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I recently spent 11 days in Ak using this combination for wildlife  and had mixed results. There were several situations where the focus was not on the subject. Several of these occasions required quick response, ie. whale breach. Am I asking to much of this set-up or is it more about technique?

Probably a little of both. Whale breach, dolphins jumping etc are among the most difficult subjects for any camera including a DSLR which has a tendency to focus on the first water splash it encounters rather than the whale itself. The a6300 is capable but that scenario taxes much more expensive and higher spec cameras. The only Sony mirrorless I would attempt that with if it were critical would be an a9.

James W. Milligan wrote:I recently spent 11 days in Ak using this combination for wildlife  and had mixed results. There were several situations where the focus was not on the subject. Several of these occasions required quick response, ie. whale breach. Am I asking to much of this set-up or is it more about technique?

I too wasn't very happy with the AF performance of the a6300/70-300 OSS G ( I assume that's the lens you're talking about) combo. I replaced the camera with the a6500, which works better but still leaves room for improvement. Frankly, I think the lens - at least my copy - is the weak part of the combo. It didn't work well on the a7, a7II, a6300 and, although better on than on those three cameras, doesn't really shine on the a6500 either.

Jens Peermann wrote:

James W. Milligan wrote:I recently spent 11 days in Ak using this combination for wildlife  and had mixed results. There were several situations where the focus was not on the subject. Several of these occasions required quick response, ie. whale breach. Am I asking to much of this set-up or is it more about technique?

I too wasn't very happy with the AF performance of the a6300/70-300 OSS G ( I assume that's the lens you're talking about) combo. I replaced the camera with the a6500, which works better but still leaves room for improvement. Frankly, I think the lens - at least my copy - is the weak part of the combo. It didn't work well on the a7, a7II, a6300 and, although better on than on those three cameras, doesn't really shine on the a6500 either.

This more or less confirms my thoughts. It was a bit reassuring when the Nat Geo photographer was not happy with some of his out of focus images of the same subjects. I will say ,that the when the auto focus locked on the images are tack sharp. 

Wish you guys could shoot with my 70-300 in comparison because I have been very pleased with it on a7R2 and a6300.  I only shoot it with single AF point set to small and then move the point to wherever I need it to be.

E.J. Peiker wrote:Wish you guys could shoot with my 70-300 in comparison because I have been very pleased with it on a7R2 and a6300.  I only shoot it with single AF point set to small and then move the point to wherever I need it to be.

We discussed the sample variation issue with Sony lenses before and this appears to be another case of it. My 70-300 is reliably tack sharp as long as I shoot stationery subjects. With moving subjects it becomes a lottery. Tack sharp images are possible, but I have to sort through a lot of exposures to find one. I actually get a better rate of sharp images from my unstabilized Canon 400/5.6 on the a6500.

I am about to put up the 70-300 on Craigslist and order the Sony 100-400 as soon as it sells. It fits my needs better anyway, just wasn't  available a year ago.There is only one problem with that, the 100-400 is a Sony as well and may have the same problems as the rest of the family.