Get your orders in quick. There has been pent-up demand for this for some time so they will be going fast, I think.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/845555-REG/Sony_SAL500F40G_500mm_f_4_0_G_Lens.html

I tried to order one, but had a problem. My credit card only has $12.99 available, not $12,999.99

Dusty

Dusty, I guess this means you won't be one of the hordes of professional sports photographers shooting the London Olympics this summer with an A77 + 500mm f4.

Yes, $13k is a hell of a lot of money for a lens. I wonder over the next 5 years how many Sony will sell? It is hard to imagine many amateur photographers buying it, but what do I know? Any day now someone on this forum may pop up with one. Of the people on this forum who do you think will be first to buy one?

Actually, one of our old member (haven't seen him post her in awhile) post shots of getting his over on Dyxum. Kingfisher, I believe his handle was, as he always did the kingfisher bird photos.

Dusty

You are thinking of Gustav?

http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/i-got-the-5 ... ?KW=gustav

I have an equivalent rabbit picture taken with MY Sony 500.

Gustav, is the man!!! I hope he comes here and posts some of his photos taken with the 500mm f4!

He doesn't live that far from me actually. Maybe I have to drop by someday. Don't know the guy, but what the heck

No, if I had to choose, I would probably choose the old Minolta 600 f/4 over this lens, if only for the money.

Did you post it somewhere. I think I've seen some shots of rabbits in Dyxum. Could you link please?

No I haven't posted it. Recently taken with my very well used and trusty 500mm Reflex lens (hence the )

Sony must have sold at least two 500mm F4 lenses as there is a brief action review here at SAR http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sony-500 ... is-bielsa/

Dennis Bielsa seems to like the lens. He better at $13,000.

I guess we’ll have to adjust too the price of lenses as they are now; the 500/4G isn’t exactly a bargain for sure at $13,000 and it might be a bit of a gamble for Sony (and buyers) at that price, but it isn’t the most expensive lens around, Zeiss released a video lens not long ago and it’s RP is a cool $19,900 I wonder how many are lining up to get a piece of that action.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/04/16/carl-zeiss-launches-70-200-compact-tele-cine-lens
Greg

A fast reliable AF at 500mm may command whatever price that has a chance of being covered by the fees over the paid jobs it makes possible.

If somebody invent a fast AF to bolt onto a 500-800 reflex design, they may also charge the grand price for that, at least for a good while...

You got me

But isn't that what Minolta did with their 500m reflex? Which became Sony's 500m reflex. Which AFAIK is the only autofocusing reflex lens in existence.

I have one. From reviews and comments like the above I was expecting the AF to be slow. On my A550 at least it's startlingly fast, jolting the camera as it throws all that glass into position, and reliably focuses in surprisingly dim light. But maybe you mean fast focus tracking of fast moving subjects? I believe that requires the use of a number of AF sensors and the 500mm reflex is restricted to the central focus sensor.

I'm playing around with shooting birds in flight with the 500m reflex. It has such a narrow field of view on a crop sensor DSLR that it's extremely difficult to successfully point it at a flying bird in the first place. But when I do succeed in getting the bird in the middle of the frame, the AF will slam the bird into focus and take a shot. If I was lucky enough to have the AF point on the bird's head of course. Given the great difficulty of aiming such a long lens at a fast moving bird I'm more likely to have focused on its tail or the end of wing as the bird's head. But maybe that's because with only the central AF sensor it doesn't do focus tracking and the bird flew out of focus in the AF/shoot lag time?