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New life of Canon EF 300mm f/4 L


Langstrum
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I'm the owner of some good Canon and legacy manual lenses, so my main purpose of using Sony A7ii is for adapting those lenses, especially the telephoto ones. With the IBIS, the telephoto lenses really shine and I don't have to replace them with much more expensve IS versions. In the case the EF 300mm f/4 L, the IS version is even not as sharp.

I really love this lens, it's among the best lenses Canon ever made (beside the EF 200mm f/1.8 L that I also have), and while it's a 300mm lens, I still can manage to carry it for walking around (which I can't with the f/2.8 version). I use the Viltrox adapter and the autofocus sucks, but I don't need anyway since taking photos from distance allowed me to manually focus more slowly and carefully. Once the focus point is reached, it's really sharp, and very little CA was shown even at the most contrast part of the image. All the photos here I shot during my visit to Philadelphia and Washington. They were shot handholding at wide open all the time, and of course, with the help of IBIS. If you want to see better resolution, click to each photo to go to its Flick link. 

Thank you Sony, that's the whole new life for my lenses.

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  • 8 months later...
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Hi have you noticed any improvements in af with the lastest firmware updates?

Yes, big improvement, now A7ii can work with most of my adapters, even the cheap ones. However some old lenses are still not fast and the accuracy is adapter-dependent.

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    • Thanks for the very useful information. The 16-55 tempts me, I can live with the absence of stabilisation, what holds me is the price tag. As always, there is not such a thing like a free lunch in life. The Sony gives performance at a reasonable size but with no stabilisation and higher price tag, the Zeiss is compact, stabilised and reasonably priced but lower performed, while the Tamron provides performance at very good price and stabilisation at the expense of bulkiness. 😀 All in all, I think I will give a try to the Tamron, once I have taken in my hands. Here are two cutouts taken close to the center of the picture. The sharper one is the kit zoom, the other is the 18-105 mm, at approximately the same lenght around 40 mm at /f 8. The difference is impressive and more impressive for me is that all the lenses in the shop had the same behaviour on two different cameras. At this point looks like a whole batch and not just a lens.  

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    • That's a pity and certainly doesn't match with my experience with the 18-105: mine is definately on par with the 16-50 kit lens (which on its own was as decent as I could expect from such a cheap lens). Sure, dont expect sharp corners especially wide open, but in the center my 18-105 left little to be desired across most of the zoom range. The 16-55 does beat it in every regard except zoom range though. The Tamron 17-70 trades blows with the 16-55 and might be the better choice in some cases. I went for the 16-55 because of the smaller size (I also found the 18-105 too bulky most of the time) and slightly wider FoV. My camera has a stabilized sensor so stabilized optics was no requirement for me. As you noted, I kept the 18-105 on my old A6000 for the occasional video project.
    • Thanks! The 18-105 mm /f4 was PERFECT lens for my needs but a HUGE disappointed. I bought it with the camera, then I brought it with me on a trip. To my disappointed, all pictures came out slightly blurred, like the lens was slightly out of focus. Stepping down was not solving the issue. The kit lens was definitely better, to my surprise. Thinking that I got a lemon, I went back to the shop where I bought It (luckily, I has bought both the camera and the lens in a brick and mortar store). We tested the lens on another camera and it was the same. Then we tested other copies of the same lens that the store had in stock and all showed the same lack if sharpness. All pictures slightly out of focus. In the end I returned the lens and used the money to buy other equipment. I must admit that it was a perfect lens for video but it is not what I use my camera for. Actually this was confirmed by the shop owner, most buyers of the 18-105 mm are interested in its video capabilities. I will have a look at the Tamron, the Sony 16-55 is almost double the price, at least here, so I will keep it out of the picture, at least for the time being. The Sigma also looks as an interesting option.  
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