Sony Artisan Patrick Murphy-Racey has extensive experience reaching back 40 years as a sports photographer, with 12 of those years working on a regular basis for Sports Illustrated. With the announcement of the new Sony 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G lens, he couldn’t wait to get his hands on it. “I have been preaching millimeters over apertures for many years,” he says. “Focal length most often trumps lens speed which surprises people…” Murphy-Racey put the 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G to the test for sports and even a little wildlife – check out his complete review of the new lens in the video from his YouTube Channel below and see some of the images he was able to capture with the new lens.
The Power Of Zoom In Sports Photography
In the video, Murphy-Racey explains the ways he deals with the changing aperture as he zooms when shooting sports action like baseball or tennis. He shares three good ways to manage the variable aperture at the different focal lengths the 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G is capable of:
1. Choose the center, f/7.1, so that if I go below that it’s only a 1/3 stop change and the same if I go over. Sony’s sensors are so good at this point that this is a minimal change for the overall exposure.
2. Select f/8 and be done with it. You get perfectly consistent exposure across the entire zoom range because the amount of light coming in is the same using this method. This is what most videographers will be doing as dealing with exposure changes while zooming presents problems in post production that are not worth the trouble.
3. Auto ISO option. Because of the danger of letting your shutter speed get too low when shooting this super tele zoom, if you must use automatic exposure, I strongly recommend using Auto ISO but leaving your mode dial set to “M.” This way you get to set your shutter speed and aperture so those settings won’t change as you zoom. Allowing your shutter speed to change below minimums will be instantly detrimental to your images which will suffer from motion blur, not from what your subject is doing, but what you are doing while panning. Even sitting on a static eagles next using a monopod will require you to be shooting over 1/4000-sec. to get sharp images. Even at this shutter speed, you will have to hope for a calm day (no wind) and use breath control to increase your chances for sharp photos.
Photo by Patrick Murphy-Racey
New Focal Length Possibilities With The 400-800 G
Murphy-Racey also points out all of the new long focal lengths possible with the new 400-800mm G:
- 400-800mm G in APS-C Mode: 600-1200mm f/6.3-8
- 400-800mm G with 1.4x Teleconverter: 560-1120mm f/9.0-11
- 400-800mm G with 2x Teleconverter: 800-1600mm f/13-16
- 400-800mm G in APS-C Mode + 2x Teleconverter: 1200-2400mm f/13-16
Photo by Patrick Murphy-Racey
A G Series Lens With Great Optics
All in all, Murphy-Racey says he’s really excited Sony has increased their long lens range by a whopping 200mm from 600mm to 800mm. "The new lens is really compact and will fit in my Thinktank Streewalker 2.0 backpack with a body/grip attached and there is still room left inside."
Photo by Patrick Murphy-Racey
“Just like with their cameras, Sony is getting really good at making high quality lenses in the G series that are really great optics for the money. I’m so happy this lens will be available for such a reasonable price, especially for birders who need the extreme reach it offers without wanting to yet invest in a G Master.”
