Out with the “too short” lens again this afternoon in better light, AF was correspondingly better. Something I keep forgetting to mention is that it’s one of the best lenses I’ve used in terms of rendering feather details on distant birds, on par with the SL 90-280mm in that respect.
In some cases, as with the very confiding Crimson Sunbird below, where reach is not an issue, it has enough. But my more distant friends leave me longing for at least 500-600mm. As I’ve previously mused, the easiest way to get that without too much weight is via M43.
But with many of today’s shots at f/5.6 on full frame well into four-digit ISO and still looking decent, I know that the tiny M43 sensor would obliterate details under similar shooting conditions. More significantly, the IQ of the SL2 in gloomy conditions leaves nothing to be desired. And it handles well in the field.
By default that leaves me with the vulnerable Sigma 100-400mm at only 100mm longer; and the protected but too-heavy 150-600mm. Risking a leap in to R glass would immediately require an APO extender and wouldn’t offer lens IS. So after going ’round in circles about this all day, I end up with no solution.
Except to keep shooting the 70-300mm, and take what I can get out of it. Which really ain’t that bad . . .
