In a word, "Impressive".

And Now For Sale.

If interested in purchasing this lens, contact me directly for information. 

I picked up this beauty in Fall 2006 and now that I've had it for a while, I've updated this review to offer a more substantial opinion as far as personal hands-on experience regarding image quality, handling, speed and build.

So far, I can say "Wow"! This is a lens that draws attention to itself. Personally, being pretty low key when I'm shooting, I'm not into that. In fact, initially the attention made me a little uncomfortable when I first used it in public but the reaction it gets goes with the territory and I consider myself very lucky to own a lens of this calibre. After the lens has been hidden away in my bag for a while and I take it out, I reaquaint myself with that appreciation, so I understand the response the lens gets. I know this whole paragraph sounds just plain weird - I guess it's just one of those intangible things you're not aware of but soon realize comes with having a lens like this. It truly is a work of art. Minolta engineers deserve accolades for their work on the entire G series of lenses: the reputation of this line of glass is among the best of the big camera equipment manufacturers and prove, as I've said before, that Minolta was very capable of designing and building world-class glass back in the day. These lenses were designed and built with the idea of balancing contrast, sharpness and color reproduction for a very neutral, almost 3-D like and "liquid" image reproduction.

The build on the 300mm f/4 is unlike any other "regular" Minolta lens, but then again, nothing about this lens is "regular". It weighs in at almost 3 lbs. and the body is a thicker guage metal than even the regular vintage Minolta glass like the "Beercan". Features on the lens exterior include an adjustable cowling or sheath that locks and hides the manual focus ring when it is not in use, a focus hold button, a focus limiter and a 42mm drop-in filter holder and slot.

The drop-in filters are a great idea as theoretically, 42mm filters should be about 25% the cost of the 82mm filters required up front. However, due to the rare nature of these specialized filters on the used market (they are long discontinued), they are actually prohibitively expensive to acquire if you can even find them. My lens came with a drop-in UV, but I'll use an 82mm CPL up front that I already own, and keep the supplied 82mm Minolta UV attached to protect the front element at all times. A point of interest regarding the lens' design - all of the glass elements are in front of the aperture blades. There is no rear element on the lens mount, so keeping the drop in UV filter in place appears to be mandatory in order to keep dust and other contaminants out of the back of the lens.

As you can see, there is also an adjustable, locking tripod mount - this helps stabilize and balance the mass of camera and lens when it is on a tripod. You can shoot in either the locked horizontal or vertical camera position. While the lens is a heavy beast, you can shoot hand held - but from my initial acquaintance shooting with the lens, you'll need good hand held technique and a fast shutter to realize the maximum image quality potential that this lens is capable of.

Internally, the AF gearing is designed so the lens is a "High Speed" autofocus, hence the "HS" designation. The focus is very fast and you can feel the rotational torque as the lens focuses. The lens was easily able to track a gull in flight in fairly low light (just after the sun had set) using Continuous AF on my 7D. The 9 blade circular aperture creates the nicest bokeh (blurred background) of any that Minolta has employed in lens design save for the 135mm STF.

All "G" series lenses (the "G" refers to the gold ring near the front of the lens) use specialized, high quality glass that have APO coatings. This ensures a lack of chromatic aberration and the highest quality ultra-sharp photos, even at this extreme telephoto length and at any aperture setting, including wide open. Most "regular" lenses need to be stopped down at least 1-2 stops before maximum optical performance is achieved. Not the G series. Like it's little 3rd cousin the "Beercan", (a stellar lens in its class,) this lens has a maximum f/4 aperture - but the similarities end there. A footnote on Chromatic Aberration: the different wavelengths of light passing through a lens bend and focus at different points due to the lens curvature, splitting white light into its colored components like you'd see in through a prism. This creates a purple fringing in non APO telephoto lenses and is seen mostly in challenging lighting conditions, such as backlighting and where areas of super high contrast exist. APO coatings inside a lens correct for this and keep the light tight and uncolored.

All of these professional series features do not come cheap, and supply and demand issues exacerbate pricing - this lens was produced in 1994 and is now discontinued. New Sony "G series" products are starting to hit the market, and they are carrying Sony-style price tags. This is making all used Minolta products more expensive as buyers turn to them in an attempt to find lower pricing of high quality glass.  These rarer high quality "G" lenses are certainly no exception - the used prices are the same as they were bought new 10 or more years ago, or even 20-30% higher today. As of early 2008,  there are only a couple of rebranded white lenses marketed by Sony (the 70-200 SSM and the 300/2.8) and this is keeping these older Minoltas in high demand.

In my limited use, I've found that like any new lens, it takes a little time to get used to. The 450mm focal length (on digital) requires a fast shutter, and even at f/4 I found myself pushing the ISO to 800 in order to get sharp hand held or monopod  stabilized photos while taking pictures of roosting Bald Eagles in the winter's late afternoon sun and shade. A tripod is certainly helpful, but is also a hindrance to set up if you miss your shot because the subject flys off! I did miss a couple of potentially beautiful pictures as an eagle launched from a tree that was in shade. I got the shot with a crisp background, but the bird's movement produced blur. All part of the learning process. Pushing the ISO further is a shame because "digital noise" starts to become quite apparent at 1600 or 3200 - it kind of defeats having such a sharp lens.

I also have the matched Minolta 1.4x APO TC II to use with this great lens and will include experience and information on it as well. So if you're a little disappointed with this review in its present form, hold off on casting your "vote" until I've had a chance to update it.

August 9, 2007

I realized some time ago that the 300/4 is not a lens you'll use everyday. It's one of those specialty lenses that you pull out with a particular goal in mind. Wildlife and birding are two obvious examples as are sports action photography and car racing. I look forward to traveling to Africa again to go on safari with this lens. I think I will buy a second body and just leave it permanently attached for the trips' duration!

I used the lens quite a bit last month while on vacation and got some very nice photos of Blue Herons and other birds, including a Bald Eagle in flight. A few considerations I had to keep in mind while shooting birds were to keep a fast shutter speed of at least 1/500s to prevent motion blur, and at least an f/8 aperture so that my subject remained in focus while in motion. Then ISO could be adjusted so that those settings were maintained. I used wide AF if I anticipated an action shot such as flight. With birds in flight, I'll bet only 20% of my photos were in focus for various reasons, including camera motion, forgetting to have appropriate shutter or aperture settings at that decisive moment, or clipping the subject out of the frame! I even had the focus set to center spot and missed a beautiful sequence. I'd say there is some room for improvement on my part.

While shooting hand held, it helped to sit and brace my elbows on my knees, sort of tripod-like, to reduce camera shake and then patiently wait for something interesting to happen. I guess I could pack a tripod!

The 300/4 is so good that if necessary, your image can be cropped quite a bit and still retain good IQ. It is one of those lenses that requires minimal post-processing in CS2 - exposure adjustments in Camera Raw, a little crop, then some sharpening and you're done. I have to say this is an excellent lens to work with that gives impressive results with good technique. It offers a combination of fantastic IQ at 300mm focal length in a size that allows it to be carried into the field and used regularly. The price is expensive, but many good things in life are.

The bokeh is amazing on the middle photo, with a razor thin depth of field at f/4. The sharpness on the duck and bubbles on the water is really good in the third, (a very monochrome-ish photo with no color adjustment) and in the first, I was just amazed I got this photo with the eagle in full flight, against the bright background. Not a winner compositionally, but full of detail nonetheless. I think someone had a gull for dinner tonight. You can see all my photos in high-res at flickrdotcom/photos/seagr112.

Update December 2008

I took this lens with me to Alaska in August. It performed beautifully on a whale watching tour and again in Denali National Park where it pretty much stayed on my A700 for 2 days while I shot Moose, Caribou and Grizzly Bear. I simply could not have captured the images I did without having this lens (and my 80-200 APO G) with me. My photos are full of detail and subjects appear as if they are at arms length rather than 50-200 feet away.