Sony SAL75300 75-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens review
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Written by Gordon Laing
Samples
Sony 75-300mm gallery
The following images were taken with the Sony SAL75300 75-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens using the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 body. The A100’s quality mode was set to L:10M Fine, configured to capture the full 10.2 Megapixel resolution with the lowest JPEG compression ratio. Default settings were used for White Balance, colour space, contrast, colour and sharpness, while the D-Range Optimiser was set to Standard; see the intro page for the complete testing configuration. The individual exposure mode, file sizes, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO and lens focal length are listed for each image.
The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in Adobe Photoshop CS2 as JPEGs with the default Very High quality preset, while the resized images were made in Photoshop CS2 and saved with the default High quality preset. The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and far right portions of each image.
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Portrait: 1.91MB, Aperture Priority, 1/640, f4.5, ISO 100, 75-300mm at 75mm (equivalent to 113mm)
 | The Sony 75-300mm is great for portraits and it’s easy to throw backgrounds out of focus. This shot was taken at its shortest 75mm focal length, equivalent to 113mm, and with the aperture wide open. The crops are detailed and quite sharp, although can easily hold up to additional sharpening if you desire. | |||||
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Landscape: 3.55MB, Program, 1/160, f10, ISO 100, 75-300mm at 75mm (equivalent to 113mm)
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The 75-300mm can also be quite effective for certain landscape compositions. This one was taken with the lens zoomed-out to 75mm.
 Again the crops have plenty of detail which a boost in sharpness can bring out if required. | ||
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Landscape: 2.73MB, Aperture Priority, 1/320, f11, ISO 100, 75-300mm at 160mm (equivalent to 240mm)
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Zooming into 160mm, for an equivalent of 240mm allowed us to capture this boat heading towards distant mountains. We focused on the boat, and the crops are certainly sharp and detailed, although the depth-of-field even at f11 hasn’t quite extended to infinity.  A smaller aperture could have ensured the background was also sharp, although the longer exposure would have resulted in motion blur on the boat. These are all important considerations when shooting at longer focal lengths like these. | ||
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Portrait: 2.16MB, Aperture Priority, 1/800, f5.6, ISO 100, 75-300mm at 140mm (equivalent to 210mm)
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By zooming-in to 140mm (210mm equivalent) we could frame this portrait so avoid any sky. This gives a different impact to the first example here.
 Again the crops are detailed even with the aperture wide open, and can handle additional sharpening if you prefer a punchier result. | ||
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Indoor: 3.07MB, Program, 1/500, f6.3, ISO 100, 75-300mm at 300mm (equivalent to 450mm)
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Here we’ve zoomed-in to the maximum focal length of 300mm, equivalent to 450mm. As above, this gives a different perspective to landscape shots and can be effective for showing scale. The large yacht is dwarfed by the mountain behind.
 The Sony A100 has only slightly stopped the lens down in Program mode, allowing a quick shutter speed, which with the built-in Super SteadyShot has eliminated any camera shake. | ||
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Portrait: 2.73MB, Program, 1/640, f9, ISO 100, 75-300mm at 300mm (equivalent to 450mm)
 | Here’s another shot taken with the lens fully zoomed-in. For a sense of scale, this is the same peak you can see in the background of the coverage examples. Again the crops are detailed and can be perked-up by additional sharpening. The A100’s Super SteadyShot may combat camera-shake as you take the photo, but at long focal lengths like these, it can be harder to compose with even slight wobbles being greatly magnified in the viewfinder. | |||||
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