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Wildlife photography using only prime lenses


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I’m wondering if there are any Sony shooters here who are, or have tried, shooting wildlife with only primes and no zooms. I’ve been slowly getting drawn into this way both at the long and short ends of my kit.

I shoot primarily wildlife although I am starting to do more portraits of people too.

I’ve already abandoned my 100-400 after I moved to the 400 f2.8. At the short end, I used to use the 24-105 for some wildlife closeups but lately I’ve just been using the 24 1.4. Also I only do occasional landscapes and astro so at the short end so ’ve abandoned my 16-35 and my whole square filter system and just use my Loxia 21 and some screw-in NDs and CPL. I’m also currently using the 24 1.4 for astro and have also used the Loxia for that too. In theory I might be able to leave the Loxia at home and use the 24 for landscapes but I haven’t really tried the 24 for landscapes yet and I’m too much in love with the rendering of the Loxia.

I know that there’s a lot of flexibility with the zooms for wildlife shooting but more and more I’ve been finding that I don’t mind losing that and gaining the AF speed, IQ, and weight savings that comes with the primes, not to mention the bigger apertures for when I absolutely have to use them. It’s really just a different way of shooting and I like changing things up and being forced to shoot in a different style.

The problem comes in the middle. My medium lens is currently my 70-200 f2.8 and often with a 1.4x teleconverter. My idea was to try using a 135 in place of the 70-200. Of course it’s shorter than the 70-200 let alone with the teleconverter but, although the A9 and A7RIII are my primary cameras, I have been recently testing the A6400 and it’s actually pretty good for wildlife shooting. A 135 on that body would obviously reach out further. The downside here is that you can’t use the teleconverters on any 135s and it’s also good to know that if something happens to my 400 and I’m far from home, which is often the case, I can put my 2x on the 70-200 and still get some reach. Now if only Sony had a 200 prime...

 

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Sony's lack of telephoto primes is something that they need to address, the wide and mid-range focal points are well covered by Sony and other good 3rd party providers (love my Sigma 105mm). Each time I've tried wildlife I've stuck my 70-200 at the long end and left it there so primes would suit me better, I think.

I'm hopeful that we will see a 500mm and 600mm soon.

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Unless they come up with a way to make them small like the Nikon PF lenses, I personally wouldn’t want anything longer than my 400 f2.8. That’s the limit for me although I’m glad I can use the teleconverters on it. However a 200 or 300 prime would be interesting.

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