I
F £12,000IS BEYOND
yourmeans,thenwe have
goodnews!Sonyhasalso
releaseda competitively
priced200-600mmzoom
witha variableaperture,setto
gotoe-to-toewithSigmaand
Tamron.It featuresa sturdy
dustandmoisture-resistant
design,OpticalSteadyShot
st abilisationwiththree
di stinctsettings,andfocus
li mitswitchon
the barrelto aidwithfaster
fo cusingacrosslongdistances.
The bodykeepsweight
downby usingmagnesium
al loywherepossible.It houses
a whopping24 elementsin 17
groups,withfiveaspherical,
and oneED(extra-low
di spersion)elementto help
combatdistortion.Unlikethe
GMaster,it optsfora Direct
DriveSSMinternalfocusing
motor,whichwe feltdida
greatjob,whilekeepingthe
costdown.Yougetthree
customisablefocushold
buttonsbetweenthelarge
zoomandfocusrings,anda
fluorinecoatedfrontelement
toprotectagainstdust,dirt
and fingerprints.
Performance
Unlikeotherlensesin this
cl ass,theSonyfeaturesan
in ternalzoomandfocusing
mechanism,whichmeansthe
barrellengthstaysthesame,
regardlessof yourfocallength.
Thishelpsto keepthelens
compactandbalancedin the
hand,whileSony’sOSSimage
st abilisationsystemworks
tosteadyhandheldshotsand
returnsharperresultsatslow
shutterspeeds.
For traditionalists,Sonyhas
deployeditsLinearResponse
MFsystem,whichaimsto
makethefocusringmove
morelikea mechanicallens,as
fo undon DSLRs.Thisis ideal
fo r manualfocusenthusiasts
whorequirea consistentfocus
ring.
theAF
tobe urate– so
muchso th d be happyto
re lyon it overmanualfocus,
especiallywhenusingthenew
Sonyfirmware,whichleads
the classforaccuracy.
One finalpointthatwill
li kelytemptserioususers
isthenewsthatthislensis
compatiblewithboththe1.4
and 2x teleconverters.Sony
cl aimsanylossin qualityis
negligible,thoughwedidn’t
manageto putthisto thetest.
Itdoes,however,meanyou’re
ableto geta possible1200mm
re ach,whichis nothingshort
offormidable.Althoughthis
may be a morebudget-friendly
option,it’sstilla verycapable
opticwitha versatilezoom
range.Thoughwe onlyhad
our handson a pre-production
model,we foundthefocusing
was exceptional,andthe
imagequalitywasimpressive.
We’resurethatthefinished
productionmodelwillquickly
find a willingmarket.
PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 123
FIRST LOOK
While the general rule is that primes are sharper than zooms,
for social media and smaller prints, the 200-600mm appears
to approach a similar image quality to the professional version.
Of course, it’s pre-production, so our full review will have to wait.
Ahead of the curve
PROS Versatilezoomrange Weather-sealedconstruction
Internalzoomandfocusing Impressiveimagequality
CONS Variable aperture is a touch narrower than competition
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
IMAGE
QUALITY
Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G O
KIT PRICE
£1799
MIN FOCUS
2.4mm
WEIGHT
2115g
