Actually I am not quite qualify to talk about this topic, since the longest
lens I have are Zuiko 300/f4.5, Zuiko 85-250/f5 zoom and the Sigma
75-300mm/f4-5.6 UC APO. But I have a some testing result from Popular
Photography, I have compared the results with the lenses I have and found
they were very accurate and reliable. I want to make some simplified quote
below, if anyone want to have the details test result please contact me by
email.
SQF (Subjective Quality Factor) at long end (data rounded up)
1. Sigma 75-300 4-5.6 UC APO AF
at 300mm (actually 279.3mm) - SQF 75-77 from f5.6-16
2. Minolta 75-300 4.5-5.6 AF
at 300mm (actually 285.06mm) - SQF 61-68 from f5.6-16
3. Canon EF 75-300 f/4-5.6 IS
at 300mm (actually 287.18mm) - SQF 68-71 from f4.6-16
4. Canon 300mm f4L IS USM
at 300mm (actually 291.74mm) - SQF 63-80 from f4-16
5. Sigma 400mm f5.6 APO HSM AF
at 400mm (actually 383.35mm) - SQF 65.5-68 f5.6-16
6. Tokina 400mm f5.6 AF
at 400mm (actually 408.79mm) - SQF 50.5-79 f4-16
There are a lot more...., but it take time to find them out, I chose the
Sigma 75-300 for my Minolta 600SI was due to the price and nearly the best
SQF found among the long zoom tested. But when I compared it to my newly
acquired Zuiko 85-250, at 250mm wide open the sharpness was found to be
better then my Sigma. For the Zuiko 300/4.5 it is still better then my
85-250. Although I have no test result from Popular, but I will rank the
SQF of my 85-250 a little over 80 and the 300mm Zuiko more than 85.
I don't think the new design lenses are better then the old one. The old I
mean from 1980-1990, of course not the 1960's design. One of the critical
limitation for newer design are the lens group for focusing have to be
smaller and lighter. Internal focusing dominated the tele market and which
require more lens elements. Which will make lens design more difficult and
increase the cost, so quality and cost have to be balanced.
As an example, my Sigma UC 75-300APO have better SQF than the newer Sigma
70-300 APO,
but my old Sigma use font lens focusing, it require 190 degrees rotation to
cover the whole range while the newer Sigma only require 90 degrees.
One more, the distortion of the newer lens are much larger than the old
one. 2-30f distortion for the zoom is very common today. But in the pass,
it is not common, my 85-250 zoom have distortion less than 1 0.000000or the
whole
range!!! according to modern photography 1981 test report.
C.H.Ling
----------
> From: ONLYOLY BW <ONLYOLYBW@xxxxxxx>
> To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [OM] Telephoto lens.
> Date: Tuesday, May 12, 1998 12:41 PM
>
> I asked myself this very same question. I would love to have a Zuiko 350
f
> 2.8 with a new 1.4 TC. But, at $6,000 I don't think so! I never did
> understand why Olympus sold the 300mm f4.5 for 1/3rd the price of the
400mm
> f6.3. I have only seen one used 400mm and the guy still wanted $900.
Again,
> I don't think so. Although I consider Zuiko lenses to be amoung the
best, we
> still have to be realistic and admit that the 1990's "Professional
Series"
> from Sigma and Tamron are at least equal or maybe even better than the 15
year
> old Zuiko designs and are a whole lot less $$'s. There are alot of Nikon
and
> Canon Pros who publish material using Sigma APO and Tamron LD lens. I
almost
> changed to Nikon because of this telephoto problem, but I really love my
OLY
> system so I decided to solve it with aftermarket lens. I finally found a
used
> Sigma APO 500mm f 4.5 and most recently a Tamron 300mm f2.8 with a 1.4 &
2X
> TC. I think you will find, as I did, that you need all the SPEED you can
get
> in wildlife photograqhy. The best days to shoot are overcast or early or
> late. The best films are 50 or 100 asa. So you can forget "sunny 16"
> shooting. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I wanted "just one
more
> stop"
> Anyway, if it were me, I would buy a good used Zuiko 300mm f4.5 for
starters
> and then look for a used "Professional Series" FAST 400mm or 500mm.
> Good Luck!
> BW
>
>
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