Eager to see ...

[Elisha]

I prefer screw drive just for the fact that you know how fast it is compared to the silent USM/SSM.
Man I miss the sound of my 28-135mm!
And I agree that since it is more mechanical in nature, it will probably outlast USM/SSM.

[SONYNUT]

manual focus is pretty quiet

[Peekayoh]

But tricky with a long AF lens.

[DonSchap]

Okay ... it has taken a couple years to acquire these, but here they are ..



Ten zooms (from back to front & left to right):

70-400 f/4-5.6 G SSM (54 oz)
17-50 f/2.8 Di-II
80-400 f/4.5-5.6 (AT-X 840) (32 oz)
28-75 f/2.8 Di
200-500 f/5-6.3 Di
24-70 f/2.8 DG HSM
70-200 f/2.8 Di
12-24 f/4-5.6 DG
17-35 f/2.8-4 Di
10-20 f/4.5-5.6 DC

What's it all mean, Don?

It means ... "Here's lookin' at you, kid."

Anyway, I grouped them together so you could kind of get a relative size idea of them fully extend with lens shields. You can easily see the major size difference between the Tokina AT-X 840 and the SONY 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G SSM. The Tokina is definitely the one to backpack, when you do the trail.

[DonSchap]

There has been a heck of an exchange going on over at the AlphaMountWorld site, concerning the 70-300 G SSM vs the 70-400 G SSM. The weird part: the 70-300 G SSM kind of got lost in the shuffle.

Interesting for many reasons ...