Quantaray 70-300mm F4-5.6 Review

[Tom_Proctor]

Ok, I was planning on going to Saratoga Horse Race Track Sunday, I didn't have a zoom lens and just my 28-80mm wasn't going to work. I decided what the hell, went to ritz, picked up the Quantaray 70-300mm F4-5.6. Was cheap, was only $160+tax. I've only used it a few times, but I guess i'll do some reviews.

* Focal Length: 70-300mm
* Focus Type: Auto
* Aperture Type: Automatic / Variable
* Aperture Range: F4 - 22 (70mm) F5.6 - 32 (300mm)
* Optical Construction: 14 Elements in 10 Groups
* Minimum Focus: 58.5 in. (37 in. Macro mode at 300mm)
* Macro: Yes (1:2)
* Filter Size: 62mm
* Size: 4.7 x 2.9 in.
* Weight: 20.6oz.

Anyways, I've taken not many shots with this because I've been busy. I've just tested indoor shots and some outside shots from my deck, no real action.

On to the review. Im not too good with lenses and cameras yet, so please ignore my non awesome camera language.

Suprisingly I believe this lens is faster at lower light than my Nikkor 28-80 3.3-5.6. I take a lot of indoor photos and the macro on this is "decent" it's not the best, but It's all I need to get pictures of my lasers for this company, and their fourms.

It feels very well built and it is not that heavy. It takes awesome colored pictures even at 300mm it's produces very very well pictures that I did not expect from such a cheaply priced lens.

The focusing is quite slow i've noticed though. Going from one extreme to another it takes almost 2 seconds.

To sum it all up. I believe this was a great purchase for myself, a beginner, maybe novice/intermediate photographer that needed a telephoto lens within my price range. At Saratoga I will probably be using manual focus.

Anyways, I will be posting action shots in a few days, and look for pictures on threads. I will also be posting some pictures in here maybe tonight or tomorrow.

[Tom_Proctor]

Camera: Nikon D50
Lens: Quantaray 70mm-300mm F4-5.6
Focal Length: 300mm
F-Number: F/6.0
Shutter: 1/80
ISO: 400

[kool100vr4]

Oh well!, i just bought this Quantaray 70-300mm LDO model with macro 1:2, filter size at 58mm, i put it thru my tests, i mounted it on my heavy pro tripod, the results were very pleasing, from 70-250mm images were extremely sharp or stunning, from 250mm to 300mm the sharpness is less, but very good. One should use this lens on a sturdy tripod to get its best results. I use it with my Sony A100, the results were very contrasty, nice color, and sharp as razor. I got the UV haze1 filter infront of it, also the tele petal hood too. I bought it used for 69$ , with its macro 1:2 is very useful, totally awesome lens for the price, highly recommended!.
I think its the same as the Sigma 70-300mm, i think Sigma made lens for Quantaray.
:thumbsup:

[another view]

Glad the lens is working for you - please be sure to post this in the Review section too. There are several 70-300 lenses starting at about the bottom 2/3 of the linked page, but if your particular lens isn't listed let Photo-John know and he can add it.

[gary02]

I have used a minolta 600 SI for the last 7+ years, one of my lenses was the quantaray 70- 300m quantaray and a Tamron of the same focal length. I have enjoyed the quantaray though it is slower than the tamron in low light. I am about to make the switch to the either an a300 or a350 does the macro mode work on these dslrs?

[freygr]

I have the Tamron version and the Micro works just fine. The mirco function is not camera specific.