??? Meyer/Pentacon 200 + 300 + 500mm MC primes... or... 150-600mm Tamron G2 zoom ???

EDITED to add more information. What is your opinion and/or suggestion and why? Primes or zoom(s)? Cost is a factor.

Tamron 150-600mm G2 f/5.0-6.3

or...

Meyer/Pentacon MC primes: 200mm f/4.0 + 300mm f/4.5 + 500mm f/5.6

other... ???

NOTE: I intentionally left out the Meyer/Pentacon 135mm f2.8 due to the significant difference in speed.

The Meyer/pentacon lens are dated, the Tamron will have better coatings, but the primes may be faster, the 150 to 600 is 6.3 and a heavy lens, how fast are the primes?

Meyer 200mm f/4.0
Meyer 300mm f/4.5
Meyer 500mm f/5.6

Tamron 150-600mm f/5.0-6.3

NOTE: I intentionally left out the Meyer/Pentacon 135mm f2.8 due to the significant difference in speed.

What camera, the Tamron is AF the Meyer's arent AF, what do plan to shoot, how far do intend to carry your kit? In terms of speed the primes are a little faster you if shootin in poor light then the Meyer may be the best option. But if you to use for wildlife or action the Tamron simplifies what you need to lug around. In terms of sharpness, that's a good question, my guess is that all lens can resolve 200LMM which is Tmax 100.

The Tamron has optical stabilization, in practice this goes a far way towards getting sharper images.

Paul Howell said:

What camera, the Tamron is AF the Meyer's arent AF, what do plan to shoot, how far do intend to carry your kit? In terms of speed the primes are a little faster you if shootin in poor light then the Meyer may be the best option. But if you to use for wildlife or action the Tamron simplifies what you need to lug around. In terms of sharpness, that's a good question, my guess is that all lens can resolve 200LMM which is Tmax 100.

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For the moment, a Sony A6300 but I want a FF 42 MP body when I can afford it. I don't care about AF. For 300+ mm it'll be mostly wildlife on a very heavy tripod and I won't be hiking with it. Poor light... probably sometimes. No action/sports photos.

locutus said:

The Tamron has optical stabilization, in practice this goes a far way towards getting sharper images.

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This is my primary reason for considering the Tamron 150-600 G2. The stabilization is reported to be extremely effective.

For your purposes, I wouldn't even consider the primes unless there's some specific reasoning I'm missing. Optical stabilization, plus autofocus, plus the flexibility of a zoom are no contest. There's nothing more frustrating than missing pictures because you're too slow or inaccurate to nail manual focus- and with wildlife this is a real concern. If I was looking at primes vs. zoom in this case, I would be looking at AF primes for even better performance than the zoom- but if it's slower moving stuff, this isn't a big deal. It's pretty easy to miss focus even on a still animal, in the heat of the moment, so autofocus+ a lot of practice with my camera's AF system would be my recommendation.

The question might be better asked on the Digital thread, more likely to get additional thoughts. The Sony E bodies don't have built in Stabilization and the Tamron Sony version doesn't have stabilization, only available in Canon and Nikon mount. Not sure if the Metabone Canon to Sony E adapter maintains IS. What you get with the zoom is zoom, need to carry only one lens, don't need to think about changing lens in the middle of a shoot. Although the Meyer's were good in their day, not as good as a modern lens, that includes a zoom, saying that in general what could make a difference if resolution. Talking MP resolution not film resolution, once you get up to 42 MP not sure if the primes will out resolve a modern zoom. For wildlife maybe a 300 or 400 Minolta G lens with A body to E body adapter, the F4 versions. As you plan on manual focus even getting on with a broken Af will work. I have a Tonkia 400 5.6 which is very good, somewhat out of the box a Sigma 600 F8 mirror lens, in A mount so you need an adapter, light wt, at ISO 1600 ok in even poor light. Sony stills the Minolta version which is a 500. both the Tonkia and Sigma are under $200 each. Other option is look at Canon EOS primes and a Canon to Sony adapter.

I have the G1 and the optics are mind blowing for what ended up being a 700 dollar bazooka lens