Sony announced two full-frame E-mount super-telephoto primes today, 15 September: the FE 400mm F4.5 GM OSS and the FE 600mm F6.3 GM OSS. The focal lengths are nothing new. The weight is. Roughly 994 grams for the 400mm and 995 grams for the 600mm, tripod mount excluded. That changes how a lens like this gets used on a job, and it changes how it gets rented.

What Sony announced

  • FE 400mm F4.5 GM OSS: 108 x 242 mm, approx. 994 g, $2,699.99
  • FE 600mm F6.3 GM OSS: 108 x 263 mm, approx. 995 g, $3,699.99
  • Three Super ED elements plus one ED, Nano AR Coating II, 11-blade circular aperture
  • Two XD linear motors, full compatibility with the a9 III’s 120 fps burst
  • Built-in optical stabilisation, with support for the body’s Active Mode and coordinated stabilisation
  • Support for the camera body’s breathing compensation, on bodies that offer it
  • Four focus hold buttons around the barrel, function ring, focus range limiter, Full-time DMF switch
  • 95 mm front filter thread, weather sealing and a fluorine coating on the front element
  • With Sony teleconverters you reach 800 mm (from the 400) and 1,200 mm (from the 600)
  • Stated availability: October 2026

The prices announced are US and Canadian. European pricing had not been published as we write this, so hold off on doing the maths in euros: with Sony glass, a straight conversion has historically been optimistic.

Why two stills lenses matter to shooters

Sony built these for sports and wildlife photographers, and the press release talks about birders and sidelines. But the mount is the same as the one on our cameras: these lenses go straight onto an FX3, an FX6, an FX9 or a BURANO, no adapter, no electronic compromises.

The kilo is the whole story. A 600mm that weighs under a kilo rides on a light tripod, can be held by hand for a few seconds, and fits in a backpack alongside the body. A traditional 3 kg 600mm does none of that: it needs a serious fluid head, two people to move it, and it pins you to wherever you set it down. On a wildlife documentary, where you walk in and have to reposition fast, you feel that difference by the end of the day.

For video, we think the most interesting item is the body-driven breathing compensation. At this focal length the shift in field of view as you rack focus is very visible, and fixing it in camera saves you a patch job in post. One caveat: it only works on compatible bodies with supported lenses, so check it before the shoot, not on set.

Buy or rent

The maths here is simple. For anyone producing video in Italy, a 400 or a 600 like this comes out two or three times a year: the wildlife sequence, the race, the one extreme long shot a scene needs and never needs again. Three thousand euros of glass sitting idle eleven months out of twelve is capital that never pays itself back. Renting costs a fraction, and you only pay on the days it earns.

In Abruzzo, concretely

Around here a long lens earns its keep in three situations, and we have seen all three: wildlife in the National Park and on the Majella, where you cannot get closer by law before you even get to common sense; outdoor sport, from cycling to ski racing, where the subject passes once; and compressed landscape, the shot that stacks a hill town against the mountain behind it, which simply does not exist on a 35mm.

Three practical notes, from people who hand these out: at F6.3 on the 600mm there is not much light, so either your body handles high ISO well or you give up the blue hour; camera shake at 600mm shows even with stabilisation on, and a monopod is not a luxury; and if you shoot Super35 on an FX9 or a BURANO, remember the crop stretches the focal length further, which helps with wildlife and hurts when you need a group in frame.

We are waiting for European pricing before deciding whether these join the fleet. If you need a long lens for a job before then, look at what we already have and talk to us: often the answer is a body and lens combination you had not considered.

Sources: official Sony Electronics press release and Newsshooter’s coverage.