Sony FE 100-400mm F5.6-8 OSS review – this great all-rounder for wildlife photographers is a bit of a bargain

Amateur Photographer verdict

Incredibly lightweight and versatile, if you’re an enthusiast photographer who shoots wildlife or action it’s a great buy. It also comes in handy for other subjects, like portraits too.Pros

• Great price
• Useful focal length
• Lightweight

Cons

• Narrow apertures
• Not super sharp
• Bulkier when extended

Aimed squarely at those who want to photograph distant subjects, but crucially who don’t have the huge funds to pay for it, the lightweight Sony FE 100-400mm F5.6-8 OSS lens could be an ideal choice for many. As well as being a lot more affordable than other optics, it also doesn’t come with the huge weight and heft that something with a more complex optical construction would necessitate.

Sony FE 100-400mm F5.6-8 OSS at a glance:

• $848/£799
• 100-400mm focal range for full-frame cameras
• f/5.6-8 maximum aperture
• 1.13-0.86m closest focusing distance
• 654g

Of course, the trade off is that you don’t get exceptional image quality, but for most ordinary photographers, it should more than do the job. You also have to consider that you don’t get a wide aperture at any point in the focal length – that can have implications for shooting in lower light scenarios, so it’s worth thinking about the type of subject you’ll be photographing most frequently.

Designed to work with Sony’s full-frame cameras, such as the A7V, then it’s ideally suited to subjects such as wildlife, sports, family and pets – and with 100mm as the starting focal length, it can also be used for things like travel, landscape and portraiture too.

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