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Archive 2016 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

Fred Miranda
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

I've never warmed up to the FE 70-200/4 or new 70-300 and decided a different route. I just purchased a CY 100-300 from a fellow FMer and should get it this week. The high micro-contrast and smooth focus fall-off rendering is gorgeous from some of the images I've seen here. It will be mainly a landscape lens for me. I'm been shooting with its sibling CY 100/3.5 for a couple months and love the colors. I'm hoping the 100-300 is similar in IQ.

Any more samples out there?

Jun 27, 2016 at 04:20 PM

jotdeh
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

you should be! Here is another one that i haven't shared before... safari time!
zebras

Jun 27, 2016 at 05:26 PM

mcbroomf
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

It is a great lens Fred. The only problem that seems difficult to get round is zoom creep, presumably due to the age and design. After I got a copy with it I asked several other sellers if theirs suffered from it and got confirmation in each case. I ended up moving to the Canon 100-400 II which has the added advantage of IS on my a6300.

Mike

http://m7.i.pbase.com/o9/63/551663/1/163252127.uIUVUEMV._DSC4855-2.jpg
http://m1.i.pbase.com/o9/63/551663/1/161941451.HIaq2Xv2.20151124-_DSC5201.jpg

Jun 27, 2016 at 06:14 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

This lens rendering reminds me of the 35-70/3.4. Very high micro-contrast and great resolution.
Yesterday when I bought the lens, the seller wrote me: "The one thing that I really like about this copy is it has very little creep when you hold it upside down compared to a lot of others."

I didn't know zoom creep was an issue.

Jun 27, 2016 at 06:47 PM

mcbroomf
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

Fred Miranda wrote:
This lens rendering reminds me of the 35-70/3.4. Very high micro-contrast and great resolution.
Yesterday when I bought the lens, the seller wrote me: "The one thing that I really like about this copy is it has very little creep when you hold it upside down compared to a lot of others."

I didn't know zoom creep was an issue.

That's great Fred.

If you need/want the Contax hood let me know.

Jun 27, 2016 at 07:23 PM

wayne seltzer
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

Contax N 70-200 is also very nice light tele with Zeiss colors and microcontrast and AF. Of course my Leica R 180/2.8 APO is my favorite in that range.

Jun 27, 2016 at 07:50 PM

uhoh7
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

I have it, really nice copy, but did not warm to it for the weight. Very strong to 200.

DSC04339 by unoh7, on Flickr

I should try it again

Jun 27, 2016 at 07:54 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

mcbroomf wrote:
That's great Fred.

If you need/want the Contax hood let me know.

I need the hood, front and rear caps!

Jun 27, 2016 at 07:58 PM

AmbientMike
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

I have a couple older zooms with zoom creep, I stuff one or more pine needles in them.

. Works.

One is a one touch, one a two touch. A small stick and a pocketknife also works, carve it thin, pretty easy.

Interested in your opinion on the lens, I had the idea it wasn't that hot, never used it though. Probably really good up to 200, which seems to be a characteristic of xx-300 zooms. Best I've found so far at 300 is the 60-300 Tamron. Beat old 100-300L and 70-300 IS. About the same as IS, probably just tested center sharpness, though, fairly informal test. Haven't tried newer L.

EDIT: I thought about it, and the 2 touch changes focus, not zoom. I do use something in the focus ring, though.

Jun 27, 2016 at 10:44 PM

nehemiahphoto
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

I know what you mean Fred--I never warmed to my FE 70-200 and sold it. Having a hard time warming to my GM 85.
I use my 28 FE consistently, but not my favorite. It's the color palate of Sony lenses I dislike. I picked up a canon 70-200 f4 which I like better than the FE, and I skipped the 70-300 from Sony. I ordered a CY 100-300 and was enormously impressed on my a7rii WO. It was stolen 5 days after I purchased it. It's very sharp, low ca, practically no fringing, negligible distortion, super micro contrast and rich color palate, even by Zeiss CY standards. So yup, get pumped.

To me, it goes with the best of CY glass--I don't think you'll be disappointed optically, mechanically or rendering wise. I did find it very hard to MF even with focus magnify, and IBIS wasn't so effective at longer lengths. I ended up turning it off mostly.

I was hoping desperately for a Batis zoom--specifically a 100-300, but we got the FE. I am torn now between another CY 100-300 or the canon 70-300 L...Ming Thein said it was a toss up between the two, but he used the CY.

Edited on Jun 28, 2016 at 02:16 AM · View previous versions

Jun 28, 2016 at 01:54 AM

Krosavcheg
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

It's a push-pull as well as 35-70 so there might be creep if the lining is worn out. Mine seems to creep a bit, but it's acceptable.

Jun 28, 2016 at 02:06 AM

OpticalFlow
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

Fred Miranda wrote:
Any more samples out there?

I assume you are aware of this thread, but just checking:
https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/926319/12

It's a lens that has been on my wanted list for a while. Not many coming up for sale here in Europe and I don't want to import one from Japan where they seem to be more readily available (import taxes and difficulty returning it in case there is a problem).

Jun 28, 2016 at 03:24 AM

wfrank
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

Great lens but IBIS helps less than I hoped for. I find it picky when focusing, also for infinity. Very small movements between perfect sharpness and soft.

It works ok:ish with the Mutar II.

600mm

DSC02903 1600 by Wilhelm Frank - Stockholm, on Flickr

Jun 28, 2016 at 06:17 AM

Fred Miranda
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

I just got the lens today. I don't see any zoom creep on this copy. It's is very well centered as well.
I took a few snaps for a quick test and I'm impressed by the lack of LoCA.

Straight off the camera:

The first is at 150mm f/4.5. (wide-open)
The second is at 280mm f/5.6

Jun 29, 2016 at 04:37 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

Here is a pictures of my 11-year-old as a portrait test. (natural light)
I wanted to get a more compressed look and shot at 250mm wide open. Here is a sample:

Jun 29, 2016 at 11:51 PM

mcbroomf
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

Looks like you got a good one Fred ...

BTW in case you or anyone is looking for a tripod ring. The ones you see on ebay are obviously 3rd party and when fixed to the lens block the zoom below ~120mm or so. The attachment screw (at least in the copy I have) is not well enough made to consider it an easy on-off.

Jun 30, 2016 at 07:30 AM

Fred Miranda
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

I took the CY 100-300 to the beach today. My daughter is taking a surfing class.

The image below was taken at 300mm f/5.6. I didn't have a hood or flocked adapter. I think contrast could be improved even further. The image was cropped a little as I was far from the subject.

I'm hooked and love the subject separation and overall rendering.

Jun 30, 2016 at 02:36 PM

wfrank
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

Another area of appreciation is the strong subject separation at longer distance even if there's no vast distance to background

DSC02094 crop 1500 by Wilhelm Frank - Stockholm, on Flickr

Jun 30, 2016 at 04:57 PM

rioni
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

fred, did you end up keeping this lens?

Mar 11, 2017 at 08:46 PM

AMP829
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · CY 100-300mm. Should I be excited?

Hello

i found the mutar 2x mkii at 75,00 euros and i bought it for test
i am astonished by how good is when the shot is steady and exact focus . i close the f at 8 and the result is very good !
this is a 600mm lens . have you found many options at this mm and at this result ?
i have a panasonic S1 .
i found a trustworthy guy who owned also mk1 and told me that the result was crappy with VS .
This one told about the mk2 mutar and i am very happy with the result .
The zeiss say that is incompatible because you have 1st to set the 100-300 at 150mm in order to avoid hit the rear element . since the attachment is done there is no problem withe glass , the metals touch each other but nothing to worry about ..... at the end you don't need an extender to use the 100-300 at 100mm ...

Apr 15, 2020 at 02:53 PM


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