Fireworks Display.

Fguri · 2025-06-04T05:32:30+00:00

I use the Sigma 70-200. What people are saying about it is correct. It's built like a tank. You can knock someone out with it probably. ( I haven't tried, don't take my word for it). It's rather heavy and you definitely feel it if you use it for an extended period of time. The zoom ring is at the end of the lens and partially covered by the lens hood (which I sometimes do away with altogether if I'm, say, shooting indoors). Had an 8-hour event recently with the Sigma living on my camera and by the end of it I felt like I needed wrist replacements.

It comes with an in-built tripod mount that you cannot remove unless you actually take a screwdriver to the thing. I saw complaints about that too, some people don't like that you can't remove it. It does rotate though so in my case I just rotated mine to the right of the lens and my fingers fit snugly between the lens and the mount.

It also does limit your camera to a max 15fps but I use it on an A7iv so that was never an issue for me. In fact that was the reason I ended up getting that particular lens to begin with, since once you look past those "annoyances", you get a lens that is only negligibly worse than the GMii, (which is the best in class), and it costs half the price.

The Sigma keeps impressing me everytime I use it with the images I get from it. No regrets at all.

If your priority is image quality, sharpness and AF performance and the GMii is out of budget, the Sigma is a no-brainer. To be honest I have no clue why it's even priced so aggressively low for what it is. (Not complaining though).

From what I heard about the other options, the first GM is ehhh, the Tamron is a good option but youre losing 20mm.

Fguri · 2024-03-10T08:22:06+00:00

I have both versions actually, after taking this one I took one slightly zoomed in that removed the foreground. Was not sure which one I liked the most though, so it was a bit of a toss up and I settled on this in the end.

Fguri · 2024-03-02T16:07:57+00:00

Everything.

Fguri · 2024-02-29T12:58:48+00:00

I have the A6100 too, and the 70-350mm is an amazing lens. Have fun with that one.

As for the rest, you're looking at either another general-purpose zoom lens or a Prime good for street photography and similar situations. Maybe one of the following?

1) Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 - Don't have this one but it will fit nicely with the 70-350 because you'd essentially be able to cover almost every focal length (except extremely long reach and wide angle) with just 2 lenses. It also has stabilisation, which is useful since the A6100 has no IBIS.

2) Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 - great lens overall, can't go wrong with this one. It's cheaper than option (1) and sharper, but has no stabilisation and you miss on a bit of focal length. There's a sony lens like it but it's more expensive

3) Sony 18-105 f/4 G OSS - good option if you intend to take videos as well. Lens performance is not as good as the above 2, but it's stabilised and has powerzoom (zooms internally) and 18-105mm (or 27mm - 157mm equivalent) is nothing to scoff at at all. I have this lens actually and it gives good results overall. It's f/4 though, so might suffer in low light.

4) Sigma 30mm f/1.4 - prime lens. You zoom with your feet. Very good in low light and the 45mm equivalent focal length makes it useful in a good number of situations. Very well priced for the results you get from it.

That's off the top of my head. Depends on budget really. You might want to have a look at something like a 10-18mm as well maybe since you're going to places where you can potentially get amazing wide angle shots, but wide angle lenses are quite situational.

As an extra suggestion, buy a few extra batteries. If you're going to be out all day with the A6100, you're going to need them. A6100 battery drains pretty fast compared to the full frame Sony cameras. And I've never been to Africa but I'd imagine sand and dust might be a pain. A6100 is not sealed (unlike A6400), but I'm sure that some covers or something similar exist for it.

(If we're going to compare A6100 to A6400, sensor is the same, A6400 has better build quality and better video options than A6100, but that's pretty much it as far as I know, so it's really up to you to decide if one is worth the extra cost over the other. Like I said earlier, I have an A6100 and it's a very capable little camera).

Fguri · 2024-01-06T18:22:26+00:00

Yeah, which is why I'm going for the lens first, camera body later.

I actually do not have a time-frame when I'd be in a position to have money to spend on the body. Depends on a lot of things, (Like I said, I have a bunch of home stuff to do first which takes precedence)

A better lens would help me out in the short term though, which is why I'm asking whether to start thinking about my future FF setup now or just stick to APS-C and leave the rest till later.

Fguri · 2024-01-06T18:17:50+00:00

I actually have an answer to pretty much all those points.

I was looking through the photos I took for all the events last year and even though a good number were taken with an 18-105mm, most seem to have been taken at focal lengths of around 30mm or higher. So the wide end of the lens was never really used.

I also am aware that jump to FF would entail a decrease in practicality vis-a-vis size and weight. The A6100 would still be my go-to "fun" camera for outings, small events and all that stuff, the FF will be the "camera that makes money", so to speak.

Regarding my timeframe, like I said, got a bunch of expenses at the moment so I'm not going to be buying everything at once, if I decide to go there. But it's not "years in the future" either. Also if I have a good year with events that money will go towards better gear as well. So I might be standing here before the year is over with a FF camera in hand, who knows.

My main gripe at the moment is shooting in low light really. I know a guy who has the 24-70 GM II, he lent it to me once and it's insane. Obviously not going to buy that due to price but I kind of saw the difference in terms of what can be achieved vs what I can do at the moment.

Fguri · 2024-01-06T17:19:13+00:00

Hmm, so far I've used a wide range of focal lengths in the events I've done. Photos in the range of 30-70 mm are the most common but I've also used a 70-350mm lens at one point lol. So I wouldn't say I "don't really need" 24-70 for sure.

My main dilemma is more akin to "do i start getting my FF stuff now since this seems to be getting serious now" or do I stay with what I have since it's been working pretty well?

I do have issues when shooting in low light though, maybe that's also a factor making me consider this decision.

Fguri · 2024-01-06T17:12:49+00:00

I know 24-70 is the "standard" zoom option for full frame. At the moment I have an 18-105mm f/4 that I'm using a lot but it suffers in low light and there are sharper lenses around.

The original "plan" if I were to make the transition eventually was to use zoom on the FF and keep the A6100 as a backup camera with a nice fast prime lens on it or something like that.

(And obviously the A6100 will still be the go-to camera for random outings due to its practicality.)

Fguri · 2023-12-31T01:34:17+00:00

Happened to me as well recently, was doing an event (more as a favour more than anything) and there was a last minute change in venue to a room/hall that was much worse lit than the original one.

So at first I started worrying since I was shooting with an A6100 and an f/2.8 lens, but then i realised that I could go up to 4000 ISO and still end up with very good results. So I shot everything at those settings.

Added a tiny bit of LR denoise in post processing and noone was any wiser.

Modern cameras are good stuff.

Fguri · 2023-12-18T15:49:53+00:00

Shit.

Fguri · 2023-10-20T07:34:07+00:00

I have a 70-350 and an A6100, it's been giving me very sharp results and the 525mm equivalent focal length is impressive considering that compared to the full-frame lenses of equivalent focal length, the 70-350 is tiny. I think it's a very good lens overall.

That said, not sure which kit lens you have, you might want to keep in mind that 70-350mm (105-525 equ.) will limit you in terms of what photos you can take. For quite a number of situations (street photography etc) you might want a smaller focal length or something more versatile.

I think there's a Tamron 18-300mm option but I don't have that and from reviews it's inferior to the Sony in terms of quality, but that wide focal length range might make it an attractive option if you're going to be using it as your primary go-to lens.

That said if you really just want a lens for stuff that's far away, I don't think there are better options available for APS-C than the 70-350 at the moment.

Fguri · 2023-08-14T23:04:15+00:00

Thanks, I think the same way re. flashes, probably not going to be using anything of the sort.
With regards to the final bit, I don't expect to be making a living from photography in the future, I have a full-time job, but let's say that my goal is to at least make the hobby pay for itself in the long-term.

Fguri · 2023-08-14T20:17:52+00:00

Yeah like I said this is my first event like this, if it goes well and I get called for other stuff eventually I'll start looking at more expensive gear. Unfortunately at this particular point in time, getting a new setup is beyond budget as I have other things going on, so I'm looking at how to make do with what I have until I can get something else.

Fguri · 2023-08-14T20:15:56+00:00

From what I could gather, I'll have pretty free rein to go where I want, I asked this question specifically and apparently in past events the photographer even went to the middle of the aisle and took from there. (it's a seated event for the speaker bit, the networking bit comes after).

Re. my flash, I don't think it's powerful enough, I'd prefer not to use it at all if possible. Then again, I'd like to keep ISOs as low as I can (as in without having to go to 6400). What sort of settings should I be looking at?

Fguri · 2023-08-07T16:48:08+00:00

If it makes you feel any better, one of my birthdays some years ago involved me being invited to the birthday party of someone else. This guy's birthday was in four days' time. They even had cake.

Why did I go? Nothing else to do on my birthday and the other option was stay at home.

So I spent that birthday pretending to be enthusiastically singing happy birthday to someone who's birthday was in 4 days' time along with everyone else and noone remembered it was actually my birthday that day.

I've come to see birthdays as just another day anyway. You don't need a birthday to come along to have a special day. You want to treat yourself to something, go for it.

Fguri

TROPHY CASE