Since selling my sony a7riv and 200-600mm summer of 2023 I’ve been missing the long telephoto lens in my lineup.  Living near Yellowstone will do that I suppose.  I added the 150-600mm this past winter and finally got a chance to take it to YNP in March.  This is by no means a great test as I was driving the car and all shots are from the driver’s seat (stopped of course).  So far I’m impressed.  With the X-M5’s new tracking AF it does a great job keeping things in focus.  I know a lot of people complain about the lack of EVF on the X-M5 but I’ve found a great solution, a hoodman loupe!  This is a firm hood that you can press your eye against for that third point of contact that’s necessary with such a long lens.  I also have the JJC version which is great except it’s “hood” is designed to collapse which means you can’t use it to help with that balance. 

The 150-600 has the same internal zoom design as sony’s 200-600 which I much prefer over the typical external zooms that get longer as you zoom in.  Pair this with an aps-c sensor and it’s a ~900mm effective lens on the long end (I used my a7riv in crop mode more often than not with it’s 200-600).  This means the fuji effectively matches the sony’s overall range (225-900mm -vs- 200-900mm).  It just has less pixels in the 225-600 range but I find the 26mp it has more than enough for my use.

You’ll notice I have a lens coat on it.  That’s not to blend in but more to keep the lens from getting banged up.  I keep it in my bag hood on, cap off, ready to go.  When using such a long lens (especially in/around the car at times) it gets bumped into at times.  It also rides “shotgun” in the car quite a bit (with the seatbelt looped over it’s arca foot) and will be touching the seatbelt at times.  I feel adding this coat just means it stays in better shape without needing to worry about it.

I’m looking forward to getting out with this setup more this summer.  I posted about my foiling a few days ago, while driving to foil I often see things I’d love to shoot with a longer lens in the past two years.  This year that’s hopefully going to change!