By David Kilpatrick
- £799
- Only 654g
- 67mm filters
- With OSS in-lens stabilisation
- Closest focus 0.41X at 86cm – at 400mm!
- Takes 1.4X or 2X converters
- Enables high speed body functions
- Available in September, pre-order now
Sony’s new FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS arriving at the end of August breaks many moulds. It looks as if it derives from Tamron, the lens maker Sony is considering taking over entirely after many years as a shareholder, and at £799 it has a Tamron-level price despite the branding.
Tamron’s lenses generally take 67mm filters – and so does this. They are compact and light weight, as this is, though the 654g is a real featherweight for such a lens and the physical length (before zooming) of 164.5mm makes it walkabout and travel friendly. As seen below on an APS-C A6700 body!
Before you question the viability of f/8 at the long end, remember it is just half a stop slower than so many popular zooms which hit f/6.3 at 300mm or even 200mm like my daily companion Sigma 20-200mm. As Canon found, AF off modern high resolution sensors can work at ƒ8 even in poor light and as we all have (I hope) found processing from raw using Adobe Camera Raw now makes ISO 6400 or even 12,800 a clean capture despite the tiny pixel pitch of 60-plus megapixels.
Unlike Tamron’s OEM designs or Sony’s own excellent 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS, this Sony accepts both the 1.4X and 2X Sony converters. A black lens taking white converters! It must be good. They wouldn’t dare risk the potentially awful results of a sub-par zoom with the 2X even if The EVF at f/16 and 800mm will be just as bright as as an f/2 lens in good light.
Unlike Tamron’s designs so far, this Sony zoom uses a radically different approach to close focusing. Instead of offering the closest and largest image scale at the short end, it does the best thing ever and gets down to 86cm at 400mm, the trade-off being a very conservative 1.13m at 100mm. The long end image scale is 0.41X, so not quite half life size which would be classed as macro. Macro is often better tackled using the APS-C crop anyway.
It also claims OSS, which I would assume to be Sony’s tech not Tamron VC relabelled. It’s possible too that Tamron has nothing at all to do with this lens. I only dwell on it because it does look that way.
So, I’ve pre-ordered along with £200 off 1.4X converter. Entirely seriously, this lens if it’s any good may see me part entirely with MicroFourThirds. I value the reach of OM-Systems’ little 75-300mm, equal to a 600mm though the sensor is only 20MP. Pair this light zoom’s 400mm end with the 28MP 1.5X APS-C crop from A7RV or VI or the slightly bigger file from the A7VI and the pixel-resolution tele power exceeds MFT.
Add in the unexpected high compatibility of this non-G 100-400mm with advanced Sony body functions like 30fps continuous shooting, or 120fps on that camera body I can not afford. Really it’s a game-changer. Sure, the A7RV kit will never be exactly as light, compact and versatile as my OM-1 kit but with this lens, the Sigma 20-200mm and the lovely little 14mm f/4 Viltrox it will come close.
As for tech spec, I’ve given most of it and Sony’s sites or any good dealer will have all the detail.
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