Camera Labs

Hello everyone,

I purchased the a200 few days ago and I'm fairly satisfied....the kit lens preforms as I expected and the new Sigma 17-70mm is on the way (paid 300 Euros here in Croatia)....that is for the up to 70mm lenght....

than comes my question, I'm on a pretty tight budget right now but I really need a decent performing long lens in terms of fast AF (let's say 70-300 or xx-250mm).

so what is unique about my demands?
I shoot ONLY dogs, my family breeds German Shepard Dogs and I need a lens that can catch action of dog in movement, bokeh or extreme sharpness aren't a must, but fast AF is something I just can't sacrifice....

I shoot with good light (clear daytime), a200 is capable of 3fps, could tamron or sigma 70-300mm keep up with that....I'm just very concerned about speed of these lenses....can someone at least say how fast they perform in continuous shooting mode (let's say shooting dogs movement on a straight line on a bright day...)

I would be very thankful if someone would help me with this issue before I decide to buy a glass that would show to be useless for my needs.

tnx for any help

i'm no sure about other brands but did you consider 18-250 from sony i used it every day... and its cool in day light.. but they say its good for flexibility but not sharp in long focal length but its ok for my eyes for now.. (i used a700 thou)

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Good Aperture Everyone! Good reply is always Making me very very happy thanks...
Sony A700; sony 18-70mm, 18-250.
My flickr!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/loymercs/
My Blog!! http://loymercsclick.blogspot.com/

The fps of the camera has nothing to do with the lens.

What you should be worried about is movement tracking, and here I'm going to say that the Sony autofocus system is not the best for that. A cheap lens is not going to focus quickly, that's just the nature of things (more $$$ = better gear). If you're really serious about tracking running dogs, you'll need to buy a fast lens with SSM/HSM focusing. I had a Tamron 55-200mm, and that had so much trouble keeping focus on a couple _walking_ down the aisle after their wedding.

Now here's what I would recommend. Get either a Sigma 70-200mm f2.8, a Sony 70-200mm G or a Sony 70-300G. Since those lenses use SSM, they should focus fast enough.

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PhilipGoh.com

how about the 70-400 of sony are they not included? ithink the focal length of 400 is also useful?

but just asking i never even seen that lenses before in person...

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Good Aperture Everyone! Good reply is always Making me very very happy thanks...
Sony A700; sony 18-70mm, 18-250.
My flickr!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/loymercs/
My Blog!! http://loymercsclick.blogspot.com/

He's got a limited budget. I think even the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 is going to be a stretch so the 70-400 G is definitely out of the question. No point recommending lenses that someone is unable to buy, right? That would just be mean.

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PhilipGoh.com

thank You very much for your comment.... so you say that this 200E lens will be a disappointment just as I thought....I intend to stretch for a f2.8 long lens but just don't have the buck for it right now.... the Sigma APO 70-200mm F2.8 II EX DG MACRO HSM is 725 Euros and that is way out of my reach at the moment.

It seems that I will buy a Tamron 70-300mm for some 200 Euros and then save for that f2.8 Sigma.....the thing is I can make some 30 Euros per picture on GSD shows (let's say 120-150 Euros per show in average) and I should be able to buy the f2.8 lens in a 2-3 months....this is my first srl and still need to learn a lot how to squeeze the best out of my system....so the 200E Tamron should keep me interested (and serve fairly well) while I save for a better lens....

by the way, this morning came my Sigma 17-70mm and I'm just stunned, it outperforms kit lens by far, sharpness and focus speed are way better and I see that saving for a better tele lens will be worth the money.

I just hate that I don't have the funds to buy it right now and that I'm convicted to struggle with the cheap tele lens but it will be sweeter when I finally manage to get one that I wish

oh! sorry sorry i did not read it again i forgot the limited budget line...

_________________
Good Aperture Everyone! Good reply is always Making me very very happy thanks...
Sony A700; sony 18-70mm, 18-250.
My flickr!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/loymercs/
My Blog!! http://loymercsclick.blogspot.com/

can't go wrong with the 70-300 G, it's a little expensive but the focus speed is very fast. I shoot alot of fast sports like rugby and athletics and I must say that the SSM has yet to dissapooint me in any way.

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SONY α700 DSLR


FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/charl_alpha/

AF on Tamron 70-300 is very slow (even slower than Sony 75-300).

in the end I went for the older sigma non-APO 70-300 f4-5.6. paid it some 70 Euros and it have served me for some months now....let's say it's just OK...very inconsistant results thou, 1/3 of pics is sharp as I would like them all to be - and the rest is mostly frontfocused....I guess that it's camera's fault....AF on a200 is really not something to brag about.

f2.8 sigma is on the way, i was very tempted to buy a550 instead of this glass but when my initial hype about new body passed, I decieded to go for a real lens...a200 is not the issue here - a bad lens is