Sony 500mm F4

[Robbie A]

Sony Europe today announced the release of the long awaited 500mm F4 lens. Coupled with the 24mp, 12fps A77 camera it will now be a great wildlife, avian and sports combination to be reckoned with!

http://presscentre.sony.eu/content/D...4&NewsAreaID=2

[TheronFamily]

It depends on whose viewpoint you consider?!

DPR Review of A77:

Not so good for

High ISO available light photography, and 'serious' sports and action work.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Sony Europe today announced the release of the long awaited 500mm F4 lens. Coupled with the 24mp, 12fps A77 camera it will now be a great wildlife, avian and sports combination to be reckoned with!

http://presscentre.sony.eu/content/D...4&NewsAreaID=2

I presume your pre-order is in already, Robbie?

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

Glad the 500mm is on it's way... It's good to see a 3rd "big" player coming into the game again... It helps to keep Canon and Nikon on their toes a bit! (so good for me!)

[TheronFamily]

what's the local support / aftersales service like on Sony Sean?

[ABDurbs]

Very sadly out of my price range, but I guess all the new generation lenses cost that now. Sorry for us "poor" amateurs :-(

[TheronFamily]

Here we go again !

say what now?

[Nick Holmes]

Got very excited until I saw the price... 13 000 euros, much more than the new Canon

[ABDurbs]

Got very excited until I saw the price... 13 000 euros, much more than the new Canon

I believe they are going to be "made to order" !!! That would explain the cost I suppose, but still out of most peoples reach.

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

what's the local support / aftersales service like on Sony Sean?

Only hearsay, but I understand that its much better than it was even a year ago...

[Henk Coetzee]

Glad the 500mm is on it's way... It's good to see a 3rd "big" player coming into the game again... It helps to keep Canon and Nikon on their toes a bit! (so good for me!)

And a 4th one. It looks like there is a 500+mm lens on the way from Pentax. Also interesting is that it is one of the DA line which generally means that it has an APS-C image circle (although at least one of them is actually a FF lens). This could mean a smaller, lighter long telephoto.

[Robbie A]

It depends on whose viewpoint you consider?!

DPR Review of A77:

Not so good for

High ISO available light photography, and 'serious' sports and action work.

No, not the best at highest ISO's but then at 20 grand vs 80 grand of some manufacturers, I believe a good piece of equipment.

[Robbie A]

I presume your pre-order is in already, Robbie?

Already 2 years ago Morkel!


BTW Alan, according to some friends of mine overseas, the UK presold 20 in the last 2 weeks...

[Nick Holmes]

No, not the best at highest ISO's but then at 20 grand vs 80 grand of some manufacturers, I believe a good piece of equipment.

It's also very poor at low ISO. If v2 FW update does not do something miraculous to improve it, I fear my days with Sony may come to an end.

[Robbie A]

It's also very poor at low ISO. If v2 FW update does not do something miraculous to improve it, I fear my days with Sony may come to an end.

I beg to differ! Low ISO performance is great! ISO 50 gives almost what we had in the old Velvia days...

[Nick Holmes]

Noise levels from ISO 200 are unacceptable IMO for this level of camera. (noise is even creeping in at ISO 100).

[TheronFamily]

I beg to differ! Low ISO performance is great! ISO 50 gives almost what we had in the old Velvia days...

it will now be a great wildlife, avian and sports combination to be reckoned with!

ISO50 for wildlife, avian, and sports?

Yip, Canon and Nikon better watch out ...

[Robbie A]

ISO50 for wildlife, avian, and sports?

Yip, Canon and Nikon better watch out ...

yeah, yeah... would expect that from you....the comment was made in reply to a previous comment about low ISO performance... so yeah, Canon better watch out.. (since Nikon use some Sony sensors in their cameras, even the latest announced 36mp D800)


Well Nick, you know what they say, if it doesn't do it for, jump ship...

[TheronFamily]

yeah, yeah... would expect that from you....

the idea is not to create the expectation in the first place
I'm happy that you're happy about the new lens intro.

[Andre v]

As a Sony user myself i have been looking forward to this lens for some time, pricing is far too high as far as i am concerned.

If the pricing is correct i dont see Sony selling many of these. Well we will see when the test images are released perhaps its worth it???