AS always, Patrick. Ever since I first attached this lens to the SONY a1 body, I have used it with Image Stabilisation ON on the body of the lens. Sometimes the results at cricket have been superb, sometime less so. After many frustrating moments I turned OFF the IS because I had it on a sturdy monopod - it did not need Image Stabilisation, I figured. Set then at 600mm I shot at cricket again and have a flawless set of very sharp images. I'm in love with this lens all over again.
interesting! Question: when you had OSS turned on, were you set to #1, 2, or 3? My guess is that you were set to the default #1 setting, which would mess with your sports photography in a negative way. Please let me know when you can. Thanks so much! pm-r :)
@@PMRTV Thanks for the question, Patrick, and your observation. Hope you're well. No, it was set to #2 because I use it from time to time to photograph passing overhead helicopters (panning sideways is the main action) (one of my little obsessions!) It's ready for me on a nearby table to grab and run, because I don't have enough time to deal with that as well as the exposure and running outside! Because we've had weeks of overcast weather I've been using my old Canon 400mm F/2.8 with MC-11 adapter at the cricket - which has delivered the most superb shots. It's so heavy that I've found the need to use the lighter SONY 200-600 - and reluctantly put the Canon it its box. I'm not that sad, though, because to 400mm images were not filling the frame very much. The results were fine for Facebook, and small in a high-school magazine. Now, with the 200-600 behaving properly I'm getting much larger images - the speed and ISO have been high, but with DxO and shooting in RAW, I am amazed at the results.
Thank you so much for all the work you put into educating us "amateurs" about this lens. And thank you for replying in comments sections on old videos too. Really really appreciated ! Just watched 2 of your 200-600 videos and its encuraged me to keep trying this lens. Like many others, I´ve had problems with sharpness due to shutterspeed not being high enough. Love from Denmark
I picked up the 200-600 about 7 months ago and only had a chance to use it about 5 times. It’s a heavy lens after a little while. I picked up the ifootage monopod with a fluid head and wow what a big help that is taking photos of birds and wildlife. I was really impressed with the bokeh you can get for shots up close with 15ft to 30ft at 600mm. It can produce borek as good as my prime lenses at f1.4. I decided to break it out for 2 senior portrait sessions and did some waste high photos and I was truly impressed with the images. Extremely sharp with just the right amount of bokeh. You definitely need a lot of light to use this lens. But I plan on using it a lot more while it’s slow during the winter months up here in Pennsylvania. Great video as always love your channel
people don't often reach for a long tele for shooting seniors but it is the easiest way to clean up a busy background! I'm going to be taking mine to every senior shoot for sure!
@PM-R TV When I started this video, I thought "Well, I already know all this stuff, but I'll watch anyway for a refresher." I was wrong! I learned some new things! Thank you, Patrick!
Only spotted this video now, great tips on getting the best results with this lens. Personally, I use it for music concerts and love it! When shooting from the sound station in the middle of a venue I can get close-ups of band members at 600mm then also back off to 200mm and shoot the full stage and include the audience. As mentioned already another great feature is the short focus throw and its internal. Again if I'm at 200mm and shooting the full stage, then the lead singer does something I can be on him/her in a spilt second. I love this lens!
Hi, I have used the lens both outdoors and particularly indoors without any problems. You must remember that there is always going to be lighting on stage and shooting Sony I have no problem with ISO's up 30000 for published work. I can email you sample links no problem.
Hey, Pat. Great information. I think that many of the negative comments about this lens on social media can be traced to 4 things: 1) poor handholding technique, 2) incorrect OSS mode (which you mentioned), 3) camera setup and familiarity, and most common - 4) Use of wrong AF mode for the subject.
Hi Patrick, reat overview with all the needed information. I experienced issues with this lens using filters. For that reason I pinned a ZEISS cleaning patch on my neighbor fence 60 yards away for testing the filter quality before using this filter. The reference is a picture with no filter and settings marked(F-stop/TC/ISO). I would never use filters other than Sony, B+W, Hoya without checking them carefully. Even those have bad samples. Any bending of the glassy attaching it to the camera can make a big difference in filter/AF performance for long lenses. The explanation for that is following: If the imperfections of the filter create a virtual focal length (saggital/mero.) 100 times longer than the focal length of the lens the system will have a 1 percent sharpness degradation, which is a lot. The glass is usual float glass drawn over a tin bath in one direction, which is memorized by the glass. Later polishing to perfection still doesn't change this. The other issues is the perfection of the filter ring attached to the lens, which often has plastic thread. If the treads are not perfectly equal even a very good filter can be bended. Short summary never ever use a filter if you don't have to. And if, test it before hand for your use case. I found this lens is very good wide open, but reaches it's best sharpness at F8 and F11/TC1.4. This is all for birding uses, which is my most demanding application of this lens. The A1 takes phantasmic pictures with this lens. The AF limits is F22. Not sure if this is for contrast or phase detection. I tested that and at F22 it can barely take a sharp picture in my setup. Which is very good anyway. For the A7R4 Sony limits the AF capability to F13. That is one of the reason for the bad rep of this lens, because not everybody is aware of that limit. With an F9(TC1.4) wide open you are 2x close this AF limit for the A7R4. A TC2 is not recommended for this setup. Thanks for your recommended shutter speeds as a perfect addition to my checklist. Thanks a lot and keep more tubes coming. KO
Thank you I enjoyed this, however I was disappointed that you did not discuss all three image stabilization settings you only talked about your preference for mode 2. My main reason for watching this video was hoping to hear a discussion of those three modes.
As usual, I'm late to the party. In fact, I'm sitting in my chair waiting for my new Sony 200-600 mm lens to be delivered. Over the years, I've tried to capture wildlife but never had enough lens. I think this lens will fix that issue. I am looking forward to using the lens.
Great review…thx! Do you find the shutter needs to be a little higher on A1 vs A9 on this lens for same freezing ability? Seems like I need 1/2000 vs 1/1600 to get similar results on A1 vs A9 but I need to test more. I suspect it’s due to number of pixels?
@@PMRTV yes indeed…the A1 at 1/1600 seems to have a little more motion blur than A9 @1/1600. Only shot one time so far with A1 so could be my technique as I hand hold the 200-600.
I use a quick-realease for my monopod, and put my Camera down sideways, when I not use monopod I carry the Camera upside down, because I use the tripod mount as a rest for my hand while shooting, so I never turn the tripod mount downside up as in this video
I have seen many a mishap of shooters using a quick release to carry long glass on a monopod. It never ends well when the whole thing slides off the mount and hits the ground from 5' up. Hopefully you are setting it down on the right side where there are not doors, connections, etc... Grip side would be better if you continue that practice.
Excellent. I’ve had and have used this lens extensively for wildlife with Sony A9 and Sony A1. At Grand Teton last May my shot of legendary bear 399 (maybe 300 years away) was slightly blurred and would not have been if I’d followed your guidance in this video.
G'day Patrick, I recently aquired this lens, and I see that you mentioned that a UV lens will effect the focus? But a ND filter is okay to use? No rush thanks Linden
Steve Perry did a video about heat blur from the lens hood itself when your equipment hasn't equalized in temperature to the environment you're photographing in yet. Something else to consider when you have photos that are not sharp. Patrick have you noticed the tripod collar ring getting really difficult to rotate after a while? Mine almost feels like it needs oil or something; it's as if it's rubbing metal against metal when I rotate the collar. It's only this lens -- my other sony lenses with rotatable collars are smooth as butter (100-400, 70-200)
a1 is a completely different camera aimed at sports shooters. the sensor inside is very special in each camera but you really can't compare them to each other as they have separate uses...
@@PMRTV Might get the a7IV soon as well as a supporting/second body. Would love to see Sony taking the next step and getting global shutter, maybe on a9 III?
I remember a review you did of this lens shooting soccer. What is your opinion on the lens for baseball if a 400 f2.8 is not an option? Thanks for all of the time you put into making these videos.
it's great for all daytime field-sports like baseball, soccer, LAX, tennis, and football. If you have the a7IV, a9, a9II, a7SIII, or a1, you can also shoot this lens at night games too... You may want to add some noise reduction in post though--I use topaz FYI...
Really enjoyed this informative video-I knew much of this, but still learned a lot. Couple of things, the new A7 IV is claimed to retain all AF functions with teleconverters (like the A1). I’ve had my A7 IV since Christmas, but I haven’t used any teleconverters. Secondly, the new 70-200 GM II also has internal focus. I’m hopeful that a new gen version of the 24-70 GM is coming that will also have internal focus. BTW, check out a vid today from Steve Perry about the need to remove the lens hood if going from a warm place into bitter cold. Really interesting. I enjoy your videos!
Very informative. Would like to know your viewpoint on this lens on a A7R4A as there are so many negative experiences by many photographers regarding AF.
What I am about to say is only my opinion. If you assume most people that bought an a7RIV also owned the a7RIII or a7III prior to buying the RIV, then this is the problem with the AF on the RIV. I have long believed that the a7RIII and especially a7III offer better and more accurate AF than the a7RIV, even though it was offered AFTER those other two bodies. For shooters like me that mostly use a9/a9II and a1 now, using an a7RIV can be painful. It just misses focus too much. Again, this is just my own personal experience but I was really happy to see the a1 launch as it gave me even better AF than the a9II, which I didn't think was possible.
All tough I don’t own the 200-600 I wanted to let you know that I’m a great fan of your content. It’s usable info and you challenge me to go out and try different photography technics. Awesome content!
Great video! I have a question: I use the A7III in combination with the 200-600mm. Most of the time I shoot birds and wildlife. When I enable silent shutter, the focus of my camera gets so bad. As long as I don't press down the shutter, I see the green focus points. But when I take photos only the first 1-2 photos get sharp, after that, the focus points get grey (correct focus not found). It looks like I use Af-s, even though I always shoot in Af-c. What should I do or what am I doing wrong? Many greetings from Hamburg, Germany 🙂
I always follow your reviews and tips, but in this case, it seems you assume that all AF issues with this lens are user mistakes when you tell "...Can't find any point of focus across your frame? Issue [sic] wasn't the AF but rather camera shake at your end...". Are you serious about that, or maybe I'm not getting the point here?
It's a fair question Marcio. Here is a better way of saying this. If you know that the camera was in focus on some part of the frame and you still cannot find focus, then it was camera shake/too much movement in a pan, etc... It is certainly possible to just be out of focus completely where the point of focus is before or beyond the scene you are shooting. This would definitely be operator error or the AF failing, but the latter happens so infrequently for me, I would mostly assume operator error. Hope that clears things up. patrick :)
I'm going to have to disagree about the the perceived sharpness issue with this lens. I own a lot of white lenses, both Sony and Canon, and my copy of this lense is to say the least, rather uninspiring. It would not surprise me at all if there is a sample variation with batches of this lens. But yep, I hate mine.😢
AS always, Patrick. Ever since I first attached this lens to the SONY a1 body, I have used it with Image Stabilisation ON on the body of the lens. Sometimes the results at cricket have been superb, sometime less so. After many frustrating moments I turned OFF the IS because I had it on a sturdy monopod - it did not need Image Stabilisation, I figured. Set then at 600mm I shot at cricket again and have a flawless set of very sharp images. I'm in love with this lens all over again.
interesting! Question: when you had OSS turned on, were you set to #1, 2, or 3? My guess is that you were set to the default #1 setting, which would mess with your sports photography in a negative way. Please let me know when you can. Thanks so much! pm-r :)
@@PMRTV Thanks for the question, Patrick, and your observation. Hope you're well. No, it was set to #2 because I use it from time to time to photograph passing overhead helicopters (panning sideways is the main action) (one of my little obsessions!) It's ready for me on a nearby table to grab and run, because I don't have enough time to deal with that as well as the exposure and running outside! Because we've had weeks of overcast weather I've been using my old Canon 400mm F/2.8 with MC-11 adapter at the cricket - which has delivered the most superb shots. It's so heavy that I've found the need to use the lighter SONY 200-600 - and reluctantly put the Canon it its box. I'm not that sad, though, because to 400mm images were not filling the frame very much. The results were fine for Facebook, and small in a high-school magazine. Now, with the 200-600 behaving properly I'm getting much larger images - the speed and ISO have been high, but with DxO and shooting in RAW, I am amazed at the results.
Thank you so much for all the work you put into educating us "amateurs" about this lens.
And thank you for replying in comments sections on old videos too. Really really appreciated ! Just watched 2 of your 200-600 videos and its encuraged me to keep trying this lens. Like many others, I´ve had problems with sharpness due to shutterspeed not being high enough.
Love from Denmark
fantastic message--thanks for you feedback :)
I picked up the 200-600 about 7 months ago and only had a chance to use it about 5 times. It’s a heavy lens after a little while. I picked up the ifootage monopod with a fluid head and wow what a big help that is taking photos of birds and wildlife. I was really impressed with the bokeh you can get for shots up close with 15ft to 30ft at 600mm. It can produce borek as good as my prime lenses at f1.4. I decided to break it out for 2 senior portrait sessions and did some waste high photos and I was truly impressed with the images. Extremely sharp with just the right amount of bokeh. You definitely need a lot of light to use this lens. But I plan on using it a lot more while it’s slow during the winter months up here in Pennsylvania. Great video as always love your channel
people don't often reach for a long tele for shooting seniors but it is the easiest way to clean up a busy background! I'm going to be taking mine to every senior shoot for sure!
@PM-R TV When I started this video, I thought "Well, I already know all this stuff, but I'll watch anyway for a refresher." I was wrong! I learned some new things! Thank you, Patrick!
fantastic!!!
Only spotted this video now, great tips on getting the best results with this lens. Personally, I use it for music concerts and love it! When shooting from the sound station in the middle of a venue I can get close-ups of band members at 600mm then also back off to 200mm and shoot the full stage and include the audience. As mentioned already another great feature is the short focus throw and its internal. Again if I'm at 200mm and shooting the full stage, then the lead singer does something I can be on him/her in a spilt second. I love this lens!
It is great for performance work, but you gotta have some light!!!
Hi, I have used the lens both outdoors and particularly indoors without any problems. You must remember that there is always going to be lighting on stage and shooting Sony I have no problem with ISO's up 30000 for published work. I can email you sample links no problem.
I’m glad I came across this. I almost didn’t get this lens because of the ‘focus issues’ with the A7RIV. Thanks for debunking the rumours!
Hey, Pat. Great information. I think that many of the negative comments about this lens on social media can be traced to 4 things: 1) poor handholding technique, 2) incorrect OSS mode (which you mentioned), 3) camera setup and familiarity, and most common - 4) Use of wrong AF mode for the subject.
totally agree!!!! #preachingtothechoir
Hi Patrick, reat overview with all the needed information.
I experienced issues with this lens using filters. For that reason I pinned a ZEISS cleaning patch on my neighbor fence 60 yards away for testing the filter quality before using this filter. The reference is a picture with no filter and settings marked(F-stop/TC/ISO).
I would never use filters other than Sony, B+W, Hoya without checking them carefully. Even those have bad samples. Any bending of the glassy attaching it to the camera can make a big difference in filter/AF performance for long lenses.
The explanation for that is following: If the imperfections of the filter create a virtual focal length (saggital/mero.) 100 times longer than the focal length of the lens the system will have a 1 percent sharpness degradation, which is a lot. The glass is usual float glass drawn over a tin bath in one direction, which is memorized by the glass. Later polishing to perfection still doesn't change this. The other issues is the perfection of the filter ring attached to the lens, which often has plastic thread. If the treads are not perfectly equal even a very good filter can be bended.
Short summary never ever use a filter if you don't have to. And if, test it before hand for your use case.
I found this lens is very good wide open, but reaches it's best sharpness at F8 and F11/TC1.4.
This is all for birding uses, which is my most demanding application of this lens.
The A1 takes phantasmic pictures with this lens. The AF limits is F22. Not sure if this is for contrast or phase detection. I tested that and at F22 it can barely take a sharp picture in my setup. Which is very good anyway.
For the A7R4 Sony limits the AF capability to F13. That is one of the reason for the bad rep of this lens, because not everybody is aware of that limit. With an F9(TC1.4) wide open you are 2x close this AF limit for the A7R4. A TC2 is not recommended for this setup.
Thanks for your recommended shutter speeds as a perfect addition to my checklist.
Thanks a lot and keep more tubes coming.
KO
GREAT information, Karl! Thanks for taking the time to post this :)
Really good explanations on this lens!
Glad it was helpful!
Great points Patrick!!! Everything you mention is great information!
thanks Jon!
Thank you I enjoyed this, however I was disappointed that you did not discuss all three image stabilization settings you only talked about your preference for mode 2. My main reason for watching this video was hoping to hear a discussion of those three modes.
Great suggestion! Perhaps in the future I'll do a video just on that topic as so many lenses now have that option. thanks!
Very helpful Patrick. As usual real world advice from long experience. Thanks ✌️😀
What a great video! I have the A1 and 200-600 +1,4x for almost one year now but I learned many thing!
Glad it was helpful!
As usual, I'm late to the party. In fact, I'm sitting in my chair waiting for my new Sony 200-600 mm lens to be delivered. Over the years, I've tried to capture wildlife but never had enough lens. I think this lens will fix that issue. I am looking forward to using the lens.
you will love it!!!
Great review…thx! Do you find the shutter needs to be a little higher on A1 vs A9 on this lens for same freezing ability? Seems like I need 1/2000 vs 1/1600 to get similar results on A1 vs A9 but I need to test more. I suspect it’s due to number of pixels?
not really... same speeds offer me the same degree of stopping??? Weird
@@PMRTV yes indeed…the A1 at 1/1600 seems to have a little more motion blur than A9 @1/1600. Only shot one time so far with A1 so could be my technique as I hand hold the 200-600.
I use a quick-realease for my monopod, and put my Camera down sideways, when I not use monopod I carry the Camera upside down, because I use the tripod mount as a rest for my hand while shooting, so I never turn the tripod mount downside up as in this video
I have seen many a mishap of shooters using a quick release to carry long glass on a monopod. It never ends well when the whole thing slides off the mount and hits the ground from 5' up. Hopefully you are setting it down on the right side where there are not doors, connections, etc... Grip side would be better if you continue that practice.
Excellent. I’ve had and have used this lens extensively for wildlife with Sony A9 and Sony A1. At Grand Teton last May my shot of legendary bear 399 (maybe 300 years away) was slightly blurred and would not have been if I’d followed your guidance in this video.
Brown bears and that damn red-shift, eh?
G'day Patrick, I recently aquired this lens, and I see that you mentioned that a UV lens will effect the focus? But a ND filter is okay to use? No rush thanks Linden
i have heard of people using ND for video and for shooting water and the like without problem--just don't permanently attach a UV.
Steve Perry did a video about heat blur from the lens hood itself when your equipment hasn't equalized in temperature to the environment you're photographing in yet. Something else to consider when you have photos that are not sharp.
Patrick have you noticed the tripod collar ring getting really difficult to rotate after a while? Mine almost feels like it needs oil or something; it's as if it's rubbing metal against metal when I rotate the collar. It's only this lens -- my other sony lenses with rotatable collars are smooth as butter (100-400, 70-200)
I've not seen this in my lens yet--is it possible something got tweaked or twisted in the tripod? or a drop?
Does a1 IBIS work with the 200-600? My a1 menu won't allow it with this lens. Is there a way to enable IBIS in both the a1 and the 200-600?
How soon the firmware upgrade for Tracking Focus on A1 ?
I wonder why A1 price $2k more than a7R5
It’s not fair
a1 is a completely different camera aimed at sports shooters. the sensor inside is very special in each camera but you really can't compare them to each other as they have separate uses...
Wonderful review! Got the lens and using it with the a7S III mainly for video.
great!!!! And lucky you for actually getting an a7SIII.
@@PMRTV Might get the a7IV soon as well as a supporting/second body. Would love to see Sony taking the next step and getting global shutter, maybe on a9 III?
I remember a review you did of this lens shooting soccer. What is your opinion on the lens for baseball if a 400 f2.8 is not an option? Thanks for all of the time you put into making these videos.
it's great for all daytime field-sports like baseball, soccer, LAX, tennis, and football. If you have the a7IV, a9, a9II, a7SIII, or a1, you can also shoot this lens at night games too... You may want to add some noise reduction in post though--I use topaz FYI...
cant wait for you to do a video on the new 300 f2.8 (tongue in cheek) 🙂
LETS GO SONY !!!
Oh man!!! Sony has no idea how many they will sell once they produce one...
Really enjoyed this informative video-I knew much of this, but still learned a lot. Couple of things, the new A7 IV is claimed to retain all AF functions with teleconverters (like the A1). I’ve had my A7 IV since Christmas, but I haven’t used any teleconverters. Secondly, the new 70-200 GM II also has internal focus. I’m hopeful that a new gen version of the 24-70 GM is coming that will also have internal focus.
BTW, check out a vid today from Steve Perry about the need to remove the lens hood if going from a warm place into bitter cold. Really interesting.
I enjoy your videos!
thanks Roger!!!
Very informative. Would like to know your viewpoint on this lens on a A7R4A as there are so many negative experiences by many photographers regarding AF.
What I am about to say is only my opinion. If you assume most people that bought an a7RIV also owned the a7RIII or a7III prior to buying the RIV, then this is the problem with the AF on the RIV. I have long believed that the a7RIII and especially a7III offer better and more accurate AF than the a7RIV, even though it was offered AFTER those other two bodies. For shooters like me that mostly use a9/a9II and a1 now, using an a7RIV can be painful. It just misses focus too much. Again, this is just my own personal experience but I was really happy to see the a1 launch as it gave me even better AF than the a9II, which I didn't think was possible.
You help so much, ty sir
thanks Edwin!!!
All tough I don’t own the 200-600 I wanted to let you know that I’m a great fan of your content. It’s usable info and you challenge me to go out and try different photography technics. Awesome content!
thanks Tim!!!!
Great video! I have a question: I use the A7III in combination with the 200-600mm. Most of the time I shoot birds and wildlife. When I enable silent shutter, the focus of my camera gets so bad. As long as I don't press down the shutter, I see the green focus points. But when I take photos only the first 1-2 photos get sharp, after that, the focus points get grey (correct focus not found). It looks like I use Af-s, even though I always shoot in Af-c. What should I do or what am I doing wrong?
Many greetings from Hamburg, Germany 🙂
Are you set to AF, shutter release, or balanced? I would set to balanced. If you are set to shutter release, this could be the problem. Let us know!!!
I always follow your reviews and tips, but in this case, it seems you assume that all AF issues with this lens are user mistakes when you tell "...Can't find any point of focus across your frame? Issue [sic] wasn't the AF but rather camera shake at your end...". Are you serious about that, or maybe I'm not getting the point here?
It's a fair question Marcio. Here is a better way of saying this. If you know that the camera was in focus on some part of the frame and you still cannot find focus, then it was camera shake/too much movement in a pan, etc... It is certainly possible to just be out of focus completely where the point of focus is before or beyond the scene you are shooting. This would definitely be operator error or the AF failing, but the latter happens so infrequently for me, I would mostly assume operator error. Hope that clears things up. patrick :)
I'm going to have to disagree about the the perceived sharpness issue with this lens. I own a lot of white lenses, both Sony and Canon, and my copy of this lense is to say the least, rather uninspiring. It would not surprise me at all if there is a sample variation with batches of this lens. But yep, I hate mine.😢
sorry to hear that!