Sony’s FE 100-400mm F5.6-8.0 OSS is affordable but fairly slow

Sony has announced the FE 100-400mm F5.6-8.0 OSS, a comparatively small, comparatively affordable long tele for E-mount cameras.

Unlike its immediate peers or faster but heavier third-party rivals, the FE 100-400mm F5.6-8.0 is compatible with Sony’s teleconverters, meaning it can be converted into a 140-560mm F8.0-11 or a 200-800mm F11-16, if you need the extra reach and have sufficient light to play with.

Like Canon’s similarly-specced RF 100-400mm IS USM lens, it’s appreciably smaller and lighter than Tamron’s 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 or Sigma’s 100-400mm F5.0-6.3. At 645g (23.1oz) it’s around half the weight of either of those options, though also a fair bit slower, especially as you zoom.

The optical formula consists of fifteen elements arranged in ten groups. These include two extra-low dispersion (ED) elements and two aspheric elements. Focus is powered by a pair of linear motors (though not Sony’s smoother, more powerful ‘XD’ ones). The company says the lens is compatible with the 120fps shooting mode on its a9 III camera.

When retracted the lens is 165mm long and 78mm in diameter (6.5 x 3.1″). It accepts a relatively affordable 67mm diameter filter. It’s designed to be dust and moisture resistant and comes bundled with a lens hood.

Mitchell Clark

Although designed for full-frame cameras, it can also be used on APS-C models, giving a 150-600mm equivalent range, though its relatively slow aperture at the long end is likely to limit you to bright light working, even before you consider adding a teleconverter.

Sony tells us the FE 100-400mm F5.6-8.0 OSS is designed to offer a sub-$1000 entry point to its camera users who want to try their hands at wildlife photography or some sports shooting. Despite this entry-level position in the lineup, the lens has pair of focus hold buttons, positioned so they can be reached in portrait or landscape orientation. It also has a zoom lock switch and a focus limiter switch, that means the autofocus only focuses between 3m and infinity: preventing close-range hunting when you’re shooting distant subjects.

With the switch set to full range, the lens will focus down to 1.13m (3.7′) at the short end of its range and 0.86m (2.8′) at the long end. This gives a maximum magnification of 0.41x.

The lens will be available in September, with a recommended price of $850.

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About the Author: Richard graduated as a scientist but had a lot more fun writing and shooting for his university magazine. A number of years spent variously as a reporter, writer and editor on science and engineering titles combined his knowledge of science with his interest in images and words. But it was spotting the connections between emission spectra, white balance and all the nonsense he’d taught himself playing around in Photoshop that helped kindle an interest in digital photography. Searching for a camera led to him discovering DPReview and Richard was recruited by Phil Askey in 2007. He’s been combining his love of photography, communication and attention to detail (pedantry?) ever since. He has unusually strong opinions about lenses for the APS-C format.