine is little shorter. Basically a metal 95mm hood mainly to protect the lens and some backlit situation. Also when I put it on the ground to avoid scratches on the front rubber.
More from the last two days. This is my firs tele prime and I'm really enjoying the process a lot more than I did with the 100-400's I've owned over the years. Great lenses and images, but always having to deal with lens creep when walking around with them is not something I miss with the 400GM at all!
Also still glad I went with the 400 for it's versatility too, even though the 600GM was VERY tempting. I found myself flipping between the bare lens and the 1.4TC all the time depending on where I'm going or the light, and even then 2xTC works better than I thought it would for the rare times I'd want that.
This is a fun lens and has me debating if I really need the 100-400 still since I also use and love the 70-200G.
Got mine and spent some time in a nearby bird hide. I bought it mainly for overseas travels. In other situations, I don’t mind carrying the heavier 200-600mm zoom for versatility.
Tarekith wrote:
How is the AF noise on other people's 400? Mine makes a slight chattering sound when in AF-C and tracking birds moving fast. I've read a few people say theirs is silent so wondering if mine might have an issue.
I don't have the 400 but my 600 is dead silent. I noticed this as I was doing back to back comparisons between the new 600 and the 300GM/2x. Just focusing close to far to close. The 300GM I could hear the focus motor on some of the big movements. The 600/6.3 was silent.
My 600/4GM and 300GM do make some noise when doing rapid movements mostly when tracking a fast bird like a swallow coming right at me and especially when it is really close. I can't recall if the 100-400/4.5 is doing that also.
Ok thanks everyone, I’ll try to get a recording of it and see what Sony say then. It’s not loud, but it’s definitely noticeable with the AF starts tracking faster subjects. First time I’ve ever heard any of my lenses make noise so I was a little concerned.
Been busy with work, but was able to try out the lens really briefly. I took a lot of crappy shots (I am not a birder), but here are a couple that turned out okay. Again, I marvel at you guys who can get amazing BIF photos. I am not worthy.
ILCE-9M3FE 400mm F4.5 GM OSS lens400mmf/4.51/500s320 ISO-0.7 EV
ILCE-9M3FE 400mm F4.5 GM OSS lens400mmf/4.51/500s400 ISO-0.7 EV
nmerc_photos wrote: Jemini wroteLight was harsh for the snowy action. But love to watch it.. No regret buying 400 instead of 600.Excellent shots Jemini!
How do you get the EFL (effective focal length) and distance to show on the EXIF?
Thank you for the comment
For the effective focal length I have a math that I use based on crop. For example a 400mm lens cropped to 1.5 times will be 600mm ( Sony has 1.53 crop, so it's 615mm)
To find AV the expression is like this
AV=Actual FL * Sensor crop factor * (Horizontal pixels of sensor/horizontal pixels of final cropped image)
So for A1II, this is the calculation
615 = 400 * 1 * (8640 / 5616).
The last image of the Willet has final image with 5959X3972 pixels
Lens FL is 560mm.
AV = 560 * 1 * (8640 /5959) = 811.92
The distance is in Exif. exiftool.exe will extract this information. I have a PowerShell script does it all. I want to know what's the lens I use and what kind of FL I end up with. So I just run all files that process through the script and save it for reference. Kind of crazy
Jemini wrote: nmerc_photos wroteJemini wroteLight was harsh for the snowy action. But love to watch it.. No regret buying 400 instead of 600.Excellent shots Jemini!
How do you get the EFL (effective focal length) and distance to show on the EXIF?Thank you for the comment
For the effective focal length I have a math that I use based on crop. For example a 400mm lens cropped to 1.5 times will be 600mm ( Sony has 1.53 crop, so it's 615mm)
To find AV the expression is like this
AV=Actual FL * Sensor crop factor * (Horizontal pixels of sensor/horizontal pixels of final cropped image)
So for A1II, this is the calculation
615 = 400 * 1 * (8640 / 5616).
The last image of the Willet has final image with 5959X3972 pixels
Lens FL is 560mm.
AV = 560 * 1 * (8640 /5959) = 811.92
The distance is in Exif. exiftool.exe will extract this information. I have a PowerShell script does it all. I want to know what's the lens I use and what kind of FL I end up with. So I just run all files that process through the script and save it for reference. Kind of crazy
So are you manually posting the EXIF data below each image? Not using any of FredMiranda's built in EXIF tools?
Where does it end up saving the resulting EXIF data? And what type of file? Text, CSV, etc.?
I've been using Claude to pull EXIF data for my shots so I can learn more about this. But it'd be great to share it when posting the images for other people too!
EDIT: I was able to have Claude build a script for this based on your feedback. Excellent thanks so much!
I get my 400 4.5 on Thursday and then I'll be able to contribute
nmerc_photos wrote: Jemini wrotenmerc_photos wroteJemini wroteLight was harsh for the snowy action. But love to watch it.. No regret buying 400 instead of 600.Excellent shots Jemini!
How do you get the EFL (effective focal length) and distance to show on the EXIF?Thank you for the comment
For the effective focal length I have a math that I use based on crop. For example a 400mm lens cropped to 1.5 times will be 600mm ( Sony has 1.53 crop, so it's 615mm)
To find AV the expression is like this
AV=Actual FL * Sensor crop factor * (Horizontal pixels of sensor/horizontal pixels of final cropped image)
So for A1II, this is the calculation
615 = 400 * 1 * (8640 / 5616).
The last image of the Willet has final image with 5959X3972 pixels
Lens FL is 560mm.
AV = 560 * 1 * (8640 /5959) = 811.92
The distance is in Exif. exiftool.exe will extract this information. I have a PowerShell script does it all. I want to know what's the lens I use and what kind of FL I end up with. So I just run all files that process through the script and save it for reference. Kind of crazy So are you manually posting the EXIF data below each image? Not using any of FredMiranda's built in EXIF tools?
Where does it end up saving the resulting EXIF data? And what type of file? Text, CSV, etc.?
I've been using Claude to pull EXIF data for my shots so I can learn more about this. But it'd be great to share it when posting the images for other people too!
EDIT: I was able to have Claude build a script for this based on your feedback. Excellent thanks so much!
I get my 400 4.5 on Thursday and then I'll be able to contribute...Show more →
Yes, I manually post exif. My script this simple HTML (https://wildbirdimages.com/Documents/FE400.html) with exif and I copy paste here. Above html is where I play with crop etc. So not all images are worth posting or even showing anyone
The PS script also insert records into a SQL DB for me to search etc.
exiftool.exe can save information to an ascii file (your choice of extension).
Great that you could create the script using Claude. Glad I could help..
Waiting for new images. We the 400 owners are minority. So we need more contributors
