Minolta AF 300mm F2.8 APO G HS A-mount lens review by Mark Twain
 Mark Twain#11210 date: Jun-25-2013 | |
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| sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 4.9 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Tamron 180/3.5 |
| price paid: | 1900 EUR (used) |
| positive: | Built like tank Focus Stop Buttons Usable aperture wide open Color Fast autofocus Focus limiter |
| negative: | Some CAs wide open Soft touch wide open too expensive for a student's budget... |
| comment: | I really love this lens. I'm using it for wildlife and sometimes sports in a hall. The lens produces a really nice bokeh and is incredibly sharp stopped down a bit. At 2.8 it has a soft touch but this is not really disturbing. There are also some CAs wide open, but those are easy to remove. The lens itself is built like a tank and I like the possibility to stop the focus (2 focus stop buttons, one at the top, one on the left side) and the focus limiter increases the focus speed - which is already pretty fast (I think it is as fast as my Tamron 70-300 USM (but much louder)!) - even more. The weight is okay (I mean, what do you expect from a 300/2.8?), if your shutter speed is fast enough you can shoot without a tripod, but using one adds a lot of comfort;) And you get - at least I got - used to the weight and now all my other lenses seem very light to me:) I also tried using it with my Kenko 1.5x tele converter and it worked well. Image quality decreases noticeably when shooting wide open but with 5.6 (which is 8 then) you get really sharp pictures again. Focus speed is pretty slow with my Kenko and there was also some micro-hunting. I hope I can grab a Minolta 2x v2 tele converter if my war chest is filled up again. All at all this is a really good deal, get one if you can! You have a lot of flexibility with 300/2.8 if you want to use it solely or with tele converters and it is the best choice for a 300/2.8 if you cannot afford the new Sony 300/2.8. |
rating summary
- total reviews: 24
- sharpness: 4.71
- color: 4.88
- build: 4.92
- distortion: 4.92
- flare control: 4.63
- overall: 4.81