| Year | 1980 |
| Lens Groups | 7 |
| Lens Element | 7 |
| Aperature Blades | 9 |
| Minimum Aperture | f/32 |
| Closest Focusing | 3. m |
| Max. Magnifcation | 1:9.1 (0.11x) |
| Filter Size | 34 mm |
| Diameter x Length | 85 x 207 mm |
| Weight | 1060 gr (2.34 lb) |
| Hood | - |
A really great lens. They've fixed all the chromatic aberration many of their other telephotos have, and it focuses internally. It has a tripod mount bracket and I recommend putting that on a gimbal for wildlife photography, it will make your life so much easier.
I use it with the Canon Extender 2X-A that it was designed for, it maintains very good sharpness because it gets such high marks there to begin with. That combination is probably as extreme as you can go into telephoto while still maintaining high quality and not breaking your back to carry around. It's so much fun trying to take pictures of things 1000 feet, or even a mile away! With the TC it focuses just about close enough for small animals like frogs.
It has a sliding lens hood which you can lock in place with a twist.
The focus throw can feel a little too short and sensitive when you are nearing infinity. It also takes 34mm rear filters, which have a poor selection (no polarizer) and can be a little rare and expensive. Small birds will be too fast for you unless you prefocus a branch and wait, but that's true of any manual focus long telephoto. Those are the only drawbacks.
A superb lens! Sharp, great bokeh, great to focus, excellent built quality. Compared it on my Fuji XE 1 to the Nikon 70 200, 2.8VR (new version, 2013)...was gobsmacked! Just marvelous. And not heavy, easy to handle!rnCareful with the front glass as this lens takes no front protection filter.
Sharpness, colours, contrast, bokeh, build, manual focus feel, lack of CA, hand-holdability, ... this lens just is just excellent, through and through. As close to perfect as I can imagine for a 300mm lens. I have converted this to EOS mount and use it on my 5D. I don't quite get infinity focus, but I get lots of range for my 300mm needs. I have no aperture control, either, but I find f4 to be a nice hand-holdable aperture, with sufficient DoF for me, and this lens is far sharp enough wide-open. In 1980 the MSRP was about $1900. I got this one for $182.