When Sony invited me to try out the new Sony A7R VI, I naturally jumped at the chance to handle a camera that we just rated five stars out of five in our recent review. The camera wasn’t the only thing I wanted to try, however, as the brand was also launching the rather eye-catching FE 100-400mm F4.5 GM OSS, a lens that appears to offer serious reach for birders or sports photographers.
Such reach, alongside the A7R VI’s impressive 66MP resolution, should be a birder’s dream given the camera’s rather ridiculous cropping potential. Add to that the brand’s latest autofocus? Even a street photographer like me has no excuse not to get a good photo.
The Sony 100-400mm f/4.5 GM currently retails for €5,000 / £4,400 (AU$ TBC), so it’s not a cheap lens at all. According to Sony, it is aimed at the professional/enthusiastic public, straddling the line between “amateur” glass and the brand’s high-end professional glass.
In hand, the 100-400mm f/4.5 is a heavy specimen, but surprisingly light for a telephoto lens of this size. Sony said they were deliberating between making this a constant f/4 or f/4.5 aperture, but they chose the latter due to its substantial weight savings.
At 1840g, I think they made the right choice here. Considering the quality of the brand’s BSI full-frame sensors, you don’t lose much light-gathering capability with a half-stop of aperture. The lighter weight, however, should pay dividends when you carry this lens into the field.
A few other things I really liked about this lens are the thoughtful FN buttons scattered around the lens barrel, which provide plenty of customization options. Support for 45mm drop-in filters at the base of the lens is also a nice touch, meaning you don’t have to shell out for massive 95mm front filters.
An excellent match with the Sony A7R VI
There’s an old adage that the equipment doesn’t make the photographer. Sure, that’s true, but if there’s anything that can help you nail that telephoto shot, it’s this lens in combination with the Sony A7R VI.
I have to admit that I am relatively new to bird photography. I couldn’t even tell you the difference between a great tit and a great tit. I can tell a duck from a goose, but barely.
Even I was able to take good shots with the 100-400mm f/4.5. In the hands of a pro, the possibilities are surely vast.
At 400mm, the lens offers impressive reach, but it’s in combination with the A7R VI’s 66MP sensor that it really shines. With so much cropping potential, you can go way beyond an APS-C crop here – up to 100% zoom, in fact.
This is where the lens’ constant f/4.5 aperture also comes in handy, as you still get a decent level of background separation at the most extreme end. Although the bokeh may still be a bit busy, it will be smoother than the f/5.6 shown on the older 2017 lens.
I didn’t have much time to field test this lens, but in my short experience it was a very powerful combination. I still missed a few shots (mainly due to my own failures), but I was really surprised at how sharp the images were with such extreme crops upon inspection in post-production. Again, there is serious potential here for experienced birders.
Excellent autofocus too
Everyone knows the Sony A7R VI is a beast when it comes to autofocus, but this lens is arguably just as impressive. Throughout my session, I tried quite a few lenses, including high-end GM lenses, and was surprised to find that the heavy 100-400mm f/4.5 didn’t lag behind any of its siblings.
Of course, compared to something like the superb FE 50mm F1.2 GM, the 100-400mm f/4.5 is not enough also fast, but surprisingly close. In my brief testing, focus acquisition was extremely impressive when paired with the new A7R VI. Even on a busy basketball court, the lens had no trouble tracking faces and actions thanks to the camera’s excellent human-priority focusing mode.
Again, this reminds me of the previous adage about equipment, but in reality, with equipment this good, it really is so easy to take a photo – it’s action and bird photography on easy mode. In my few hundred test photos, I had an impressive success rate, and images of the basketball scene in particular are rendered with impressive sharpness thanks to the beautiful lighting conditions.
For a full review, I would need to properly assess low light performance as well as distortion, aberration, etc., but this lens definitely impressed me from my first hands-on.
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