After a deep breath and a look at some previous shots with the 100-400mm GM, I had to remind myself that it was on the a6500, not the a7 IV, that the lens didn’t look so good. And, given my history of scrutinizing new gear too closely at times only to regret letting something go later on, I decided to use the lens and get what I can out of it. It doesn’t hurt that in terms of aperture, build, close-focusing, etc. it suits me well.
Looking for some out-of-stock accessories in Sony’s flagship store here yesterday, an interesting conversation resulted. The pleasant young lady told me that even the staff was fed up with having so many advertised items out of stock. Apparently they catch a lot of heat from customers who are pissed that they can’t find the nicely discounted purchase-with-purchase incentive options they’re supposed to get with a major item such as a camera body.
On a brighter side, someone at a preferred shop told me today that supply of the R7 would likely catch up with demand before the end of July. Knowing what usually happens when I’m “undecided” about a piece of gear, that came as good news.
Out with the RF 800mm f11 in the bag this morning, I realized that it’s probably not a good option for travel–from the standpoint of both packing and moving about. With that in mind, I added an RF 2X extender to the arsenal, and had a chance to put it to targets in excellent light, but with a lot of heat shimmer. Although results were amazing when paired with the 100-400mm at f/16, it’s not quite up there with the RF 800mm, with some of the difference, at least, a result of atmospheric aberrations. Air was decidedly better when I did the same targets with the 800mm.
Whatever the case, it gives me a very good 800mm option on the R5, setup weighing a mere 1779 grams! Yeah, I think I can move about with that . . .
