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REVIEWS:  Lenses:  35mm Zoom:
AF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 APO Maxxum

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Konica Minolta AF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 APO Maxxum


 
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Rating
Reviewed by: 

Frans van Drunen

( Professional)

Review Date
December 5, 2004

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
2.00 of 5,
15 votes

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Review 1 of 19

Price Paid:  $1400.00 from B&H

Summary:

This lens was on my wishlist for a long time because I shoot a lot of weddings. I am not dissapointed with it but it's not the greatest lens around. Personally I think the 35-70 2.8 has more contrast and is therefore the better lens except for the 28 mm feature. Sharpness on the 28-70 is excellent and comparible to 6x6 format, also the colours (when you use the right film)are beautifull en rich. On an F100 the lens doesn't fit perfectly although that doesn't affect the quality of the pictures in any way. Auto Focus is fast and quiet, this is very important to me because there are lot's of silent moments at weddings and you don't want to go around making a lot of noise when focussing (I had to go to manual focus at those times). Personally I think that the black version of this lens looks very cheap (It looks a lot like Sigma lenses), so I bought the light-grey version and am very happy I did, it doesn't look as intimidating either. Now that i've shot several weddings and some models with this lens I can tell you that it is defenetly worth the money in the long run but if you don't need the 28 mm and the silent AF I recommend the 35-70 which is a lot cheaper.

Strengths:

Very sharp images Fast and smooth AF Brilliant colours

Weaknesses:

Laks some contrast Built like a brik

Similar Products Used:

nikon 35-70 2.8, sigma 28-70 2.8

Customer Service:

No experience yet



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Rating
Reviewed by: annapoal
 (Expert)

Review Date
November 8, 2003

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
2.50 of 5,
2 votes

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Review 2 of 19

Price Paid:  $215.00 from ebay

Summary:

Nice for what it is. Good image with nice color and contrast evan at 300mm f/5.6. Small and light. Build is not as nice as the old maxxum af lens. Lens creep when pointed up or down. Worth having if you need 300mm and can live with f/5.6. Focus hold button makes life much much better with this lens. Can produce nice images. Shows a macro range in the window but it is nothing more than near closest focusing. For less than 300mm I use faster 70-210 f/4.

Strengths:

Nice images even wide open at 300mm focus hold button on lens small and light af in good light

Weaknesses:

slow f/5.6 starting at 125 +/- mm build quality not like older maxxum lens lens creep af in dimmer light

Similar Products Used:

70-300 sigma f/4-5.6 OK 75-300 minolta f/4.5-5.6 OK 300 f/4 minolta very nice

Customer Service:

Not needed on this but great one time used.



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Rating
Reviewed by: Photonut50
 (Intermediate)

Review Date
June 5, 2003

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
2.50 of 5,
2 votes

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Review 3 of 19

Price Paid:  $240.00 from e-bay

Summary:

I purchased this lens to be my long zoom when I go kayaking. I had used a 200mm zoom but it was not quite long enough. I chose this lens because it weighed less than a pound and it has excellent optics especially at 300mm . The lens focus fast enough to capture many birds in flight. The only improvement I would like to see would be an internal focusing so a circular polarizer would be used easier and some of my conkin filters could be used correctly.

Strengths:

excellent optics, fast focusing,lightweight

Weaknesses:

not internal focusing-not well balanced when at 300mm

Similar Products Used:

sigma 135-400, minolta 100-400, sigma 28-200, tokina 80-400,

Customer Service:

called a couple of times and they are always helpful



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Rating
Reviewed by: ivalkov
 (Expert)

Review Date
November 10, 2002

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5,
2 votes

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Review 4 of 19

Price Paid:  $480.00 from shop in Moscow

Summary:

good lens for general purpose use

Strengths:

size and weight - very convenient

Weaknesses:

rotating front - difficult for polarizer and the circular diaphragm - I had even convinced Minolta service to replace my first lens - then I saw that all lens for sale here have the same problem

Similar Products Used:

minolta 80-200, sigma 80-200/2.8

Customer Service:

once - see above



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Rating
Reviewed by: sbar
 (Professional)

Review Date
July 8, 2002

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.70 of 5,
1 votes

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Review 5 of 19

Price Paid:  $500.00 from B&H

Summary:

I choused this lenses because of it size and the reportedly, good test results. I don’t see the point of using 35mm film with huge lenses. You might as well use Pentax 67 with a significantly better result at not much more money.

Strengths:

In optimum condition, it can yield really good results.

Weaknesses:

OK for 6"X9" prints, but annoying soft corner when projecting slides (even at small projection area of 2'X3')



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