Cheap and portable telephoto lens

stu2fly

stu2fly

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Stuart
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Hi everyone.
I’m looking for a sensibly priced telephoto lens that will fit my Sony A7. It’s to take to work (airline pilot) so needs to be not too big. I once took my 100-400G lens and that was way too big for the cockpit!
All help gratefully received.
Stu
 
Sony FE 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 G OSS Lens is about 50cm shorter and the Sony FE 24-240mm f3.5-6.3 OSS Lens is about 85cm shorter.

Would using a shorter focal length with a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter be an option?
 
The Tamron 28~300mm is the smallest superzoom I've come across for 24x36mm cameras. It's also the cheapest. I use one on my Nikon D600 and the quality is good enough for my needs but I'm in no way obsessive about sharpness - so your mileage may vary.

The Sony mount version should fit an A7 but I'd definitely check before buying.

Camera Nikon D600 Tamron 28-300mm A65 DSC00155.JPG
 
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gman said:
Sony FE 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 G OSS Lens is about 50cm shorter and the Sony FE 24-240mm f3.5-6.3 OSS Lens is about 85cm shorter.

Would using a shorter focal length with a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter be an option?
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50cm is a bit over 18 inches...

TBH, I'd be looking at a decent compact - far easier to put away quickly should that be needed.
 
gman said:
Sony FE 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 G OSS Lens is about 50cm shorter and the Sony FE 24-240mm f3.5-6.3 OSS Lens is about 85cm shorter.

Would using a shorter focal length with a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter be an option?
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I would love either of those lenses, but sadly I think the cost may be too high. Using a teleconverter could be a good option
 
How much time do you have to focus? Older manual focus lenses are often very compact and can be used with a dumb adapter at low cost.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
The Tamron 28~300mm is the smallest superzoom I've come across for 24x36mm cameras. It's also the cheapest.
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I bought one of these (second hand at a very reasonable price) for my R6 & associated film EOS cameras. Just measured the length at 4" excluding the mount. It really is very compact for what it is, is light, has a huge range, and the quality is very acceptable. Aperture is the only real issue which is pretty normal given the other specs.
 
I'm another with the Tamron 28-300mm. Actually fairly impressed by the quality considering the zoom range. Really small and stupid light weight, I honestly thought they'd sent me an empty box when I got one to test.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
The Tamron 28~300mm is the smallest superzoom I've come across for 24x36mm cameras. It's also the cheapest. I use one on my Nikon D600 and the quality is good enough for my needs but I'm in no way obsessive about sharpness - so your mileage may vary.

The Sony mount version should fit an A7 but I'd definitely check before buying.

View attachment 394534
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I use a Tamron 18-200 and it's my carry around lens. But truth be known for what your talking about I'd go with a P&S with a long focal length. Recently got a Panosonic ZS100 and had a terrible time getting it going. Got it used and was turned back in by someone that fooled with the menu to much. I had an awful time but Sangoma On here talked me through it and doing fine now. My lens on it is 25-250 but different cameras have zooms that are outragious! Can't tell you guy's how much I appreciate what Sangoma did for me!
 
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Ya know, I was thinking. Have though this for a long time truth be known. Refering to an inexpensive lens as "cheap" suggest's the lens is junk to me! No, I see B&H has it for my Nikon for I thinkit was $400. I don't remember where I got mine, likely B&H and for myself I don't consider $400 "cheap", inexpensive? Yep! I simply don't have loads of money to spend on equipment so end up getting what I can afford. I spent $500 on the used panosonic camera I bought and for me that was actually more than I could afford but, hopefully it was a one time deal. My other one time deals fell short in about a year and to me, were not inexpensive although all were quite a bit less than this Panosonic.
 
Don Fischer said:
I simply don't have loads of money to spend on equipment so end up getting what I can afford.
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The most bang for your buck in long focus lenses that I have come across is Tamron's discontiued but still quite common 500mm SP mirror lens.

Plugged into a M43 camera, it becomes the equivalent of a 1000mm and unlike any other long lens I've tried, it doesn't overbalance the combination. Mine cost me less than £60 and is one of those lenses which I don't use too often but is small and light enough to stick in the bag while being sharp enough to get the picture when nothing less will do.

Tamron 500mm mirror lens on Panasonic GH2 Ixus 70 IMG_4334.JPG
 
I don't use my 170-500mm near as much as I hoped I would. But when I need it, if for some reason I have it with me, It's pertty good. I simply don't shoot enough wildlife. Darn near impossible touse it without a tripod whick means one more thing to carry! :)
 
nandbytes said:
Tamron 70-300mm f4.5-6.3
Cheap, sharp and light

70-300mm F/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD - TAMRON Europe GmbH (en-GB)

The telephoto zoom with the extra range!. Model A047S (en-GB)
www.tamron.eu www.tamron.eu
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Doesn't seem to me to give much over a 70-210 but I grew disenchanted with my 70-210. Seemed I was always wanted something wider or narrower. That's not really true but some how whenever I needed a wider lens I'd have to stop and change lens's. The wider end was the bad end for me. Then got to shooting dogs at field trials breaking away and the 70mm end wasn't much problem but the 210 end was just a bit to short. Replaced the 70-210 with a 55-300 and still found time's I could have used something longer. Seem's a guy I recently met had a Nikon 18-400 on his camera. The 18mm end wouldn't get used a lot but shooting the dog's I could wear out the 400mm end of it. Sometimes ya just need a little more or a little less .
 
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