It’s a big day for Sony shooters who love to capture wildlife and sports, as the brand has finally introduce its long-awaited FE 400mm F2. 8 GM OSS lens, which is Sony’s longest focal length fast-aperture prime optic to date.
A close-up of the settings on the Sony 400mm f/2. 8 lens.
There’s a lot of anticipation around this lens for a multitude of reasons, not only because it will help photographers capture wildlife and sports imagery with a much lighter set up. In fact, the Sony 400mm lens weighs in at just 2897g - a significantly lighter load than Canon’s 400mm f/2. 8 lens, which tips the scales at 3950g.
Sony explains the lighter design will help when it comes to taking pictures and it appears they’ve roped in an army of professionals to make sure the final product was just right as a press release explained; “repeated field tests and evaluation by professional photographers across the world have led to a lens design that is not front-heavy, reducing moment of inertia that resists rotation by up to 50% as compared to the SAL500F40G. This ensures that quicker, more precise panning is available, whether shooting handheld or on a monopod”.
Lightweight, just like the Sony a9 flagship camera.
The design of the FE 400mm F2. 8 GM OSS is interesting; there’s two newly-developed high-speed XD (extreme dynamic) Linear Motors that drive the lens’ focus group, which Sony say achieves up to a 5x improvement in moving-subject tracking performance. The lens also features an 11-blade circular aperture mechanism to deliver what should be some awesome bokeh - plus, the optics have been enhanced with Sony’s Nano AR coating to reduce unwanted glare, ghosting or reflections.
The FE 400mm F2. 8 GM OSS lens can be used with Sony’s 1. 4x and 2. 0x E-mount tele-converters, but perhaps the coolest feature is the drop-in filter slot that accepts a 40. 5mm size ND filter. This clever design feature will allow photographers to capture a shallow depth of field with a large aperture such as f/2. 8, even on a bright day. Alternatively, the filter slot can also be used for drop-in circular polarising filter instead.
The innovative drop-in filter feature.
Sony’s FE 400mm F2. 8 GM OSS lenses will be built to order and will start shipping to Europe in September. As you’d expect from such an impressive lens, the price-tag is a heavy 12,000 Euros, and if you want the optional drop-in circular polarising filter, that will cost around 480Euros extra.
You can watch a short promo trailer about the lens here:
Sony welcomes the 400mm f/2. 8
Plus, you can watch acclaimed photographers Nick Didlick and Bob Martin talk about the Sony 400mm f/2. 8 here:
Hear the expert's view. . .
. digitalrev.com2018-6-28 03:00
