Photo Jottings

Here’s a brief look at the Sony 300mm F/2.8 SSM G lens.  Scroll down for the main review.

Requisite product shots.

Box, lens and hood

Nice metal padded trunk with keys and bubble wrapped handle

Inside trunk

Included accessories

Polarizer filter with pouch

lens, hood and front/hood cover

Front element

Front or top

Backside mount

Side with control panel

Control or switch panel

Right side

Bottom

X-ray view

MTF chart from Sony

The Sony A700 and A900 were used for this review.  For full frame results, go to the bottom of the page.  For a better understanding of terms and methods used in this review, go here.

Check out the comp between this lens and other zooms and primes at 300mm.

This 300mm telephoto lens (made in Japan) features a fast aperture of F/2.8 with a very good build quality.  Sony claims the barrel and some other components are made of magnesium for weight reduction, so when you’re done with this lens, please do not dispose of it by throwing it in the fireplace or burning barrel.  Even with that weight saving material, it’s still very heavy, although a person could hand hold the lens for a short period of time well enough.  Having it hang around your neck all day is a different story.

The Sony 300mm F/2.8 SSM G is a rebadged Minolta from 2003.

The Sony 300mm F/2.8 SSM G has some handy features on it.  For starters, it has four focus hold buttons around the barrel at the front, which can be changed to DOF preview (or prefocus position) on certain cameras.  It also has a fully adjustable and removable tripod collar for when you want to hand hold it, or rotate it on a tripod.  There are some strap lugs, and you’ll want to use these as holding or carrying the lens by the camera or camera strap will eventually damage the mount on either the camera or lens due to the weight.  You may notice the rather large switch panel on the left side, a detailed view is in the product shots above.  This panel controls focusing, and there are plenty of options, but more on that below.  The Sony 300mm F/2.8 SSM G has a very light-weight carbon fiber hood, this type of hood is not only different in construction, but different in the way it mounts as compared to the older Minolta prime telephoto lenses.  Instead of three lugs and a screw (like the old Minolta lenses), you now have a plastic insert at the hood base, which fits flush nearly all the way around the lens barrel channel, and locks by turning the screw, there’s no spring involved.  The hood stays nice and tight, and doesn’t want to rotate and scratch the inner channel as the old style could do.

The front element seems very flat and is probably more of a protective device than being optically important, at least that’s my opinion.

In the box is the lens, a carbon fiber hood with a nice felt-type anti-glare covering on the inside and a rubber gasket around the front; a locking metal trunk with nice padding on the inside for the lens and a set of keys; a vinyl front cover (fits over hood); a 42mm polarizer with holder and case, and a 42mm “normal” drop-in filter in the lens; finally, a strap for the metal case and a strap for the lens.

Just for fun.  Don’t lose the fancy carbon fiber lens hood, because replacing it will cost you a cool $1368.95!!  If you think I’m full of it, here is the Sony part number: A1204659A, check it yourself.  The nice trunk case is $355.95.  How about the vinyl cover for the lens, $112.95.  Should you lose the 42mm normal filter and holder; expect to pay $127.98 for the filter and $112.01 for the holder.

Focusing.  The wide focusing ring is at the middle-to-front of the lens, and does not turn during auto-focusing, thankfully.  Manual focusing takes just over 1/3 turn from Close-in to infinity, and doesn’t add any length to the lens.  SSM focusing works as an over-drive system, that is the focusing ring turns faster than the actual mechanism in the focus distance window, this allows for more precise manual focusing.  AF speed is fairly fast and accurate most of the time, although it isn’t as good as I would like considering the cost of the lens.  I’d say it performs about the same as the Sony 70-400mm.  There are four focus hold buttons placed around the barrel and are easily accessible in any orientation.  On select camera bodies you can change the buttons to DOF (depth of field) preview or prefocus, as described below.

I noticed a quirk in the focusing method during my use.  While trying to focus, it turns somewhat slowly at first, then when it’s near the proper focus point, it speeds up greatly and locks focus in an instant.  This focusing characteristic unfortunately doesn’t make the overall focusing time any less.

Let’s look at all the buttons on the left side of the lens.  I’ll use the owner’s manual descriptions about some of the button operations for better clarity.  On the top left is a simple AF/MF switch, a no-brainer.  The next switch is “DMF” or direct manual focus.  Even when AF is set, the setting is switched to MF automatically if you rotate the focusing ring while pressing the shutter button halfway.  This provides quick fine adjustments to focusing (DMF).  Standard DMF (STD).  Rotate the focusing ring to set correct DMF when the focus is locked in AF-A or AF-S.  This setting is recommended for normal subjects.  Full time DMF (F-time).  In any AF mode AF-A/S/C  rotate the focusing ring while pressing the shutter button halfway to set correct DMF.  This setting is useful for catching fast moving subjects.  Next up are the two middle buttons used for limiting the focusing range, and increasing AF speed by reducing the total range allowed.  The left button has three positions; Full, which enables the entire focusing range; ∞-6.4m which limits the focusing range to 21′ (6.4m) to infinity.  The last position is “SET” which means AF is set to the appointed focus range, both near and far positions.  To set the focus range; slide the focus range limiter to “set.”  Focus the lens to the desired FAR or NEAR distance.  Slide the focus range setting switch to FAR or NEAR for the appropriate focus range position (depending on which position you set first).  The focus range setting switch automatically returns to the original setting.  If the audio signal is on, it beeps when you set the focusing range.  The focus range to be set is effective until a new focus range is set.  The third row of buttons concerns Prefocus.  A specific subject distance can be stored and recalled at any time.  With the distance set, this is useful for catching fast moving subjects, such as car races etc.  To set the subject distance; slide the focus hold/prefocus switch to prefocus.  Focus the lens on the distance to be set.  Press the prefocus set button to store the subject distance.  Again, if the audio signal is on, it beeps when you store the subject distance.  To recall the preset subject distance; slide the focus hold/prefocus switch to prefocus (set the focus hold button function to “focus hold”  for cameras with custom function capability).  Next, press the focus hold button so that the lens will focus to the prefocus position.  When AF is set, press and hold the focus hold button while taking pictures.  If the focus hold button is released, AF will be reactivated and the subject focus distance will be changeable.  If the audio signal switch is on, it beeps when the preset subject distance is recalled.  Finally, the last button is the “BEEP” audio signal.  The audio signal beeps when the focusing range is customized with the focus range setting switch, or the prefocus distance is set or recalled with the prefocus set button.  Simply slide the switch to the on position to hear an audio beep, or off for silence.

Lens flare/ghosting.  Typical control for a telephoto lens.  If you point the lens in the area close to the sun, you’ll get heavy veiling glare, and the hood doesn’t really do much to help mitigate this, but it does help some.  Definitely use the hood for stadium type lighting, and front element protection.

Color fringing (CA).  Excellent control, and about the same as the new Sony 70-400mm G lens.  When focused correctly, I see very minor axial CA at wide apertures if you look at 100% crops of water droplets in the sun.

Bokeh.  Very smooth at all apertures.  Look below for sample images.

Color.   Similar to other Minolta and Sony lenses.

Close up filter.  N/A

Coma.  None.

Regular filters.  Exclusive use 42mm drop in filters, so no problems.

Filter size is 42mm.  This lens comes with a polarizer and normal filter each with a holder.  Also the same design as the older Minolta telephoto prime lenses use, like the 300mm F/4 etc.

Sony tele-converter use.  The lens works ok (typical washed out look) with the Sony TCs, when used wide open, so you’ll need to stop down one stop (or two) to get some contrast and resolution back, for a total of F/5.6 for the 1.4x, and F/8 with the 2.0x.  Focusing speed is reduced with the 1.4x and 2.0x TC.  Tele-converter use changes the distortion curve, the flat APS-C distortion is rendered slightly barrel type, and full frame pincushion becomes flat.  Just in case you aren’t aware, when you mount the 1.4x TC, the Sony 300mm F/2.8 becomes a 420mm F/4, and a 2.0x TC results in a 600mm F/5.6.

Distortion.  None on APS-C, and very minor pincushion on full frame.  Check out the cropped sample below.

Distortion example directly below.

No distortion.

 

These are 100% crops and show a smooth background blur.  All apertures seem to render about the same blur characteristics, which is good.

 

 

Real bokeh shots below.

 

background blur, F/2.8

Background blur, F/5.6

 

The full resized images above show real world background blur focused somewhat close at F/2.8 for the top shot, and F/5.6 for the bottom shot.  These shots look even smoother than the crops, because I’m not deliberately trying to bring out the most extreme examples, like tree leaves against a bright sky.

 

Light fall-off or corner shading is not noticeable in real pictures at any focal length or aperture using an APS-C camera.  Close focusing results in a little more light fall-off than at longer distances at F/2.8, both full frame and APS-C, but again, it’s not noticeable in real use.

Below are crops from the image centers and corners.

Let’s check out the macro capabilities of this lens.

As close as you can get. F/5.6. Click for larger image

 

Full frame section next.