Hello Everyone,

I am new to this website and forum but I hope to be able to actively participate. My area of expertise is Digital Imaging and Photo Manipulation using Adobe Photoshop.

I just purchased a Quantaray 70-300 Zoom Lens for my Nikon D50. I was immediately struck by the fact that there is no instruction manual or an documentation that comes with the lens. In fact, I cannot even find a way to register the product. Before I even do that and decide whether or not I will even keep this lens, I am looking for some help. I cannot figure out how to use the Macro feature that comes with the lens. I followed the (one page) instruction sheet that came with the lens and set the zooming ring to between 180 and 300mm. I put the macro selector switch to the Macro position. After that, I could not get the lens to focus on anything that was close-up. Does anyone have this lens or a website that offers more information on this product. I thank you very much for any help that you may offer.

the minimum focus distance for the macro feature is 37 inches ... so you need to be at least 3 feet back from your subject ...

put your d50 into manual focus - get the lens to macro ... extend the lens as far as it will go - manually put the focus ring out as far as it will go ... then start about a foot from a subject and slowly walk backward until the subject is in focus ... that will let you know how far you must be away from your subject ... then turn on the AF and it will focus for ya as long as you are far enough away ...

hope this helps

Ben,

THANK YOU VERY MUCH....I forgot to put the camera on manual focus (hitting my head with my hand). I just went out and took a few shots and found the lens to be very suitable to my needs. I shot thm in RAW format and opened them up in Photoshop and it worked very well. I uploaded one of the shots if you would care to see it.

Regards,
David

David - looks nice ... the lens should work in macro mode with autofocus ... just make sure that your far enough back from the subject to let it focus ... remember about 3 foot back for minimum focus ...

Ben,

THANK YOU VERY MUCH....I forgot to put the camera on manual focus (hitting my head with my hand). I just went out and took a few shots and found the lens to be very suitable to my needs. I shot thm in RAW format and opened them up in Photoshop and it worked very well. I uploaded one of the shots if you would care to see it.

Regards,
David

Get rid of that lens!

I used that lens for better than 2 years and hated it. The optics are crap, the build is crap, and the focus is crap.

You can do much better with a Tamron, or an actual Nikon lens. Believe me, it's not woth the few buck you save.

I know you are trying to stay within a budget, but the lens is the wrong place to skimp. Quataray is a brand name of one of the major photo shop chains. They are built by the third party manufacturers(Sigma, Tamron, etc.) and are generally of lower quality than the regular line from these manufacturers.
You would be much better off reading reviews and buying a decent lens, there are several budget lenses out there that perform decently, unfortunately Quantary isn't one of them. I'm with John on this one, if you can still return that lens, do so. Read the reviews here, photozone, etc. take all of them with a grain of salt, everyone thinks their lens choice was the best. Go to PBase and look up the lens you are considering, look at the photos taken with the lens, decide if it's for you or not.
Lastly I know your body cost quite a bit of money, and for what you paid for it, it should take great photos. Unfortunately your body cannot take great photos by itself, it needs good glass to get the photo to the sensor. Expect to pay a lot more than your body cost for lenses. I personally have about $2800 invested in lenses covering a range from 17-300mm, and my body cost me $1500 3 years ago.

Get rid of that lens!

I used that lens for better than 2 years and hated it. The optics are crap, the build is crap, and the focus is crap.

You can do much better with a Tamron, or an actual Nikon lens. Believe me, it's not woth the few buck you save.


Can you be more specific about which Tamron Lens you are talking about?

Thanks:aureola:

Get rid of that lens!

I used that lens for better than 2 years and hated it. The optics are crap, the build is crap, and the focus is crap.

You can do much better with a Tamron, or an actual Nikon lens. Believe me, it's not woth the few buck you save.


Yo Almo,

I took your advice and returned the Quantaray Lens. I bought a Nikon 55-200 mm F/4 5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor Lens w/ Vibration Reduction

I tried it out and the optics are very good .

Thanks Again for the Advice,
David

Hi Guys,

For anyone who is interested, I just received (ordered online from Ritz Photo), my new Nikon 55-200 mm VR (vibration reduction). I am extremely happy with this lens. It is fast, quiet and quite sharp. I bow my hat to Almo who suggested that I return the Quantaray lens and buy a Nikon. I did not think that there were any Nikon Zoom Lenses out there that were cost efficient, but this NEW lens was $249.00 from Ritz Camera Online and if you order it through Google Checkout, first time customers get an additional $10.00 off, making it a very good value. I hope you do not mind me sharing this information with you guys along with a sample shot taken at the long end (200mm) of the lenses capability.

David