The Best Telephoto Lenses for Sony a6400 (in 2024)
Looking for a powerful zoom to photograph wildlife, landscapes, or bring subjects closer?
Then a telephoto lens is definitely what you need!
I’ve reviewed for you the best telephoto lenses for Sony a6400 on the market; after extensive research, I’m sharing with you the top picks for any budget & shooting style.
Let’s get started!
No Time to Waste? Here’s My #1 Favorite!
- Great value for money
- Fast & accurate autofocus
- Built-in image stabilization
The Best a6400 Telephoto Lenses – Comparison Table
Depending on your shooting style, and your budget, the #1 overall best a6400 telephoto lens might not be the best for you.
Maybe you’re looking for a way more powerful zoom? Or maybe you can’t really afford to drop 1 grand for a new lens?
I’ve put together a little comparison table, that should help you. I’m comparing the overall best, with the best extreme zoom and with a nice budget option:
Product Reviews – The Best Telephoto Lenses for a6400
A telephoto lens is a no-brainer choice for any wildlife photographer. It’s also a great lens choice for action sports, and for landscape photography.
The Sony a6400 is a very small camera, and it always feels weird to put a huge telephoto lens in front of it. But hey, you don’t need to have a big camera to take kick-ass telephoto shots.
In fact, there’s now a large choice of telephoto lenses for the Sony a6400, and it can be a bit hard to decide which one would work best for you.
Don’t worry, I’m here to help.
I’ve spent a huge amount of time to carefully review the best Sony a6400 telephoto lenses out there; below is my selection of the 5 best picks, to fit different budgets and different shooting styles.
🥇 Overall Best: Sony 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS
🔭 Extreme Zoom Lens: Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS
💰 Budget Pick: Sony E 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3 OSS
✨ Prime Zoom: Sony FE 85mm f/1.8
🔍 Superzoom Lens: Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS
Want to learn more about these lenses? Scroll down to read the reviews!
The BEST Telephoto Lens for Sony a6400: Sony 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS
- Telephoto zoom with outstanding corner-to-corner G lens resolution
- Lightweight (22oz.) remarkably Easy to handle 5x super-telephoto zoom
- 70-350Mm (105-525mm full-frame equiv.) super-telephoto zoom
Focal length: 70-350mm
Aperture range: f/4.5-6.3 to f/22-32
Weight: 625g (1.38 lbs)
Size (Ø x L): 77x142mm (3.03×5.59″)
Filter size: 67mm
Format: crop
Autofocus: yes
Image stabilization: yes
Let’s start right away with the Sony 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS, the best telephoto lens for Sony a6400.
There was a long time with no good telephoto option available for the Sony a6400; but in late 2019, Sony released this lens and it has been the uncontested #1 pick since then.
It has so many great features that I couldn’t even list them all as pros below. First, it’s a massively long focal length, the full-frame equivalent to a 105-525mm! It has a fast and accurate autofocus, image stabilization built-in, and a physical focus hold button.
It’s also surprisingly compact for such a long focal, at 625g (1.38lbs) it’s easily 2 times lighter than most full-frame telephoto lenses.
And that it’s priced below $1,000 is definitely the most impressive, considering that full-frame telephoto lenses go for at least 2-3 times more.
“OK OK I get it, it’s a fantastic lens. Anything not to like?” Yes there are a few things that could have been better. You’ll see a decrease in image quality on the longest side of the lens, something to consider if you plan to only be shooting at 350mm.
And there’s significant distortion and vignetting, but it’s easily fixed by the auto-image correction (or corrected in post-production). Oh and last thing, there’s no tripod mount, which could be annoying to photographers setting up in hides.
Great value for money
Fast & accurate autofocus
Image stabilization
Compact for such a long focal
Sharpness loss at 350mm
Significant distortion & vignetting
No tripod mount
👉 See price + reviews on Amazon or on B&H Photo
See photos taken with this lens on the Sony a6400 in the Youtube video below:
The Best Extreme Telephoto Lens for a6400: Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS
- Outstanding g lens resolution throughout the Zoom range
- 5x ED (extra-low dispersion) glass elements Reduces flare & ghosting
- Direct drive Supersonic Wave Motor for fast, quiet, precise focus
Focal length: 200-600mm
Aperture range: f/5.6-6.3 to f/32-36
Weight: 2115g (4.66 lbs)
Size (Ø x L): 112x318mm (4.39×12.52″)
Filter size: 95mm
Format: full frame
Autofocus: yes
Image stabilization: yes
If you plan to shoot subjects from a very long distance, the Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS is your best option.
At 200-600mm, this full-frame lens becomes an absolutely massive 300-900mm focal length when mounted on the a6400. Perfect to get just about anything in frame, even from afar!
Want to go even further? Get this Sony 1.4x Teleconverter to get 420-1260 focal length!
This is definitely a premium lens, with a premium build, and the image quality is nothing short of exceptional.
The main downsides to this lens are linked to it being a full-frame lens: thus it’s way more expensive and bulkier than the other APS-C options.
Absolutely massive focal length
Excellent sharpness
Image stabilization
Expensive
Big & heavy
👉 See price + reviews on Amazon or on B&H Photo
The Best Budget Sony a6400 Telephoto Lens: Sony E 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3 OSS
- Wide zoom range (82 - 315mm 35mm equivalent) ideal for sports or nature;Aperture blades : 7
- Internal focusing for smooth, quiet operation - perfect for video capture.Direct manual focus with...
- Optical Steady Shot image stabilization for stable video capture and low light performance
Focal length: 55-210mm
Aperture range: f/4.5-6.3 to f/22-32
Weight: 345g (0.76 lbs)
Size (Ø x L): 64x108mm (2.51×4.25″)
Filter size: 49mm
Format: crop
Autofocus: yes
Image stabilization: yes
As you’ve seen from the 2 picks above, telephoto lenses are expensive. They’re the most expensive type of lens, by far. But what if you want to take photos from a distance without breaking the bank? Well then the Sony E 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3 OSS is the perfect a6400 telephoto lens for you!
Let’s be honest the image quality is pretty bad on this lens compared to the other options, and there’s even a loss of sharpness from 135mm+
But on the other hand, it does several things well. It packs quite the punch on the focal range, from 55 to 210mm (82-315mm full-frame equivalent). It has built-in mage stabilization, and it’s very lightweight, even lighter than the prime lens below.
All in all, it’s a very cheap telephoto lens, which is great to get a big zoom if you don’t care too much about image quality.
Best value for money
Lightest option
Image stabilization
Poor image quality
Sharpness loss from 135mm+
👉 See price + reviews on Amazon or on B&H Photo
The Best Prime Telephoto: Sony FE 85mm f/1.8
- Fast telephoto lens
- ED glass compensates for aberrations
- Circular aperture with nine blades for beautiful blur effects, minimum focus distance 0.8 m
Focal length: 85mm
Aperture range: f/1.8 to f/22
Weight: 371g (0.82 lbs)
Size (Ø x L): 78x82mm (3.07×3.23″)
Filter size: 67mm
Format: full frame
Autofocus: yes
Image stabilization: no
Want a telephoto lens without the size and the weight? Then the best choice for you is the Sony FE 85mm f/1.8, the best telephoto prime lens for the a6400.
With a 85mm focal length (127mm full-frame equivalent), it’s enough to get some nice photos from a distance, and should definitely be considered.
The main con is that you can’t zoom, but it’s the concession to make for a lightweight & compact lens with great image quality, and a fast f/1.8 aperture.
Excellent image quality
Good bokeh
Light & compact
f/1.8 max. aperture
No image stabilization
No zoom
👉 See price + reviews on Amazon or on B&H Photo
The Best Superzoom Lens for Sony a6400: Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS
- High-magnification zoom with image stabilization
- Minimum focus distance0. 3 (Wide) –0.5 m (Tele) (0.99 [Wide]) –1.64 feet[Tele]); Maximum 0.35 x,...
- 18 mm wide-angle to 200 mm telephoto assures coverage to capture any scene
Focal length: 18-200mm
Aperture range: f/3.5-6.3 to f/22-40
Weight: 460g (1.01 lbs)
Size (Ø x L): 68x97mm (2.68×3.82″)
Filter size: 62mm
Format: crop
Autofocus: yes
Image stabilization: yes
And finally we have the Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS, the last Sony a6400 telephoto lens in this review.
This is a superzoom lens: it offers an impressive focal range, from 18 to 200mm (27-300mm full-frame equivalent).
The image quality is pretty poor, comparable to the budget option in fact. But the sharpness remains constant through the focal range, it has built-in image stabilization, a reliable autofocus, and it’s way more compact than the other lenses above.
If you’re looking for one lens to stay at all time on your a6400, while allowing you to shoot wide-angle and to zoom pretty far, this is your lens.
Huge focal range
Constant sharpness through focal range
Image stabilization
Poor image quality
👉 See price + reviews on Amazon or on B&H Photo
Final Thoughts
Aaand there you have them all, the best Sony a6400 telephoto lenses on the market!
After extensive research, my #1 pick is the Sony 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS.
It’s definitely the best telephoto lens you can get for the Sony a6400; impressive focal range, great image quality, built-in image stabilization, fast & reliable autofocus, while remaining compact AND affordable. Hands down the best overall choice, but depending on shooting style and budget you might prefer one of the 4 other lenses I’ve selected as top picks.
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What do you think about the 100-400GM on the 6400, or possibly the tamron 150-500? I have the 70-350 and struggle in mediocre light with too much noise and a lack of sharpness at 350mm. In bright daylight, it’s good, but even with overcast, it is a struggle. I get good results with the 70-180 f/2.8 but that leaves me too far from the action (sports) for the photos I am trying to get. Have considered switching to full frame to gain the low-light capability, but that comes with more expenses (lens swaps, etc). Granted, neither lens is a lot faster at any given focal length, but maybe if sharpness was better, combined with the slightly faster aperture, it’d be a better solution than going with a new body.