May the wisdom on this flow abundantly! I have a chance to buy an old style 400mm Takumar. I have seen much concern exhibited regarding the 300mm and its "softness" and am curious to know if the 400 has the same problem. I'm not willing to drop several thousand on the new ED model and I can't confirm the rumor of a new 300. I have read the one or two previous posts regarding the 400mm optic but was hoping that there was some additonal info that could be shared. Thanks in advance.

-- Rolf Strasheim (rolfs@ionet.net), November 05, 1999

Answers

The 300mm can be soft at times but it is not due to optical reasons. With the right tripod and correct understanding of DOF for this lens, it is sharp. The 400 Takumar is basically the same design. The 400 Takumar is an APO design(my guess)but using older glass. This translates to excellent color correction in the zone that the designers are trying for. Outside of this zone, the correction will not be as good. This means that the photographer will have to stop down a bit for best performance. The 400 ED will be better at f/4 but beyond that, they are probably similar. I would not hesitate in buying the Takumar 400. It does have a manual aperture and outer bay mounting. These take a little getting used to. SR

-- Steve Rasmussen (srasmuss@flash.net), November 05, 1999.