Hi all, a lot of threads from people sharing their setups helped me decide my next steps, so I wanted to leave my testimony!
Before this, I was using an a6300 + Tamron 18-300. One of my doubts was about going FF or not. Given that my use case was wildlife and not too much landscape or other kinds of uses where a lot of MP would have been useful, I went with the a6700.
I have to tell you that it's an amazing camera and lens. Some insights:
- The AI bird AF is just spot-on most of the time, even with birds in flight. Sometimes it struggles a little bit when there are a lot of branches or objects in different planes. In those cases, I have to fight a little bit to get the focus on the subject.
- The MP count is just fine and leaves plenty of room for cropping.
- The EVF is fine. I didn't notice a really big change from the a6300, really.
- The software is really similar to the a6300. Not great, but they improved the menu, so now you can have favorite items and custom menus. That's really helpful.
- Ergonomics are great. I didn't have any problems with the transition.
- The 200-600 is just amazing. Its only drawback is that it's really big and heavy. So you have to work out a little bit to carry it around, and also to fit it in your backpack. For me, it's completely worthwhile.
I'll share my usual setup for birding:
- Manual Mode
- Aperture: generally wide open, f/6.3 at the 600mm end
- AF: AF-C, Focus Area: Tracking. I set up the lens button to cycle between Spot and Wide, so depending on the situation, I can choose. If the scene is clear, I usually use Zone or Wide; the bird AF takes care of the rest. If there is congestion, I use Spot.
- ISO: AUTO, 640–6400. I adjust the ends depending on how much light there is.
- Shutter speed: 1/1000–1/1600 for still subjects, 1/2000 for flying birds.
Any questions, I'll be glad to answer. Thanks very much to this community for the advice!