Scattered Thoughts . . .

I was hoping to find some wildlife outside today... even if only a squirrel or chipmunk... so I could test a new super telephoto Canon lens I picked up recently. The weather was pretty nice but I was feeling rather lousy. Nevertheless, I pushed the crappy health aside (and all the nausea and pain that goes with it) and I still headed out to the backyard with my camera and new (used) lens in hand.   So, not finding any wildlife to shoot left me with some withered old flowers and a few remaining leaves on tree branches. "Well... that is kind of a let down..." One of the problems with shooting small subjects such as flowers and leaves with a long super telephoto lens is that these subjects are rather tiny... even smaller than typical song birds. I didn't see any of them either! Not only are these subjects small but I can only get so close to these subjects because every lens has a minimum focus distance. On long super telephoto lenses such as this one, this minimum focus

As I've written previously on this blog, as much as I truly love my Sony camera, I've been quite frustrated by Sony's slow lens development. A few years ago, Sony released a few new cameras in a new mount... the Sony e-mount. At that time, I didn't give Sony much of a thought... that is... until I held one of these cameras in my hands at a local Best Buy store. The moment I held this new Sony camera body in my hands, I said, "WOW!" It was small... it was relatively lightweight... it had a HUGE sensor... and it really felt like a solid, high quality product. I went home and started researching (I never buy anything costing more than a few bucks until I research... and research more... and then research again).  I was liking what I was reading about this camera system but it was completely new with a new lens mount so lenses were few and far between at that point. I thought, "So... how long could it take to fill out a fairly complete lens lineup?... Two