Telephoto Lens for Sony a6300

[acramer215]

I'm running a Sony a6300 for self filming and only running the 18-105 lens but would like to invest in a good telephoto lens to get good quality footage for rifle shots out to 1,000 yards at the range without using my phone and spotter. Anybody run the a6300 and found a good lens for that distance? Or should I just stick with my phone and spotter?

 

[DuckDogDr]

Tagging in.. I have the a6500 and wanting a lens for bird photos

 

[Skyhigh]

For something to that distance, you’re going to need a long focal length lens. It’s hard to find a true conversion from a spotting scope to lens, but from a small amount of googling it seems like a 50x spotter would be equivalent to something like a 1000mm focal length lens.

With your camera having a cropped sensor, you’ll effectively get about an additional 1.5x zoom. So, for instance, if you purchased the Sony E 70-350, it would be more similar to a 105-525mm equivalent. This would likely be a bit short for your needs. Additionally, within my Sony a6600, I can zoom in a little further than the normal sensor range. This would be considered digital zoom, but you won’t lose quality till after 2x, or so. I’m not sure if your model does this, but I imagine it would. You could then push a smaller lens like the 70-350 to an equivalent of about a 1000mm lens.

For what you want, I think the Sony FE 200-600 (would equate to a 300-900) would probably work. It’s a big lens, but you should be able to spot impacts at 1000. Additionally, with in camera zoom, it would be pushing close to a 1800mm equivalent, which would likely be more magnified than a lot of spotting scopes could achieve without a magnifier.


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[charliebravo77]

Having tried this to some degree, the issue is that a camera is not really designed to be a spotting scope. I have tried this with a my Canon 80D and a Tamron 150-600 but maybe my new Canon R7 that is 4k capable and higher resolution for photos might fare better. The issue is largely that the LCD or viewfinder are not large enough or high resolution enough to really be very clear even with digital zoom. If you are taking photos of the target or shooting 4k/8K and reviewing after the fact that's a different story, though, as they will look much better on a larger, higher resolution screen. You could maybe bring a larger HD LCD to view live but to spot shots just through the camera it's likely going to be rough.

 

[Camera Land]

The best lens for your Sony crop sensor camera would be the Sony 200-600mm Lens. Gets you to 900mm in Full Frame sensor effectiveness. We have a used one that is in great condition. The hood is in fair to good. Glass is perfect. It would be $1399

Feel free to call us and mention Rokslide

Joel
516-217-1000