What say you??

Derrel · Oct 31, 2011

Good deal....somehow I missed this thread when it reappeared. I think $645 is a good price for this lens. It's a nice lens in terms of size, weight, close-up capability, bokeh, aperture speed, and image quality. It also has an aperture ring on it, which is very handy for using it on say, a Canon body. It works acceptably well as a manual focusing lens, especially at the closer distances; this lens is really quite useful for close-up type shooting in some situations, such as say, in the butterfly exhibits at zoos, in areas where there are lots of frogs, or snakes, etc, in gardens and floral exhibits, and so on.

Markw · Oct 31, 2011

That's great to hear, as that's primarily what it will be used for. Shots within about 20-25'. I have been using my Sigma 180/3.5 for shots like that, because, if you get too close, my 80-200/2.8 has pretty bad backfocusing issues (closer than 15', usually). So, I'm really looking forward to seeing what this baby can do under 15', wide open, or close to it. Hopefully it matches the Sigma's IQ and bokeh wide open. If it does, and the AF motor is in tact and working properly and efficiently, it will probably be my second-, or even first-most used lens sooner than later, for the next few months. I do alot of bird shooting (local, but you'd never be able to tell.

) during the winter, and the birds are within great range to get great shots with this lens. I just hope I can get good OOF backgrounds with the F/4. This is where the close focus will come in handy, for sure.

Mark

Markw · Oct 31, 2011

Well, according to the dreaded MTF charts, the 300/4 should actually do better than the 180/3.5 wide open in both sharpness and resolution. Good to know!

Mark