New lens

I am thinking about a new lens for my camera (Sony a350).

I mainly take shots of the dogs, still or moving. I have 2 lenses - the kit lens (18-70) and a zoom lens (2nd hand Miolta 70-210)

Ideas would be great thanks

You do seem to have covered what you would wish to cover in the lens you have now, why do you think/know you need another?

If you can tell us if you think you need to be able to do, perhaps you wish for a lens that will bring distant dogs closer or is it when taking a portrait that you feel restricted. It is also possible that you may need or feel you need a prime lens.

Do you take pics of the dogs fairly close up? If so I would go for a nice portrait lens, like the nifty fifty (50mm 1.8 ) or the 85mm 1.8 - they will be nice and fast so work well in low light situations

I do have issues with low light and high shutter speeds. The ISO goes up to 3200, but the end result is very Noisey!
They can be close up or far away.

What I would really like is a lens I do not have to change over but that will do close up or far away! .....should never have got this flipping camera!

Well the practical wide end size would be about 40 to 50 and the narrow end at least 250mm the problem being that in order to get a fast lens you will probably need to go prime. Most zoom lens even expensive ones are not usually that fast.

There is or should be no need to go above 1600 and that is still very high iso - I would try not to go over 800 if you can.

I am guessing your problem is that you need a fast shutter to capture the moving dog, in that case have the f stop as high as you possible can, that will give you a wider area in focus but don't go so far that it slows the shutter speed to far. It is all a case of balancing the ISO, the f stop and the shutter speed to get the best result you can.

Sorry would like to have told you there was a lens to achieve what you want but unless I have misunderstood there isn't.

No - I think I am over hopeful

I try not to allow the ISO to go over 800 (usually using 200 or 400) but sometimes have to go down to a shutter speed of 1/1000 or 1/800, which does not seem to get the Action I want...(shooting in Shutter speed priority) NOt such a problem when shootting in A mode (these tend to be the ones I use 90% of the time).

I was looking at some lenses the other day
http://www.sony.co.uk/product/dsl-zoom-lenses/sal-75300

But this one looks nice.....
http://www.sony.co.uk/product/dsl-zoom-lenses/sal-18250

Well the first is the faster of the two but not that fast the second is a good range but not a fast lens. Have you seen examples of the results these lens produce.

I fear you may spend a fair amount of money and not really get what you need. Do you belong to a Sony forum, if not I would join one as you will be able to see what other use and if they post images how the lens perform. Do you know the FPS of the camera?

I would get the nifty fifty and see how you like that kind of speed and focal length... I reckon you'll like it

They are usually pretty inexpensive, esp if you buy second hand.

That will not be long enough for action shots Azz, fine for portrait but no good if the dog is any distance from you the amount of magnification then required would render the use of the lens unsuitable.

Perhaps ok with Rockie he is a big dog but anything smaller would be a dot in the surroundings.

Frames per second?
3.5 in OVF and 2.5 in Live view (I think)

At the risk of sounding incredibly stupid

How do you know which is faster ....