hatch1921 wrote:
Interesting conversations going on in this thread, one thing which has me curious, did some of you buy bad copies of the 200-600? I know my first copy was terrible, I sent it back, and the current lens is very sharp wide open. Some of the comments about how the new 600 looks to produce much better images than the 200-600 had me scratching my head. Yes, it's lighter, smaller, better AF I would assume, but how much sharper do you need/can it it be? I'm not saying I wouldn't buy one or both, the new 400/600 have me thinking about my own kit and where I could add them and what I could eliminate. I think the weight and size of the lenses alone are huge selling points. How much sharper compared to the lenses I own in this range, I'm not fully sold on... but I haven't shot them myself to compare.
Not trying to derail the thread or anything, the 200-600 comments caught my eye.
Hatch
Agree. My first 200-600 was faulty/ useless and was exchanged within 30 days. The second one was felt to be fair with lower resolution cameras ( a9 series), but with the a1/a1ii shows a low keeper rate ( sharpness and slow AF) that cannot be ignored. Maybe it’s my “ bad luck”.
As far as the new 600mm, I expect fair performance, hopefully better regarding AF speed compared to the 300/2.8 with 2x TC. I’ll compare it - within my use case- to the 300 and 600 mm primes( 2.8/4.0)
It would be of interest to me to have a lighter and wider zoom in the 600mm range for Sony. Right now I also use Nikon as the lens choices for quality ( sharpness and AF speed), zoom/ prime options, weight have been better so far for me. Nevertheless, I like the a1/a1ii and hoping Sony will not disappoint with the new primes..
Sep 16, 2026 at 01:35 PM
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