Through a season of travels around Africa I extensively used this wonderous piece of glass to create some beautiful images. So let me take you on my journey.

Lets start in the oldest Desert in the world, the Namib. Where we explored the desert both on foot and by balloon. The sheer space and grandeur of this epic place somehow needs to be captured and because of the size of everything it is great to have some ability to zoom in on specific features or zoom out for something a little wider. Because of the space a very wide angle lens often loses the details of the desert where the 70-200 allowed for me to choose how much or how little to show.

The next place where the Sony GM 70-200mm f 2.8ii came into its own was in the Okavango delta. My normal set up is to have my Sony 400 f2.8 on one body and the 70-200 on the other and this time was no different. It allows me to shoot tight with the 400 or show animals in their environment with the 70-200. Where it really shone through was when photographing the Delta and its wildlife from the air in a helicopter. Its small size, reduced weight and stabilization and speed of focus allowed me to lock onto animals and create unique images at high speed from the helicopter.

I also explore the jungles of Uganda and Rwanda in search of the large primates. Both the chimps and gorillas were made to look amazing as the 70-200 did its job. The lighter version ii lens meant I had to carry less weight on the long hikes to find the apes and shooting in the really low light conditions of the forest meant the stabilization really assisted with getting pin sharp images. I also found the stabilization to be a major help when doing some filming and this allowed gimble steady shots of these incredible creatures.

All in all an amazing lens that should be in every wildlife photographers bag.