Photoclubalpha

B&H have it listed now, and production lenses available approx Jan 09...$1500 US, not quite double the price of the 70-300G....does look nice though.
Greg
ps I might have some teething troubles getting used to the zoom collar being at the front and the focus collar at the back...for a little while.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/5 ... 5_6_G.html

My 28-138 is is a rear focus lens too and it does take a second to get used to. the first time I mounted it I realized that some left hand fingers are at the root of the lens and I had to change that habit.. but it startled me at first

I thought it might end up being some hideous roof silver colour, but it's more of a light grey...very nice.
Greg

Greg Beetham wrote:I thought it might end up being some hideous roof silver colour, but it's more of a light grey...very nice.
Greg

Which means: "Hey, look at me, I'm a lens here"

I wonder if Sony intends to make all their big, G "white lenses" this silvery grey color?

Noooo~, they just forgot to clean it...

I have been looking for a telephoto zoom for my A700/350 for some time, not being able to make up my mind. As I already have the Tamron 18-250 I am really looking for something longer but with a max. F stop of F5.6 at the long end. The SAL 70-400 F4-5.6 would seem to fit the bill here so I might wait and see what the price is going to be here in the UK. It would seem to be above £1000 and I am not sure if I want to spend that kind of money for recreational use only. I do not see myself as a budding commercial wildlife photograper. Hopefully the lens will be both fast zooming and delivering top quality IQ.

Any suggestions for an alternative min. 400 mm at the long end and no more than F5.6 delivering decent IQ for my A700?

There doesn't seem to be much choice in quality superzooms above 300mm, there is the 200-500 Tamron and the 50-500 Sigma, the sigma being quite a bit more expensive than the Tamron but gets quite good reviews, the penalty is they are both slower than f5.6. being f6.3

As an aside, I just noticed that Sigma have released the new 70-200 f2.8 II DG APO Macro HSM for the A-Mount ($799 US) and B&H list it as In Stock, I wonder if anyone has had hands on yet?
Greg

Greg Beetham wrote

There doesn't seem to be much choice in quality superzooms above 300mm, there is the 200-500 Tamron and the 50-500 Sigma, the sigma being quite a bit more expensive than the Tamron but gets quite good reviews, the penalty is they are both slower than f5.6. being f6.3

I was looking at the Sigma Web site here in UK and they appear to have a 120-400mm f/4.5-5.6 DG OS HSM available listed for Sony as well as the usual suspects. This telephoto zoom lens incorporates Sigma’s original OS (Optical Stabiliser) system. It offers the equivalent of using a shutter speed approximately 4 stops faster. I really do not need this with Sony's SSS in my A700 & A350 but it covers my desired range and is within my F5.6 desired max. F stop at the long end. Anyone with any experience of this zoom? The Dyxum reviews are all of an earlier model without OS. Maybe I should look out for a 2nd hand copy without OS on ebay as the OS version is 1.750 Kg whereas the old version appears to be no more than 1.2 kg. Quite a difference. I wonder if this is solely caused by OS? If that is so SSS is a real boon for tele zooms. They are heavy enough without lens stabilization. Thanks Minolta/Sony.

The version for Sony does not have the OS system, but is the same price as those which do. It is HSM.

David

Yep that lens new is in the Sigma lens list alright (I noticed it last night on the US list), but it's not listed as being available in the A-mount...then again, Sigma have made the odd little boo boo from time to time with the info about features and available mounts before...David obvously knows of it's existance and mount availability, so the US info appears not too be up to speed yet.
And yes I agree it's a most attractive lens..in features..but we really need to know how it performs in practise from user point of view...before shelling out the hard earned...ideally. There is a short review here at Pop Photo...they give it the thumbs up.
http://www.popphoto.com/cameralenses/54 ... s-hsm.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Greg

btw Has anyone seen/heard from PT lately....

Greg Beetham wrote:Yep that lens new is in the Sigma lens list alright (I noticed it last night on the US list), but it's not listed as being available in the A-mount...then again, Sigma have made the odd little boo boo from time to time with the info about features and available mounts before...David obvously knows of it's existance and mount availability, so the US info appears not too be up to speed yet.

It was shown at photokina. Both the new long OS zooms will be made in non-OS, HSM version for Sony and Pentax but they are not out yet.

David

Just spotted this on the US sonystyle site. are there any Silver Alpha bodies out there?

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... d=11033925" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wonder if there going to intorduce some? why would anyone put a silver flash shoe cap on a black bamera body?

you can get these in japan

http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/ds ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

not quite silver, and the flash mount is still black

Ya looks kinda goldish... I suppose they could bring silver cameras back and do it tastefully. wouldn't they need leather too though? then we could all be aconsted by zealots from Canon, Nikon and PETA !

The problem is theres been so much silver electronic equipment over the years people equate it with cheap plastic when it was first intended to imitate metal