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Long story short Wildlife and sports shooters can leave the heavy lifting behind as Sony unveils a pair of compact super-telephoto Masters
ony has put its super-telephoto G Master lenses on a serious diet, with new 400mm and 600mm primes that both
coordinated stabilisation and Active Mode. Filmmakers will also get support for in-camera breathing compensation on compatible bodies. Four focus-hold buttons sit around each barrel, accompanied by a function ring, focus-range limiter, Full Time DMF, AF ⁄ MF and stabilisation controls. Dust and moisture resistance plus a fluorine-coated front
sneak beneath the magic 1kg ⁄ 2.2lb mark. The new FE 400mm f ⁄ 4.5 GM OSS weighs just 994g ⁄ 2.2lb, while the FE 600mm f ⁄ 6.3 GM OSS tips the scales at 1g more. That’s a significant weight saving for wildlife, bird and sports photographers. Sony has also moved the centre of gravity towards the camera, helping to make handheld panning and following of moving subjects less of a wrestling match. They’re surprisingly compact too. Both are 108mm ⁄ 4.25in in diameter, with the 400mm measuring 242mm ⁄ 9.53in long and the 600mm stretching that to 263mm ⁄ 10.4in. Both use three Super ED and one ED glass elements to tackle chromatic and other aberrations, while Nano AR Coating II suppresses flare and ghosting. An 11-blade circular aperture and carefully controlled spherical aberration promise smooth bokeh. Autofocus comes courtesy of twin XD Linear Motors, designed to provide speed and accuracy while operating quietly enough for video. Both lenses can keep pace with the A9 III’s headline 120fps stills continuous shooting with AF ⁄ AE tracking. Optical stabilisation is built in, with support for compatible cameras’
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November/December 2026
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