Sony a7R VI | Sony FE 100-400mm F4.5 GM OSS | 320mm | F4.5 | 1/800 sec | ISO 800 Photo: Richard Butler

Alongside the a7R VI, Sony launched an ambitious new telephoto lens: the FE 100-400mm F4.5 GM OSS. It has a constant aperture through its range, internal zoom, and a wide selection of controls, making it clear that it's aimed towards professional sports and action photographers.

We were able to shoot it alongside the a7R VI, taking it to a rugby game, a bird sanctuary and the streets of New York City to test it in a variety of scenarios. And, now that we have Raw support for the a7R VI, we can provide a closer look at how the lens performs, without having to worry about what corrections the body is applying and JPEG noise reduction. You can see the results in the gallery below.

Sample Gallery

Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing; we do so in good faith, so please don't abuse it.

While we typically process images for a lens sample gallery using Capture One, we used the Sony a7R VI to test the lens, which isn't currently supported by that program. We've reverted to processing these images using ACR. We've worked to use settings similar to our standard C1 recipe while also using the lens' built-in correction profile. No correction for vignetting was applied, and we'll replace the images with ones processed in Capture One when a7R VI support becomes available.

The BBC has been sharing footage from its archives on YouTube, and one video caught our attention. The clip is from the Tomorrow's World programme, and it was originally broadcast on BBC One on February 22, 1990. In it, three broadcasters look back at some of the cameras they'd covered in the past that were meant to change photography, and how successful they ended up being.

The segment walks through different types of camera innovations, starting with a digital "video stills" camera that recorded images on floppy disks and Minolta's hybrid camera that supported film and video stills using a very bulky detachable back. They also walk through 3D cameras, autofocus and disposable cameras.

It's a fascinating look back at some of the technology that led to (and, in video stills' case, was eventually supplanted by) the digital cameras we rely on today. There are plenty of modern videos that look back at old technology, but I think it's especially interesting to see footage like this when it was contemporary and looked like it could be the future, as predicted in 1990.

The BBC also shared a separate video that looks back at when cameras first appeared on phones. It was a move by cell phone makers to boost sales, and was considered a bold move that we now know paid off big time. Interestingly, the cameras in those phones were based on technology originally developed for NASA, which you can learn more about in another video we shared.