Telephoto lens for Sony a77

GodAtum

GodAtum

GodAtum

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Telephoto lens for Sony a77 to hire

I would buy the new Sony DT 55-300mm F4.5-5.6 SAM but it comes out after my holiday so no use to me! I am going to hire a lens in the meanwhile.

I'm off to Las Vegas :) for a holiday and want to try to prepare for it. I think I need a telephoto lens to capture some great shots of the Grand Canyon and las vegas at night, which one would be better for my needs: Sony 70-200mm F2.8 G or Sony 70-400mm f4-5.6 G? Dont think i will be doing any fast action shots.
 
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If you dont need the wide 2.8 aperture I'd highly recommend the Tamron 70-300mm f4-5.6 SP Di USD.

Ive got one on my A77 and love it.
 
Alpherah said:
Telephoto for the grand canyon? never been but first instinct is that something nice and wide would be more useful .
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My first thoughts also, but its definitely possible to do some nice landscape shots at 70mm as I've done it myself. Just means the positioning is even more critical before taking the shot.
 
Alpherah said:
Telephoto for the grand canyon? never been but first instinct is that something nice and wide would be more useful .
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Problem with th grand canyon is that you won't always get th scale and bEst photos with a wide angle. Telex work well for landscapes.

Summar is also not a great time to be there,minter is best. Hope for some monsoon. Posture to add some clouds and get out at 5am.
 
GodAtum said:
is that the same as the Tamron 70-300 F/4-5.6 VC USD?
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Yes but I dont think any Sony version comes with the VC.

There are a few sellers especially on Ebay advertising the Sony version as having the VC when in fact it doesnt so as long as you dont expect the stabilisation to be in lens you cant go wrong with it really.

More important to me was the USD motor which makes the AF very quick.
 
Thanks. I'm thinking of waiting for the new Sony DT 55-300mm F4.5-5.6 SAM lens instead of buying the Tamron or even the Sony 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 G SSM?
 
Well Ive borrowed the Sony 70-300 G SSM from a friend of mine several times and I still went for the Tamron. He is also considering changing to the Tamron after using mine.

In pure IQ terms there is nothing in it and its certainly not worth the massive price tag it commands in my opinion.

Cant comment on the 55-300mm though as its not out yet.
 
GodAtum said:
is that the same as the Tamron 70-300 F/4-5.6 VC USD?
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Yes but without VC. The Sony bodies all have sensor stabilisation anyway which pretty much negates the need for any sort of in-built stabilisation - the only original complain (other than effectiveness) that some people had about sensor stabilisation is that you couldn't see it through optical viewfinders; on the a77 that's obviously not a problem.

I still don't understand why you want a telephoto for landscapes though. Sure it can be done, but if you're buying a lens for landscapes it would generally be a wide-angle, or at least a kit range zoom e.g. 16-50 2.8.
 
I would need a telephoto to zoom to particular features of the landscape and also to features in the city. Plus I have need a telephoto lens anyway to build up my collection :)
 
^^^ depends very much on what you want to photograph, 70-200mm is a very useful range for landscape photographers to select elements or details of scenes, I would say I would use my 70-200mm for landscape much more often than my 10-20mm, on crop. Wide angles can be fantastic for landscape but are typically a challenge to work with, very difficult lenses requiring a lot of care in the composition. The worst focal range for landscapes is the middle ground, 35-50mm - completely lifeless and dull. You either want emphasise the perspective and distance at wide angles with leading image elements, or show interesting details but suffer a flattened perspective (good contrasty lighting helps absolve this).

The last thing you want to do for landscape is snap away with an 10-20mm UWA and get photos of nothingness. Don't make the mistake of thing the purpose of an UWA is t"to get everything in", its not. It is all about added perspective and depth.
 
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I am able to borrow an old Tamron 70-300mm F4/5.6 DI LD Macro. I assume the Tamron 70-300 F/4-5.6 Sp Di USD a lot better as it costs £200 more?
 
Yep its in a different class. Build quality, optics and AF are all far superior.

However Im not say that the LD Macro is bad, it may suit your needs just fine just dont expect stellar performance and you'll probably get on with just fine.
 
Thanks :) As for tripods, would the Joby SLR one be enough to hold an a77, telephoto and flash? It's half the price of the Joby focus!
 
It'll start getting wobbly, but are you sure a Joby one is really what you want? I depends what you want to use it for to be fair, but using a telephoto a gorillapod won't really work as you'll generally want the camera up to your eye anyway
 
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