Complete

"I have all the camera gear I need," said no photographer, ever.

When I bought my Sony α6700, I really only wanted a zoom telephoto lens for it. After all, I was keeping my Nikon D750, a Sigma 10–20mm f/4–5.6 wide-angle lens, a Nikkor 24–70mm f/2.8 lens, and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens, all of which gave me all of the wide to mid-range of angles that I'd need for most of my photographic needs.

I looked at a bunch of lenses for the α6700 but when it came down to it, I wanted this camera for nature and wildlife. I would be bringing it with me when DW and I wandered Mud Lake, or Bruce Pit, or any other hikes where we'd be in search of birds and other creatures.

I settled on the Sony E 70–350 f/4.5-6.3 lens. It would easily replace my Nikkor 200–500mm f/5.6 lens, as far as reach (it was the full-frame equivalent of a 105–525mm lens), and it weighed less than half of my old beast lens—this body and lens, together, weigh only 1.1 kg, whereas the Nikkor lens, alone, weighted 2.3 kilos.

When I realized how much I'd be saving on weight, I began to wonder if I'd ever take my Nikon with me when I travelled. The Sony system is much smaller, in addition to being feather-light.

"I should get a wide-angle lens for the Sony," I said to DW. When she bought her Canon R7, in December, she purchased a 100–400mm lens with it, but a few weeks later picked up a nifty-fifty for times when she didn't want to get up close.

For an extra $200, I could buy the Sony α6700 with a kit 16–50mm f/3.5–5.6 lens: not a great lens but good enough for travel or vlogging. The 70–350mm lens would be the 'good' lens for this camera.

It turned out that buying the kit lens was a wise choice. When I traded in my old gear for the Sony system, I learned that the store didn't have the 70–350mm lens in stock, nor did their sister store, downtown. There were several stores in the Toronto area that had them, so my sales guy would poach one from there.

This was on Friday, April 17. I was told that my telephoto lens would be in the store the following Wednesday or Thursday, and I would receive a call when it was in.

By Thursday afternoon, there was no word so I called the camera store. My lens still hadn't arrived and they weren't sure what the delay was, but they would look into it.

Meanwhile, DW and I searched a competitor camera shop, hoping that they would have the lens in stock. But they were sold out. Searching Sony's Web site, it also appeared that the manufacturer was out of stock.

Popular lens.

On Wednesday, April 29, I fired off an e-mail to my salesperson and asked him where my lens was. "You told me it was coming from one of your GTA stores, right?" I added. He responded quickly enough and he said that he was still looking into it.

I was starting to think that I wasn't going to have this lens anytime soon.

The next day, April 30, my guy called and said that he couldn't find the tracking number for his order, and he was going to try another store to ship the lens. I told him that I searched all of his stores and the lens was now showing that it was sold out. If the original GTA store hadn't sent the lens, it was because they didn't have one.

The salesperson then told me that he had a used 70–350mm lens in the store, and if I wanted it, he'd put it aside. He said that it was rated in very good condition and he had checked it out before calling me. It came with the lens hood, lens cap, and back cap, but had no box. His company gave it a 90-day warranty.

"How much are you selling it for?" I asked.

After scanning the bar code on it, he said, "It's going for $829."

"That's only $20 less than what I've already paid," I said. "You can do better."

"You're right, I can," he said. I could hear his fingers on a computer keyboard before he said, "I'll let you have it for $700, plus tax. That'd be $791."

I agreed to come to the store and look at it, and I brought my α6700 along. I'd want to try it out on my own camera, after closely inspecting it, before I made any decision.

The lens was like new. And on my camera, it felt very good in my hands. I fired off a few photos and zoomed in on the images to check the sharpness. At the time of writing this post, I still haven't removed the lens from the body.

In all, I saved just over $170 and I have the system that I wanted, plus I had a wide-to medium zoom lens.

From the camera store, I drove straight to Bruce Pit to put the camera and lens through their paces. While waiting for the lens and getting to know the camera, I had programed one of the custom dial settings specifically for birding: continuous focus; continuous, high frame rate; auto ISO; 1/2000 of a second shutter speed; f/6.3; –0.3 EV; bird-recognition mode; wide metering. I just had to turn the dial to the custom setting and could point and shoot.

Here are a couple of those shots. Keep in mind that these were only test shots to see how quickly the camera could lock in the focus on a bird and how sharp the image was. I shot through some branches to see if the camera would stay focused on the red-wing blackbirds.

While I was in the store, trying out the lens, I saw a used 20mm f/1.8 lens for a decent price, and I told DW about it when I got home.

"You're done with camera gear," she said.

"Photographers are never done with camera gear," I replied. "I'll never be complete."

Happy Friday!