a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

I might want this APS-C lens for my a6500. Experiences only please; I’ve already done the internet searching.

My primary use would be birds in Florida. F6.3 isn’t a problem.

Thanks 🙏.

melueth Loc: Central Florida

I use this lens on my Sony a6500 all the time and love it. Very sharp, even stretched to it's limits. Florida birds and other wildlife are precisely what i shoot with this lens. The ability to quickly flip to manual focus on the lens is invaluable to me.

Marylea

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

My two buddies shoot with the 70-350 on their a6400 and get excellent results for birds in Florida. However, they both teach photography at the local university.

fotofish

I use this lens 80% of the time on my A6100 for virtually any subject outdoors and macro shots indoors. It is fantastic. For non-macro/closeup indoors shots, 70mm can be a little too tight at times, so I s use a shorter lens most of the time. Except for the fact that it is pretty heavy to carry around for long periods of time, I've found it to be a great "all-purpose" lens. The color is beautiful and sharpness is near perfect. As a macro lens, it is great for critters you don't want to get too close to for fear of scaring them away, although some times I'll add an extension tube. I need to crop those a bit to get to 1:1, but I have no problem with slight to moderate cropping. Without a doubt, it's the best lens I've ever used.

Baysitter11 Loc: Cincinnati

Have mine on an a6600 95% of the time while birding. 😁

jeffhendy Loc: El Dorado Hills, CA

I use mine on my A6600 and it's a great lens - when birding I use it more than my 150-600 Sigma because it's so much smaller and lighter, and the reach is almost as good. Go for it!

wmurnahan Loc: Bloomington IN

Good one, LOL. Crop to 1:1, once you've taken it, your ratio is set, one of those ones is your sensor or film, the other your object. 1:1 means that a 1" object would take up 1" of a sensor.

Siena Loc: Rocky Hill, CT

I use this lens on my Sony a6000 and love it. I have great images SOOC before even doing any post work.

Good luck!

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

This is a quick update to this thread and the one that I started recently about my Minolta 500/8 reflex lens for this same Sony a6500 camera.

I rented the Sony 70-350 from LensRentals and as before, they are simply tops. Kudos.

The lens is outperforming my RX10m4 and I wasn’t even thinking about that before. My entire inquiry was about comparing to the 500 reflex. The reality is that the a6500 with this lens can make a print that is 98% of the size of one taken with the RX10 at full zoom; same subject, same distance. The IQ is noticeably better with the a6500. The RX10m4 has many virtues but this is just about telephoto shots of birds. The difference in pixel density accounts for the otherwise illogical comparison.

The attached picture from my first birding tryout with the new lens is portrait mode cropped from landscape mode and the total area is 38.6% of the original area. The horizontal pixels are only 45% of the original 6000.

The math steps on this are boring, but if the picture had been taken in portrait mode to begin with and with a full frame camera then this image would have to be taken with a 770 mm lens. I can easily carry this combo of camera and lens but a FF camera with a 770 mm lens would be too much for me even without the tripod that I would need to hold it steady.

https://petapixel.com/2020/12/07/telephoto-reach-with-various-digital-cameras/

Comparing to the Minolta 500, the longer lens has a big advantage but in reality I’m easily getting better pictures with the Sony. It’s about image quality vs. size and also about image stabilization plus other ergonomic factors. At the extreme end of possible results, the 500's larger image might be better than a greater-than-1:1 rendition of the 350's. But I found that even at the beginning of that situation, the Sony lens produced better results.

If there is any interest I can go into a lot of reasons for these results. For now I just want to thank the kind Hoggers who responded on this thread with encouragement and on the other one with perceptive analysis.

The other thread is at:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-676154-1.html

(Download)

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

Further update.

The lens is on sale for -$100 until midnight tonight. So I took one last look.

I changed my mind. The 500/8 reflex lens is a lot harder to use but it is producing a better image for distant and/ir small targets such as birds.

My FE 70-200 can't compete for magnification but it's image quality is a lot better. Stuff like this shows up in details like feathers.

I made a careful comparison and found that the Sony 70-350 has very noticeable color fringing (aka CA) when you blow it up. But the reflex lens has very noticeable barrel distortion about 2/3 out from the center. It has zero color fringe and, at least with the manual focus adapter, is about 1/2 stop brighter. Some or all of the brighter is lost when using the LA-EA4 which steals some light for the translucent mirror used for auto focusing.

FYIO