Hi everyone, I'm a newcomer to the world of photography having just retired and find I have time to think for myself for the first time since becoming a father many centuries ago! I invested in a second hand bunch of kit from the interweb, starting with a Sony Alpha100 camera body and a number of lenses (which looked good - I had no idea what I was buying) plus a bag and a tripod and a monopod and a couple of spares to fit on the camera (viewfinder thingy etc). I am fairly comfortable with taking snaps of the grandchildren and flowers and stuff but I really want to buy a good (not professional) quality long distance lens for bird and wildlife photography. I have looked at the huge range of options available and become utterly confused. I don't want to buy more than once and need some advice on what to buy and where to look for the best deal. Can anyone offer advice please? (Budget about 200-300 pounds (maximum - she'll kill me otherwise).
Sony Alpha100
- Thread starter pete.webb
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Welcome to the forum Pete- I have used Sony gear for many years 
I shoot mirrorless now of course using both the Sony a7Riii & Sony a7Riv - lenses I use mostly are:
Sony 200-600mm FE lens for wildlife
Sony 100-400mm G lens for wildlife and sometime Dragonflies
Sony 90mm Macro lens for insects flowers etc
Sigma 70mm f2.8 ART lend for macro and sometimes Portraits
Sigma 24mm f1.4 ART lens for landscapes & everyday walk about
Sony 16-35mm G lens for landscapes and that wide angle stuff
Sony 85mm f1.4 G lens for Portraits
Sony 50mm f1.8 Portraits and general
These are all Sony E mount- you will need a Sony A mount lens to suit the Sony Alpha 100 body
As for a cheap lens for Wildlife ( Under £300) there are none- Best advice look for a 2nd hand Sigma or Tamron 150-500mm or 150-600mm - unfortunately these are not under £300 - but you get what you pay for mate
I found one on eBay - Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DI VC USD Sony A-Mount and Lens Cover | eBay - but a lot more than you want to spend @ £650 - & NO it's not mine
Its a good job you don't have a Sony e mount they are very expensive Lenses and Cameras
but the quality is superb
Have a look at my Flickr account- give you and Idea of what these fabulous lenses are capable of- here: Les Moxon | Flickr
Good luck in your quest for a decent lens- any questions ? I'll be more than happy to help
Les
I shoot mirrorless now of course using both the Sony a7Riii & Sony a7Riv - lenses I use mostly are:Sony 200-600mm FE lens for wildlife
Sony 100-400mm G lens for wildlife and sometime Dragonflies
Sony 90mm Macro lens for insects flowers etc
Sigma 70mm f2.8 ART lend for macro and sometimes Portraits
Sigma 24mm f1.4 ART lens for landscapes & everyday walk about
Sony 16-35mm G lens for landscapes and that wide angle stuff
Sony 85mm f1.4 G lens for Portraits
Sony 50mm f1.8 Portraits and general
These are all Sony E mount- you will need a Sony A mount lens to suit the Sony Alpha 100 body
As for a cheap lens for Wildlife ( Under £300) there are none- Best advice look for a 2nd hand Sigma or Tamron 150-500mm or 150-600mm - unfortunately these are not under £300 - but you get what you pay for mate
I found one on eBay - Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DI VC USD Sony A-Mount and Lens Cover | eBay - but a lot more than you want to spend @ £650 - & NO it's not mine
Its a good job you don't have a Sony e mount they are very expensive Lenses and Cameras
but the quality is superbHave a look at my Flickr account- give you and Idea of what these fabulous lenses are capable of- here: Les Moxon | Flickr
Good luck in your quest for a decent lens- any questions ? I'll be more than happy to help
Les
ancient_mariner
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Welcome Pete. As Les says, good long lenses are not are not going to be within your budget, so you have a few options:
1) give up - not ideal.
2) increase the budget.
3) buy a lens that is deficient in some ways and learn to live with it until you can justify something better.
So category 3) then....
First suggestion is a 600mm Sigma mirror lens for £80: https://www.ffordes.com/p/SH-18-028378/minolta-manual/600mm-f8-reflex-minolta
Deficiencies are that it's completely manual focus, it has a small fixed aperture (f8) and this kind of lens isn't especially good at resolving fine detail or contrast well. I own one, and while they are 'usable' they are far from great - here's a couple of examples I've shot using a sony A7III and then processed to within an inch of their lives to find detail & contrast (click on the picture to see full size on flickr):
Rousham hall-02489 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
Somerton lock sunset by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
Second suggestion is a 75-300mm zoom, which is shorter than ideal, but does bring you back to a realistic cost.
There's 2 options here, and I can't tell you which to pick. The 'expensive' one is Sony's G 70-300 for £295 https://www.harrisoncameras.co.uk/pd/used-sony-af-70-300mm-g-f45-56-ssm-a-mount-lens_used-1810501 - it's a good lens, fast to focus, decent in the centre and should work well with your A100 and any other Sony DSLR/SLT camera you choose.
The cheap option is a Minolta/Sony 75-300 or 100-300 for somewhere between £40 and £60:
I have one like the minolta in the second link, and it's functional but the AF is slow and it hunts quite a bit on an A58 body. Image quality is OK for a consumer lens that's a 30 year old design - some examples.
500px Lavender-09137 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
Somerton lock-2 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
If you want to see user reviews of Sony/Minolta fit lenses the visit Dyxum.com, and if you want to read reviews by someone who is generally trusted in the Sony world then google for Kurt Munger's site.
I like Sony stuff, and as well as an A7 I still have my Sony A58 and the Minolta 7000 that was my first AF camera in the 80s.
Let me recommend one more site - if you're searching for used lenses then try https://usedlens.co.uk/ run by Dan Cook who's a member of TP.
1) give up - not ideal.
2) increase the budget.
3) buy a lens that is deficient in some ways and learn to live with it until you can justify something better.
So category 3) then....
First suggestion is a 600mm Sigma mirror lens for £80: https://www.ffordes.com/p/SH-18-028378/minolta-manual/600mm-f8-reflex-minolta
Deficiencies are that it's completely manual focus, it has a small fixed aperture (f8) and this kind of lens isn't especially good at resolving fine detail or contrast well. I own one, and while they are 'usable' they are far from great - here's a couple of examples I've shot using a sony A7III and then processed to within an inch of their lives to find detail & contrast (click on the picture to see full size on flickr):
Rousham hall-02489 by Toni Ertl, on FlickrSomerton lock sunset by Toni Ertl, on FlickrSecond suggestion is a 75-300mm zoom, which is shorter than ideal, but does bring you back to a realistic cost.
There's 2 options here, and I can't tell you which to pick. The 'expensive' one is Sony's G 70-300 for £295 https://www.harrisoncameras.co.uk/pd/used-sony-af-70-300mm-g-f45-56-ssm-a-mount-lens_used-1810501 - it's a good lens, fast to focus, decent in the centre and should work well with your A100 and any other Sony DSLR/SLT camera you choose.
The cheap option is a Minolta/Sony 75-300 or 100-300 for somewhere between £40 and £60:
I have one like the minolta in the second link, and it's functional but the AF is slow and it hunts quite a bit on an A58 body. Image quality is OK for a consumer lens that's a 30 year old design - some examples.
500px Lavender-09137 by Toni Ertl, on FlickrSomerton lock-2 by Toni Ertl, on FlickrIf you want to see user reviews of Sony/Minolta fit lenses the visit Dyxum.com, and if you want to read reviews by someone who is generally trusted in the Sony world then google for Kurt Munger's site.
I like Sony stuff, and as well as an A7 I still have my Sony A58 and the Minolta 7000 that was my first AF camera in the 80s.
Let me recommend one more site - if you're searching for used lenses then try https://usedlens.co.uk/ run by Dan Cook who's a member of TP.
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Only issue I have using a fixed focal/fixed aperture mirror lens are 2 fold the manual focus not always great for wildlife & the OP's camera is a mere 10mp - therefore cropping an image to suit would in my opinion be difficult - a decent Sony 70-300mm would get closer images but no where like a 600mm ( my favorite lens)
I still have a Sony A mount camera - Sony a99 and a 135mm lens - which I like to use for people photography
LCE have lots of 2nd hand Sony lenses and they will post out too
Link: Second hand cameras, camera part exchange, digital cameras UK, used cameras, photographic shops, England (lcegroup.co.uk)
I found this kit- very good price and it has a 75-300mm lens too- Used Sony A58 Twin Lens Kit| London Camera Exchange -Chichester (lcegroup.co.uk)
Les
I still have a Sony A mount camera - Sony a99 and a 135mm lens - which I like to use for people photography
LCE have lots of 2nd hand Sony lenses and they will post out too
Link: Second hand cameras, camera part exchange, digital cameras UK, used cameras, photographic shops, England (lcegroup.co.uk)
I found this kit- very good price and it has a 75-300mm lens too- Used Sony A58 Twin Lens Kit| London Camera Exchange -Chichester (lcegroup.co.uk)
Les
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ancient_mariner
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That would offer a big improvement over the OP's A100. All the guys selling used kit that I listed will post to the buyer, though IIRC Ffordes charge for postage while with LCE P&P is usually included (and I do like LCE as a seller of used kit).
Worth mentioning for the OP's benefit - a 600mm lens (any lens, including high-end kit) for photographing wildlife is difficult to use, and will require significant practice to become proficient.
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Not to mention a 600mm lens is circa £12,000 from Sony
Sony FE 600mm f4 G Master Lens | Wex Photo Video
:
Joking aside 10mp is not really suitable for Wildlife and long lenses- the a58 above would be a huge improvement on the a100
Les
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ABTog
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Welcome.
I used to to shoot with a Sony Alpha 100, it was my first DSLR. I then traded up for the Sony Alpha 350 which was much better, particularly with live view, and auto focus.
Personally I had the Minolta 70-210mm f4 "Beercan", which was pretty good for what it was and only costs about £60. But not very long.
I also had the Minolta 50mm f1.7 which was a superb lens, better than the Sony version I had before that.
There are plenty of lens options for Sony A mount, you just have to know what to look for.
I suggest trawl the lens database on dyxum.com this has a complete list of every lens that was ever made for A mount cameras. Then use the search options (on the right hand side of the page) to search for any lens between 70 and 500 mm, this will give you all the long zoom lenses. Here's the search, click here
Then find a lens, for example the Sigma 120-400mm, then search that on ebay or LCE (London Camera Exchange).
Not all of the camera shops sell old A-mount lenses. These ones do:
London Camera Exchange - for example, here's a search of all their Minolta (A-mount) lenses: click
Camera World - listings of Minolta/Sony A-mount lenses: click
Park Cameras - listings of Sony A and E mount lenses here, be sure to check that it's A-mount if you order.
This is probably one of the best you can find of more modern A-mount lenses, the Sony 70-300 G SSM for £369 but it's only a 70-300, which isn't that long for wildlife.
The advantage of the Sony Alpha 100 is that it has built in stabilisation, so even if you put on an old Minolta-era lens, it'll still get the benefit of the "Super Steady Shot".
The disadvantage is that it's a really old sensor and doesn't do well at high ISO in dark situations or when you need a faster shutter speed for wildlife.
On the plus side again, you can find some real bargains around of Sony A-mount cameras and lenses now that Sony have moved over to E-mount.
Happy Hunting
I used to to shoot with a Sony Alpha 100, it was my first DSLR. I then traded up for the Sony Alpha 350 which was much better, particularly with live view, and auto focus.
Personally I had the Minolta 70-210mm f4 "Beercan", which was pretty good for what it was and only costs about £60. But not very long.
I also had the Minolta 50mm f1.7 which was a superb lens, better than the Sony version I had before that.
There are plenty of lens options for Sony A mount, you just have to know what to look for.
I suggest trawl the lens database on dyxum.com this has a complete list of every lens that was ever made for A mount cameras. Then use the search options (on the right hand side of the page) to search for any lens between 70 and 500 mm, this will give you all the long zoom lenses. Here's the search, click here
Then find a lens, for example the Sigma 120-400mm, then search that on ebay or LCE (London Camera Exchange).
Not all of the camera shops sell old A-mount lenses. These ones do:
London Camera Exchange - for example, here's a search of all their Minolta (A-mount) lenses: click
Camera World - listings of Minolta/Sony A-mount lenses: click
Park Cameras - listings of Sony A and E mount lenses here, be sure to check that it's A-mount if you order.
This is probably one of the best you can find of more modern A-mount lenses, the Sony 70-300 G SSM for £369 but it's only a 70-300, which isn't that long for wildlife.
The advantage of the Sony Alpha 100 is that it has built in stabilisation, so even if you put on an old Minolta-era lens, it'll still get the benefit of the "Super Steady Shot".
The disadvantage is that it's a really old sensor and doesn't do well at high ISO in dark situations or when you need a faster shutter speed for wildlife.
On the plus side again, you can find some real bargains around of Sony A-mount cameras and lenses now that Sony have moved over to E-mount.
Happy Hunting