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by Mike in O on Sun Jul 01, 2018 6:43 pm

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AJAY wrote:Great comments from everyone. I will chime in here as well. My setup for bird photography has/was the 1DX Mark II with the Canon 600mm with 1.4x TC. For the past 6 months I have been dabbling with Sony bodies using both the Metabones IV and MC-11 adapters.

I bought the A7RIII back in January with the Metabones IV and then eventually MC-11. For whatever reason, both adapters caused occasional lockups with the Canon 600mm f/4 II lens. Also, the Metabones didn't perform as well as the MC-11. I was however able to photograph BIF with the MC-11 and the Canon 600mm combo. (Maybe about 90% of what I would achieve with the 1DXM2.)

I did however return the A7R III because of the occasional lockups.

Then...The A7III was announced and gave that body a try with the MC-11. It works quite well with the Canon 600mm lens in good lighting conditions (with and w/o the Canon 1.4x TC). However, performance is reduced in low-light conditions.

I do however do a combination of both photography and videography and video is not nearly as good... you can forget about autofocus with this combo.

With all of my tests, I find the Canon 600mm II with and without a 1.4x TC and the Sigma MC-11 to be acceptable for photography as long as lighting is good. I've gotten plenty of BIF shots and found the keeper rate wasn't as good as the 1DXM2, but it certainly wasn't that bad either.

I also recently used the Sigma 150-600 (C) with the MC-11 on a boat photographing loons and was also quite acceptable.

(In all cases, I am using Center Focus and not Flexible spot. Center focus is not one focus point but a bracket of center focus points. Flexible spot does not work well at all.)

Bottom line... There are a few shortcomings using this combo, but in most cases I am quite comfortable using the A7III + MC-11 and the Canon 600mm lens. It's definitely a usable combination. I would think the A9 would be as good based on similarities to the autofocus systems on both the A7III and A9 bodies.

The A9 has a new firmware (ver 3 since pulled) that greatly enhance the AF with adapters. The FW needed some tweaks.

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by Primus on Wed Jul 04, 2018 8:40 am

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Mike in O wrote:
AJAY wrote:Great comments from everyone. I will chime in here as well. My setup for bird photography has/was the 1DX Mark II with the Canon 600mm with 1.4x TC. For the past 6 months I have been dabbling with Sony bodies using both the Metabones IV and MC-11 adapters.

I bought the A7RIII back in January with the Metabones IV and then eventually MC-11. For whatever reason, both adapters caused occasional lockups with the Canon 600mm f/4 II lens. Also, the Metabones didn't perform as well as the MC-11. I was however able to photograph BIF with the MC-11 and the Canon 600mm combo. (Maybe about 90% of what I would achieve with the 1DXM2.)

I did however return the A7R III because of the occasional lockups.

Then...The A7III was announced and gave that body a try with the MC-11. It works quite well with the Canon 600mm lens in good lighting conditions (with and w/o the Canon 1.4x TC). However, performance is reduced in low-light conditions.

I do however do a combination of both photography and videography and video is not nearly as good... you can forget about autofocus with this combo.

With all of my tests, I find the Canon 600mm II with and without a 1.4x TC and the Sigma MC-11 to be acceptable for photography as long as lighting is good. I've gotten plenty of BIF shots and found the keeper rate wasn't as good as the 1DXM2, but it certainly wasn't that bad either.

I also recently used the Sigma 150-600 (C) with the MC-11 on a boat photographing loons and was also quite acceptable.

(In all cases, I am using Center Focus and not Flexible spot. Center focus is not one focus point but a bracket of center focus points. Flexible spot does not work well at all.)

Bottom line... There are a few shortcomings using this combo, but in most cases I am quite comfortable using the A7III + MC-11 and the Canon 600mm lens. It's definitely a usable combination. I would think the A9 would be as good based on similarities to the autofocus systems on both the A7III and A9 bodies.
The A9 has a new firmware (ver 3 since pulled) that greatly enhance the AF with adapters. The FW needed some tweaks.

I used to have the 600 Mk II and used it with the 1DX2, it was a great combination but too heavy for me at times, always needed either a tripod or bean bags and lifting it in and out of the window/hatch of the safari vehicles was cumbersome. The 100-400 MkII from Canon was a much needed relief.

I've switched completely to Sony for over a year now. I too tried various Canon lenses with the A9/A7r3 via the Metabones V adapter - too slow in AF for me, even with large mammals that were moving quickly through the brush in Africa.

The Sony 100-400 GM is amazingly useful now, and on the A9 is IMHO the best AF combination for anything moving.

Having said that, I just placed an order for the new 400 2.8 from Sony. My favorite long lens used to be the Canon 300 2.8 and the new Sony along with the A9 weighs exactly the same as the Canon 1DX2 plus 300 2.8, which means it may be hand-holdable for me. Considering the Sony 1.4x TC is so much lighter and better than the Canon it will work very well with the new lens should I want extra reach.

I am sure Sony will come out with its own 500 and 600 f4 in due course, until then this will be a good wildlife lens.

Pradeep

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by Vivek on Wed Jul 04, 2018 9:03 pm

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Doesn't Sony have the 500 f/4? I am pondering a move away from Canon but I am not sure if I would like Sony or Nikon better. I shoot almost 100% birds, though not specializing in BIF. I am a member of CPS and I love it. I've read horrible reviews regarding repairs for Sony and since I love CPS, this is a concern for me for both Nikon and Sony. Any first hand experiences?

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by Mike in O on Thu Jul 05, 2018 5:24 am

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Sony has 2 500's...the 500 f8 reflex which autofocuses and the 500f4...both in A mount and have to be adapted.for E mount. You can adapt your Canon or Sigma lenses pretty easily with the A9 now with version3 FW. When that FW will be available for the other cameras is anybodies guess. I've owned 6 Sony dslr's and never had a bit of trouble with any of them. They are making the E mount cameras more robust but whether are as trouble free as the A mount cameras is a toss up. Because the new E mount cameras have very few moving parts, I would expect they will be pretty reliable and no need to send in. Sony does have a pro program with loaners from Lens rental.

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by Vivek on Thu Jul 05, 2018 10:18 am

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Thanks Mike. I have to admit that I am clueless about the A vs. E mounts for Sony. I am assuming that the E mount is their FF mirrorless mount. So, yes for now, not enough to make me switch apart from the fact that they have good sensors and potentially a better solution for some of my non-critical needs. That said, Nikon is sounding better but again unless I do more BIF, I am not sure a move is warranted at this time. At the end of the day, this does not pay my bills and the $$ count. Still, it is better to make the decision with good critical thought which requires adequate and accurate information.

Thanks for starting the thread Karl and I hope to not hijack it, but if anyone has links to the Nikon and Sony versions of CPS, I would love to check them out.

Thanks again, this is an interesting thread.

-- Vivek

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by E.J. Peiker on Thu Jul 05, 2018 1:46 pm

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Vivek wrote:Doesn't Sony have the 500 f/4? I am pondering a move away from Canon but I am not sure if I would like Sony or Nikon better. I shoot almost 100% birds, though not specializing in BIF. I am a member of CPS and I love it. I've read horrible reviews regarding repairs for Sony and since I love CPS, this is a concern for me for both Nikon and Sony. Any first hand experiences?

Vivek, I'll expand on what Mike said in language for people not familiar with Sony.

Sony uses two mounts. The original A-mount is the old Minolta auto-focus mount that they got when they purchased the assets of the Minolta camera division. All of their DSLR like cameras (called DSLT since they use a translucent mirror rather than a reflex mirror) use the A-mount. When Sony brought mirroless cameras to market, they came in with the E-mount which is a short flange distance mirroless mount. There are E lenses and FE lenses, the later being full frame but it's the same mount.

There is a 500mm f/4 lens but it is A-mount, so designed for the DSLR like cameras. It has to be adpated to use with the mirroless cameras. Other manufacturer's 500mm lenses can also be adapted with various adapters but AF tracking performance, especially on long telephoto lenses with these lenses is nowehre near what it would be with a native lens. Sony is in the process of bringing to market there first super tele prime for full frame E-mount. It's a 400/2.8 but a 500/4 and 600/4 are likely to follow. Photographers got to use the new 400/2.8 at a recent sports event and the reports are generally extremely positive for AF performance and even more positive for being about 2lb lighter and the optics have been designed to balance the lens much better.

As for Sony's professional service and Nikon's, here are the links:
https://alphauniverse.com/prosupport/ - it costs $100 per year and you must qualify with a scoring system based on equipment you own
https://www.nikonusa.com/en/service-and ... index.page - it is free and you have to requalify every year based on equipment owned and published works. Initial acceptance also requires sponsorship from an existing Nikon Pro.

E.J. Peiker http://www.EJPhoto.com
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