Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS E-Mount Super-Telephoto Zoom Lens – Ideal for Wildlife, Sports, and Nature Photography

The hype is real. The lens is of fantastic build quality and offers great sharpness, it's not a cheap lens but it is one of the cheaper options for a telephoto lens on a full frame sony camera. Autofocus is fast and reliable. The downsides are the weight as it's relatively heavy and obviously it's very large. That being said i'm more than happy with my purchase, managed to take this photo on my first outing with the lens.

I'm pretty blown away by this lens. I'm using this on my a6700, which if you're reading this you probably know is an APS-C body, so I'm getting an effective focal length of 300-900mm. It is just bonkers. The lens performs in every way, exceptionally well. Image quality is fantastic, very sharp across the board, even wide open, which is very useful as this is a "slower" lens. You can get some really incredibly shots with it at this focal length and despite it's relatively narrow aperture, you can still get quite shallow depth of field! Attached is an uncropped (!!) image of the moon I took this evening with it. I've had it for about a week now, and have just found myself using it pretty much every day. It's just a lot of fun to play around with, and you get some really unique effects from this kind of focal length. Compared to other lenses that can reach this far, the value is incredible. Sony is clearly trying (and I'd argue, succeeding) to compete with the third-party lens manufacturers like Sigma and Tamron to produce a lens like this. Now, this lens is BIG, seriously big. It dwarfs my 70-350mm lens, and is also a lot heavier than it at 2.1kg. You can wield this thing free hand, but you will notice it if you're aiming it at something for a short while. If you want to do wildlife with this thing and you're staking something out, you will want to rest it on something (a tripod, a monopod, even a beanbag). You will probably also want to have a decent, and large enough bag to put this lens in. I've fit it in my regular bags (roughly 20-25L) using the included bag, but also have a proper adventure camera bag which it feels a bit safer in. I would definitely recommend this lens, it's astonishing.

Important disclaimer - I am reviewing this having had it for less than a month. Second disclaimer - I am currently using it on a Sony A7 (the original A7 from 2013). That is important because to make the most of this lens for bird photography you need a much better auto focus system in camera. I am currently saving up for a second hand Sony A9: that system will perform much better tracking birds in flight. But the lens is amazing, it is sharp, fast to focus and benefits from stabilisation (something else the A7 is missing!) i took it on a number of photo walks and loved being able to really get close to objects at distance due to the reach. Still learning to make the most of it, but attached some images to give an idea of some of the capabilities. First shot at 600mm, second at 420mm, final at 200mm.

Before I start, please note that I already have the 100-400 and needed something for extra reach. There are many excellent reviews on YouTude and on the net - if you are looking to buy this and want to research it then they are good resources. I have used this on my camera as a 200-600 and with the 1.4 converter too (makes it 280 to 840). With the right light, this gives excellent results. Even with the wrong light it gives good results. The photo attached to the review was in poor (overcast winter light, raining) light on my first outing with it which was to a local safari park. I bought the lens for the extra reach, and because as it's a fixed length zoom, it's more weather proof too. I have yet to put it to a proper test, although given the conditions it worked remarkably well for me with a better than 90% in focus across the almost 900 photos I took on the day! The out of focus were mainly me getting used to it and choosing the wrong focus type. If in doubt, rent it first . . . but if you are looking for this focal range, I wouldn't hesitate at all. The only things I would say is the front lens is very wide so if you are looking for a filter to protect it bear that in mind - and the minimal focus distance is not short, so close up/macro type shots are not its strong suit. With the right camera to pair it with, you won't be disappointed.

The lens is super sharp and has amazing stabilization with hand held 600mm shots perfectly viable. It is fairly heavy and maybe a little larger than I expected, but certainly seems to pack a lot of punch with a good focal range of 200mm to 600mm that helps make wildlife photography a lot easier to frame. I honestly found that within one day of ownership, this lens was ranked as one of my favourites as the sharpness and brightness/speed is far more usable than I expected for an F5.6-6.3 lens. It is easily possible to capture the fine details of a butterfly from several meters from the subject, or focus on a bird eye during flight - the inbuild stabilization is really a triumph for Sony and is a massive aid when capturing fast moving subjects. So this is one of my favourite Sony lenses, but I've marked it down by one star. The build quality seems really nice with a beautifully smooth internal zoom mechanism that is quick acting, the lens stays the same length when zooming as all the movement is internal, great for weather sealing etc. However, my first lens had a manufacturing fault with a fleck of white (paint?) stuck to the inside of the rear lens element. The fleck/dust was certainly internal to the lens and could not be removed without disassembly - slightly shocked for a Sony branded part as previously I've had zero issues with new Sony items. Amazon responded immediately and organised a replacement - as always providing a great service! I would certainly recommend the lens, it can produce some amazingly good images and the magnification is super close with a lovely action to the zoom control. I think my issue with the internal dust would likely be a 'one off' so don't let this put you off purchasing this lens.

Fabulous lense, a bit expensive but if you want to get in closer with ultra clear images then I highly recommend this lense. Perfect for my needs.

Sharp, amazing autofocus, it’s not light but worth carrying if you have a particular shot in mind

Bought this lens on offer. Absolutely love it! Great results and bokeh. Impressively sharp. I’ve had a few zoom lenses that haven’t given flattering results when it comes to wildlife, this does, even at 600mm! And let me tell you 600mm is not a lot, I feel like I could enjoy more than that as well! The lens is on the heavy side so you will need 2 hands to hold it stable, or use some sort of tripod/monopod. It does feel like a camera on a lens rather than lens on a camera (A7ii). In low light it’s not the best as expected given the aperture range, despite this pictures have been sharp!