00:00I'm here on my local nature reserve to try something totally new for me and that is bird
00:03photography. I've got the Sony a7R6, it's got a 66.8 megapixel full frame stack sensor and Sony's
00:09longest lens 400-800mm f6.3-f8. Can't wait, let's go see what we can find. Now it might sound
00:15like
00:15a strange focal length but 400-800mm is perfect for bird photography. When you're zoomed in you
00:21get super close to small birds and certainly you want at least a 600mm focal length for most bird
00:26photography. And then if you lose track of your subject when it moves, which it will, then you
00:30can zoom out to 400mm to find them again more easily. I've paired the lens with the a7R6 and
00:35its class-leading 66.8 megapixel sensor. Those are huge shots bringing fine details such as feathers
00:41to life. In one sequence I could see a stone chest meal, a dragonfly in its beak. With so many
00:46pixels
00:46you can crop severely to fill the frame with your subject and still get sharp detail. The camera's
00:51APS-C crop mode even delivers 28 megapixel stills. Pair that with the lens at 800mm and
00:56it's like having a 1200mm lens. The camera's bird detection autofocus works a treat, delivering
01:01sticky autofocus on most subjects. It can locate a bird even when it's small in the frame. Though
01:05shooting through tree branches and leaves is a greater challenge, I had no sense of the
01:09lens holding back the camera's autofocus capabilities. Sure, it's sizey, but I found the 400-800mm lens
01:15fairly easy to shoot with handheld, especially since it has optical stabilisation which works in
01:19tandem with the camera stabilisation, smoothing out hand movement. But if there's one drawback
01:23to the lens, it's the maximum aperture, which is f6.3 at 400mm and f8 at 800mm, which
01:30is kind of slow. To freeze movement and for sharp shots I would typically want a minimum
01:34shutter speed of 1,000th of a second when shooting at 800mm. f8 and 1,000th of a second, that's
01:39pushing the camera and in the low light of dawn my suggested ISO settings were pretty high.
01:44The quality was still good, but it's even better when shooting in bright daylight. That's the
01:47compromising and an enthusiast lens that costs and weighs much less than a pro-grade 600mm
01:52f4. However, for enthusiast bird photography, the 400-800mm is spot on. Bird photography,
01:58especially with Sony's camera and super telephoto lens is super addictive and I might have just
02:02found my new hobby. I returned to the nature reserve at first light every morning for a
02:05week and photographed stone tracks, goldfinches, reed bunting and even dartful warblers, curlew
02:10and many more. It was like hunting with a camera rather than a gun and I'm hooked. It certainly
02:14helps when I see the quality of photos I've been able to capture and I'm a complete novice
02:17at this genre of photography.
02:19Check out some of my favourite shots on screen now and for a deeper dive of the a7-i6 and
02:23400mm to 800mm lens, check out techradar.com.
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