First Impression of Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3G super-telephoto lens by Sudhir Shivaram

With the announcement and launch of 200-600 mm f/5.6 G super-telephoto lens, we are getting a lot of queries from wildlife enthusiast. In order to get a first preview of the lens we gave the newly launched lens to few of the top Wildlife Photographers on the country to test the lens and let us know their reaction.

Sudhir Shivaram, the founding member of Sudhir Shivaram Photography, too tried his hands on the lens and this is what he had to say about it

“When I took the lens in the hand, I was ready to lift its weight thinking it will be heavy. But at just 2.1 kg, I hardly felt the weight. I immediately took it to Bannerghatta forest on the outskirts of Bangalore and later to Sattal in Uttarakhand for bird photography. The lens is extremely flexible for wildlife/bird photography as we can easily handhold it and shoot. In Bannerghatta, I walked around with the Sony A7R3 and the 200-600 hung around my neck for at least 3 hrs and I did not feel the weight at all. That’s awesome!

The zoom is the best part as with just half rotation you go from 200 to 600 and the icing on the cake is the barrel which does not extend as its internal zoom. Which means you don’t have to re-balance the lens when you shift from 200 to 600mm. Focus was pretty decent even at f6.3 in low light.  The build quality is quite sturdy and perfect for rough handling in wildlife photography.

Now the most important points for our wildlife photography, which is the AF speed and image quality:

• I tried it on both the Sony A7R3 and the A9. In terms of autofocus, it is extremely responsive for both Single shot as well as continuous focusing and was able to track the subjects without losing focus.
• Even in low light, the auto focus was pretty impressive.
• The image quality is very impressive. The colours, contrast and the sharpness in the RAW file is outstanding on both the A7R3 and the A9. I did not have to apply any sharpness for the images in post processing. I have not seen this kind of sharpness in any other similar lens I have used in the past.”

That’s impressive and we expect to hear more about the lens in coming days. Stay tuned to get more updates about the lens.