Sony 200-600 lens Question

[rgarven]

Friends,

I have a question about this long telephone lens. I haven't got to use it much, but I took it out to a local bird sanctuary and shot a bunch of photos and some came out nice. My question is; after I snapped a picture the final result was a lot darker than what I saw in the view finder. Do I have something wrong in the settings? I was shooting in M at 1000s of a second. 600mm, f6.3, ISO 125, Sony A7IV, no teleconverter, etc.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Rob

 

[Unframed Dave]

That's a very low iso for wildlife photography.

 

[rgarven]

That's a very low iso for wildlife photography.

Dave,

Even though I've been an amateur photographer for many years, I still don't know what I'm doing. That's why I'm here. HAA I've been shooting in manual to expand my knowledge. It was bright day at the beach sanctuary. My A7IV seems like it has lots of noise, (I wish I would haven gotten the A7RIV) so that is why I shoot with the low ISO.

I took hundreds of photos change the settings around a lot, but I was looking through the viewfinder. It would look perfect and then I'd snap a picture and then the final result would be a lot darker.. I don't think I have any of the settings on weird and it does not happen when I use my other 24 to 105 lens.

Rob

 

[Unframed Dave]

Your other lenses are not as light demanding as the 200-600 at the 600 end.

Wildlife photography demands light and proximity. There's no getting round that, although software helps.

Generally what you see in the viewfinder will be representative of what you see in the image, so I struggle with that part.

I would however need a lot of light to turn the iso down that low for long telephoto shots. Have you tried turning the histogram on and seeing what it shows?

Other than that, try a few shots of something static at iso 125 and then compare it to the same shot at 800. See what that tells you?

Personally, I do everything wrong. I don't shoot in manual for wildlife, most will use shutter priority with auto iso (defined range). I use aperture priority and adjust the iso to get the shutter speed that I want. Within limits, I try not to go beyond 2000 iso.

If you were closer, I'd be happy to spend a bit of time with you, but I think that may be impractical.

I don't think there are any bad cameras these days, so persevere!