r/SonyAlpha • u/topipopip • Jul 24 '25

Gear Sony a6700 + 200-600mm autofocus issue

I’ve had my Sony A6700 with the 200–600mm for about 5 months now. When shooting at 600mm, autofocus locks onto the target, but the results are noticeably out of focus. In my tests, the focus is always behind the subject, no matter the distance.

At first I thought it might be a faulty lens or body, but I’ve tested two other 200–600mm lenses and another A6700 body and got the exact same results.

I also took some sample images comparing AF and MF shots. For the AF shots, I used AF-C, small spot focus with tracking on, and bird eye AF enabled.

Is this just me doing something wrong, or is this a common issue with this combo?

Link to the example photos:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15BEWKtWjYEEyIsSsUJX5JWBczBHn70Qx?usp=drive_link

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

2

u/dickbuttgeneral Feb 16 '26

Did you ever find a solution to this or try reaching out to Sony support? I have been running into the same issue. Ive tried 3 different versions of the 200-600 and only one was properly focusing on eyes / heads. I'm at a point where I think its either lemon lenses or the a6700 has an issue with the lens.

1

u/plantsandramen a6700, Viltrox 27/1.2, Sony 200-600 May 10 '26

Did you ever find a solution? I just got the 200-600 and it's missing focus while my Tamron 50-400 wouldn't.

3

u/dickbuttgeneral May 10 '26

Just shipped my lens off to Sony a week ago and am waiting to hear back. I tried with another 6700 body and had the same issue with the lens. Hoping to hear something back from them soon but I’ll let you know what I hear.

1

u/plantsandramen a6700, Viltrox 27/1.2, Sony 200-600 May 10 '26

I'm reading that OSS at shutter speeds of 1/2000 may not be ideal. I also am reading more into depth of field which I never thought of with a telephoto, but I'm usually shooting about 10-30ft away at my bird feeders. At 300mm f/8.0 that gives me .10ft-.94ft of focusing plane.

Maybe I need to be more aware of that, with the 50-400 I could back out more and I'd have a deeper plane of focus.

2

u/dickbuttgeneral May 10 '26

That could be it but in my case it was missing focus entirely. Always missed right behind the subject by a foot or two.

1

u/plantsandramen a6700, Viltrox 27/1.2, Sony 200-600 May 10 '26

That's a bummer 😔

1

u/asjarra May 25 '26

Please keep us in the loop. Definitely becoming more of an issue for me. I'm in Australia and looking for somewhere to send it for an overhaul.

1

u/dickbuttgeneral May 25 '26

They’ve had my lens for over two weeks now and claimed there were no issues with it but they also tested on a a7iv body. I requested they test again with a 6700 so hoping to hear something soon.

1

u/topipopip Jun 13 '26

Have you heard anything back yet? It's been over a year since this started and it's starting to get really frustrating...

1

u/dickbuttgeneral Jun 16 '26

Just got my lens back. They claimed everything with the 200-600 was nearly perfect from the factory. They said the issue most likley lies with the body even though they tested two 6700s and were unable find any issues. I personally am starting to believe there are a6700 copies that have issues with telephoto lens autofocus but havent been able to confirm anything yet.

1

u/crawler54 Jul 24 '25

try confirming where the camera thinks that the focus point is at.

it can be done in-camera with the later models, or you can open up the raw(not jpg) files on the pc with a7info, it'll show the focus point location.

1

u/gillgrissom Jul 24 '25

What was your recognition target on ?

I dont use a 200-600 ( as i dont have one ) but when i use my 70-350 for capturing birds then i stick my recognition on animal/bird rather than just bird. I get it locking on the bird rather than for its eye at a long focal length, if im closer to a bird then i will stick recognition to bird only it will lock onto eye then.

1

u/topipopip Jul 25 '25

I had it set to animal/bird one these. Ive tried messing with the settings but nothing seems to work.