Sonnar 300/4MC VS Pentax67 300/4

[massimo bianchetti]

P645 Tele lens like 300/4EDIF & 400/5.6EDIF are expensive (ED

glass,Smc coated,modern design etc...)but I had few opinion about

overall quality in practice.

Pentax 67 300/4 or Aus Jena Sonnar 300/4MC with adaptors are

cheap but decent altenatives in MF telephoto? Any opinion?

Thanks in advance.

[andrew_schank]

I picked up the manual focus pentax 645 300mm with signs of wear for about $700 at one point. The lens was very good even wide open, but I found I just wasn't using a long lens much on my 645-35mm seemed more suited for that for my needs. It also balanced poorly on the camera. The Sonnars vary in quality. You may end up with a decent one, or may get a junker like I had a while back. Mine flared very badly, and was as heavy as a lead pipe. I don't know much about the 67 lens + adapter, but I'm sure it is also heavy. Make sure to check out the minimum focus on those lenses, as they may be poor in that respect.

[warren_kato]

Before I bought a 300/4 EFIF, I had adapted a P67 300/4. Actually, the size and weight penalties are very small for the P67 lens. But as far a sharpness is concerned, the EDIF lens was very much sharper than the P67 lens until about f8. The EDIF lens is very very sharp wide open across from center to edge. The P67 at f4 is not up to the format's capabilities for sure. Because the adapters are $75 to $100 for P67 toP645, I would just wait for a user EDIF rather than mess with adapting anything.