Product Reviews

I class myself as an enthusiastic amateur photographer. I have no 'aftermarket lenses' for my a99ii and a99, it is all Sony/Zeiss/Minolta. I've dreamt of owning one of these, but knew in my heart of hearts it was way out of my league. A more realistic opportunity would be for me to import an old Minolta 600f4. My once in a lifetime chance of owning the Sony came and I grabbed it. There are reviews about this lens being 'hazy' when wide open at 4.0. As soon as this came into my hands I photographed a Lenscal chart to see if the odd review was right and yes, when zooming in and scrutinising the image, it does appear to be the case on the example I now own. BUT, how often do I 'pixel peep' to that degree? (Yes I could post those images.) Once the aperture is set at 4.5 or smaller, there is no haziness. I can live with this suspected quality issue when I look at my other options of owning a lens in this league. But could a real pro who sells images to make their next meal? Yes, I could send it off to Sony for examination, but that isn't an option after I used it 'in anger' at a recent motorcycle racing event. No need for a trackside pass! The reach of this lens and the 42mp sensor is more than good enough for my needs and I know I will never become a pro photographer. This lens is absolutely superb. I was like a child with a new toy. Colours are amazing, clarity top notch. This lens now gives me the 'pass' to explore many more genres of photography and keep my love for this hobby as strong as ever.

I compared this lens with other brands. Speed : Perfect Sharpness : Perfect + (probably sharpest 500mm in the market) Built quaility : Perfect Compability : Poor with Sony TC's (i am using another brand Af TC with LA3 adaptor) Price : High

I love this lens. I bought last year and used it for the Super Bowl it was really amazing.

I got a chance to compare my Sony SAL500F40G lens with Canon and Nikon 500mm F4 lenses when out shooting the birds with my friends, my impression is: this lens can give you tack sharp images even at widest open F/4, the Canon and the Nikon in my opinion are usable only from F/5.6, sure you can go down to F4 in these lens, but it's soft (sorry I'm a pixel peeper). Color is typical Minolta G magical color with beautiful bokeh! I haven't used it with TC but its focus is fast on my A900, I also tried it with cropped alpha to shoot the moon at 800mm.

I have used this lens for about a month .I am still testing it.This is a very unique lens .The best image is at full open aperture . The image quality starts to drop at f8.The image still looks great even with a 2X converter lens at full open aperture at F8 at 50% crop .The image gets a little sharper at f10.The more I use this lens the more I like it.