Bright telephoto primes tend to sit at a luxury price point only the most serious wildlife and sports photographers can reach for – but Sony’s new telephoto prime lenses are nearly 4x cheaper than the brand’s brightest. Unveiled on September 15, the Sony FE 400mm f/4.5 GM OSS and FE 600mm f/6.3 GM OSS bring two popular telephoto focal lengths to a more reasonable price point – and a lighter profile.
Sony already has both a 400mm f/2.8 and a 600mm f/4, but the new primes narrow down the aperture by around 1 and ⅓ stops in order to create a more portable – and less pricey – optic.
The 400mm comes in at 994g / 35oz – and the 600mm is only 1g heavier. That’s a major weight loss over the 2895g / 102.2 oz 400mm f/2.8 and the 3040g / 107.3 oz 600mm f/4. Both lenses are also designed with more glass towards the rear of the lens in order to create better balance on the camera body, with the 400mm using 22 elements in 16 groups and the 600mm using 24 elements in 17 groups.
I’ve worked with 600mm f/4 lenses before – and immediately scheduled a chiropractor adjustment afterwards. The new Sony primes don’t quite have the melt-like-butter background of an f/2.8 and an f/4, but it’s far more feasible to hike with.
In fact, I hiked two miles, and I had both the 400mm and the 600mm on me at the same time. Time constraints – and not exhaustion – only prevented me from going farther. Working with the two new prime lenses felt more like carrying around a 70-200mm f/2.8 than a luxury telephoto prime.
While both lenses are lighter and more affordable than Sony’s brightest telephoto primes, the optics are still stabilized – and still a card-carrying member of the more high-end GM series. I found they were still plenty sharp, and still had room to crop even when mounted on the A7 V and not an R-series model.
That sharpness is going to be a key deciding factor on these lenses. After all, the Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS matches the 600mm’s aperture rating and comes in at a lower price than the prime. But, in our lab tests, the 600mm prime won in sharpness, particularly at the corners.
The 400mm is even sharper than the 600mm, even when shooting wide open.
Sony says that both lenses use two linear XD motors and are capable of keeping up with bodies that have 120 fps autofocus calculations. I didn’t find anything to the contrary on my hike – a few birds had too many branches in the way for the autofocus to pick up on, but even birds in flight had relatively few misses.
While the new telephotos are compact, they still carry a set of controls that will feel familiar to photographers who have used other Sony telephotos. There’s a large set of switches including the focus range limiter, four focus hold buttons, and a custom function ring.
As part of the GM series, both lenses are also built with dust and moisture seals, along with a fluorine coating on the front element.
Sony says that both optics are still compatible with Sony’s 2x and 1.4x teleconverters.
The Sony 400mm f/4.5 GM OSS is set to retail for $2,699 / £2,579 / CA$3,579 – while that’s certainly not a cheap lens, that’s nearly a quarter of the cost of Sony’s 400mm f/2.8, which sits at $12,999 / £10,490.
The Sony 600mm f/6.3 comes in slightly higher for that added reach at $3,699 / £3,609 / CA$4,999. Again, that’s not cheap unless it’s being directly compared to the 600mm f/4 GM OSS, which goes for $14,099 / £11,999.
Both lenses are expected to begin shipping in October.
You may also like
Take a look at the best Sony E-Mount lenses or the best lenses for bird photography.
