Long lenses have always been something I’ve used in my photography. When I first got a film body in the 90s I had a 70-300mm variant. I’ve since gone through four camera systems (canon, nikon, canon again, fuji and now sony). On each system I’ve had a long lens of some sort. They basically fall into three versions, the 70-300mm, the 100-400mm and the 150-600mm or 200-600mm. Here’s a shot of the three together for size comparison:
The 70-300mm is the smallest and cheapest of the group. It’s the best for travel or anytime space or budget are limited. It’s a decent range especially with a (crop body). But 300mm is only getting you a better look at something, it’s not really changing your perspective. I’ve owned this lens on all systems. I’ve had three versions for canon (tamron, canon’s inexpensive version and canon’s 70-300L). I had the tamron version for nikon as well as the fuji version (55-210 but with a 1.5 crop factor). For sony I’ve owned the sony 70-300mm twice. The first time I owned it with the tamron 150-600mm so a small lens and a long lens. The second time I owned it after a sony 100-400mm for keeping something long but after selling the 100-400mm.
The 100-400mm is a great lens with a lot of range. I owned it for canon and enjoyed it there. It is a noticeable size up from the 70-300s while also being easier to deal with compared to the 150-600/200-600mm lenses. I had one with my canon system back in the day. I’ve owned the sony version as well. The sony version plays very nicely with sony’s teleconverters (TCs) which gains it a lot of extra reach when needed. In the end I typically end up switching this lens out for the pair of a 70-300 & 150-600 because the 2 lenses offer more range and portability while costing about the same in total.
The 150-600mm tamron and 200-600mm sony are in a different league. They’re much bigger lenses physically so they’re harder to handle. It’s a workout carrying them and keeping them on target w/o shaking the camera is tricky. But the range you get going from 400 to 600mm changes the way you can capture images. It gets you significantly closer to wildlife. It lets you get landscapes that aren’t possible with the lesser ranged zooms. If you’re willing to bring it with you!
When we moved to Montana I had the 100-400mm with the 2.0 TC. It’s a great lens but I felt like I was constantly adding and removing the TC to get the range I wanted. I also really didn’t like how the balance changed as you zoom the lens (it almost doubles in length as you zoom from 100 to 400mm). I also started shooting a lot less when I injured my finger. So in the end I sold this lens and replaced it with only a 70-300mm.
Sony’s 70-300mm is a great lens. For me the 70-300s represent a gateway to the drug that is shooting with longer focal lengths. At first it’s good enough and it’s very easy to carry with you. But eventually they leave you wanting more. This lens covered the range in my lineup for 18 months but I also wasn’t shooting a lot, especially not wildlife or long range landscapes.
Fast forward to spring 2020 and the whole Covid-19 ordeal. I’m not the stay at home parent and starting my photography business up again. I taught skiing this past winter and shot primarily with my phone and only needed wide angle lenses (my phone has great wide and standard angle options). I’ve been at home working with the kids and their school work since mid March. This has given me plenty of time to wonder about all sorts of things! Worrying about money? Maybe I can sell some stuff. Bored? Maybe I can process some old images. Or maybe even shoot some new work? I’m also re-starting my architecture and real estate photography business. With all this going on I changed my wide angle lens setup (expect a similar gear post about that?!) back to the sony 12-24mm, the best architecture lens I’ve used. But buying and selling some gear again made me realize a few things… I have a LOT of gear I don’t really use or need. I’ve always had 2 systems, my money maker and a smaller lighter travel/hiking setup. Well I’ve only need using my phone for hiking and snapshot/family shots lately. This means I can pare down my kit and reduce it to just what I need and or really want to use. New gear always sparks more shooting so let’s change things up a bit!
First up, I’ve sold or are selling all my aps-c specific (crop) lenses. I’ve alway had that light travel setup but I’ve rarely/barely used it (lightroom meta data can be sobering!). I’m keeping my a6300 as a backup body as well as the 10-18mm zoom since I could shoot real estate with that if needed. The 10-18mm will also act as my wide angle with filters lens on the a7riii. The 12-24mm sony that’s so good for architecture work doesn’t take filters easily (they’d be massive and very expensive). So if I need filters on a wide the 10-18mm can come into play here. If I need to shoot in crop mode so be it. I own the lens and it’s tiny so it’s easy to bring with me even with the 12-24mm and 28-75mm in the bag. I’ve got the 12-24mm previously mentioned. Then I also have the tamron 28-75mm that’s an awesome value mid range rockstar (another review I’m working on). But for the long lens I’ve got the 70-300… So I sold it and found myself a nice used sony 200-600mm lens (I buy and sell used lenses all the time). My goal here is to get the best lenses for me that will give me images that aren’t possible otherwise.
So, Buckle up, here we go, back to having a true long lens in the house and this one is the longest yet at 12.5″!!!
Sony 200-600mm initial thoughts: It’s big, it’s heavy, and so far I like it a lot. I have to get good at hand holding long lens again and squeezing my shutter instead of pressing it (thus moving the camera). I have some shots where the press either changed my composition or changed the focus slightly. But when I nail it it’s pretty amazing. I have a love hate with the size. It’s 12.5″ long and 16″ long with the hood (then add another 2″ if the camera is on it). It’s a lot bigger than the 100-400 and would be less than ideal for travel… One things I love is that it’s ALWAYS that length with an internal zoom which makes it much easier to zoom while shooting without the balance changing. To zoom from 200 to 600 is a 90° turn making it super easy and balanced to zoom while shooting. I LOVE that. It’s a great arm workout though! I think it’s 50% heavier than the 100-400? As vain as this sounds I love the look of the lens. The way it gets slightly bigger at each section. All the other zooms have mentioned have an external zoom so they’re barrels all have a skinnier section that comes out at the long end when you zoom in. I’ve always hated the look but dealt with it for the functionality. The sony fixes that issue with it’s internal zoom design. This also makes the lens much easier to shoot with as it’s always the same weight and balance. Yes it’s big and heavy, but it’s a much easier lens to use in the field for something with 600mm focal length on the long end.
I’ve always loved the longest lens possible. I have a series of 600mm lighthouse “portraits” I love with the 150-600s. I’m thinking of a similar barn series here in MT… One concern is I shot a lot of sailing and surfing with my long lenses in Rhode Island. I don’t really have sports to shoot here where a long lens is as helpful (I’m hoping to shoot some kite surfing on the lakes though). What I do have is an insane amount of landscape options that are far away as well as wildlife for days! I’m hoping to start shooting more wildlife, something I’ve always been interested in but have never pursued. Long lenses are also hard to shoot well. They have IS/OSS/VR/stabilization built in, but at 600mm (and 900mm in crop mode!) good technique is also crucial for using a long lens successfully. There’s a technical challenge to this lens that’s appealing to me. Learning how to get focus tracking to work with wildlife is also a challenge that I’m looking forward to. The 200-600 makes me want to go find stuff to shoot. This is good.
Every shot in this post is from OLD long lenses. 70-300s, 100-400s and 150-600s. Some on canon, some fuji and some sony. There’s a gallery with more below. I’m saving all the 200-600mm shots for the upcoming review (but have been posting them to their own blog posts and social media recently as well).
This post has also been a great trip down memory lane. If you look at the watermark in the corner of my images it has the year back to 2012. Before that they didn’t have the year. And even older than that they had a different style (none of those are in this post). My blog is now 13 years old! I’ve come a long way since then. Cameras have come a long way since then (and I’ve been shooting a lot longer than that). Processing has also come a long way (I’d love to revisit some of these images).
