Recommendation for best body for wildlife with 200-600 mm, please

[Alucard9100]

Hi, guys!

I’m a Canon photographer with 100-400 L now and thinking of purchasing Sony 200-600 to step up my game.

Now I’m struggling to choose between A7iii and A6600 to use with 200-600 for wildlife photography, as it seems (after reading and watching tons of reviews) that A7iii is a better camera overall, but 6600 will give me extra 300 mm of zoom with APS-C crop factor.

What would be your recommendation in this case? Do all extra features of A7iii (bigger frame, probably less noise, and focus joystick) worth losing extra 300 mm with 6600?

I will be using A6600/A7III with 200-600mm lens exclusively and also exclusively for wildlife photography.

Would appreciate your comments and advice here.

 

[RGaffney]

Hi, guys!

I’m a Canon photographer with 100-400 L now and thinking of purchasing Sony 200-600 to step up my game.

Now I’m struggling to choose between A7iii and A6600 to use with 200-600 for wildlife photography, as it seems (after reading and watching tons of reviews) that A7iii is a better camera overall, but 6600 will give me extra 300 mm of zoom with APS-C crop factor.

What would be your recommendation in this case? Do all extra features of A7iii (bigger frame, probably less noise, and focus joystick) worth losing extra 300 mm with 6600?

I will be using A6600/A7III with 200-600mm lens exclusively and also exclusively for wildlife photography.

Would appreciate your comments and advice here.

If you are not sure what camera to choose I would rent one and see if it meets your needs.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

A7RIV, and you have mega resolution and 26mp in Crop Mode for the extra reach

 

[Alucard9100]

A7RIV, and you have mega resolution and 26mp in Crop Mode for the extra reach

Thank you. A7RIV is a bit out of my league for now, that's why I'm choosing between A7rIII and 6600

 

[earchphoto]

To be honest, if your plan is to photograph birds in flight I would wait and save some more until you can get either the a9 or the a7rIV to use with the 200-600. The a9II would be ideal, but even a used classic a9 would have much faster and accurate AF compared to the a7rIII and the a6600.

 

[Alucard9100]

To be honest, if your plan is to photograph birds in flight I would wait and save some more until you can get either the a9 or the a7rIV to use with the 200-600. The a9II would be ideal, but even a used classic a9 would have much faster and accurate AF compared to the a7rIII and the a6600.

Is it only because of faster autofocus on a9/7rIV?

Оr any other reasons? Can you please elaborate on this?

 

[earchphoto]

Yes. Faster AF and also more accurate AF. In the same situation, the a7rIII or a7III or a6600 would miss some shots, while the a9 would nail focus more often.

 

[Vorkell]

Yes. Faster AF and also more accurate AF. In the same situation, the a7rIII or a7III or a6600 would miss some shots, while the a9 would nail focus more often.

Nailed it on the head. I shoot the A7R3, and while it's not bad, I definitely miss shots- Especially when the bird or animal is coming towards me, and even worse in low light. I find myself wishing for an A9 every so often. With that said, the ability to crop in and get good detail is pretty nice. My GF uses the a6000, and I haven't yet tried to steal that to use with my 200-600, though I think if I had the A9 and couldn't crop as much, I would want that extra reach.

I think if it's exclusively for BIF or fast targets (Remember, the closer things are, the harder it is for your camera to keep the focus on them), the A9/A9ii is your best. I've had several conversations about AF speeds with people and it's agreed that from fastest to slowest it is A9 -> a6600 -> A7iii -> A7Riii.I find the A7Riii to be slow, but great for things that are slow or still. So if you'll be doing BIF / Sport photography as a side project, you may want to consider that.

Also, note that the A7Riv also requires top-shelf glass that the A7Riv needs! With the really high image size comes incredible resolution... And it really makes lens quality a big deal. You'll notice more than any other Sony camera the quality of the glass in the lens. Someone in the Wildlife group even made a chat of which lenses seemed to work best and ones I thought were good on my A7Riii were low on the list (70-300 G). So if cost is a factor, just note that the A9 is much more forgiving than the A7Riv for which lens you use!

 

[gordonhatusupy]

I would also go for an a9 or a9ii. Better autofocus and because you are at f/6.3 you are going to need higher ISO and the A9 beats the other cameras in that field.

 

[Ziggy]

The R III & IV bring resolution at the expense of noise, dynamic range, more demands on technique and glass and file sizes that are unnecessarily large for sports and wildlife.
An APS-C body will certainly give you longer reach and 900mm FE is handy to have. The field of view is about 3 degrees and learning to get grab shots with that takes a lot of practice.

 

[tcoquelin]

I have the A7III and 200-600 and it's a very good general combo, but BiF is hard focusing.
The other issue I've had a couple of time is moire. The 200-600 has a much higher IQ than the A7III resolution so you sometime need to close to f9 or f11 so that diffraction kills the moire.