Kudos to Fuji 70-300!!

At least my copy of the 70-300 is maybe the sharpest zoom lens I ever had! The XT3+70-300 proves to be a fantastic kit for nature shots and some BIF with the TCs, being able to focus fast and resolve lots of details! And apart from sharpness, its also small and light and fast focusing, perfectly matched on the XT3 body!

Here are some shots I got from yesterday hike:

A black bee?? Can't remember seeing on in the past

And here is a selective  saturation version...

They were all processed in LR and Topaz Denoise.

In terms of technique I used the pre-shot mode with a high shutter speed and a 5x5 CAF area.

yes an excellent lens .... whena brilliant light is available

At 300mm and/or with the 1.4xTC as soon as the light is not so brilliant, the AF is slow and sometimes just cannot focus.

For BIF it is not a good combo as compared to the 100-400mm zoom

OTOH the OIS is really amazing

All in all a welcome addition when I want to carry light...

And the price tag is reasonable

Yes work weel in proxy photo

baobob wrote:

yes an excellent lens .... whena brilliant light is available

At 300mm and/or with the 1.4xTC as soon as the light is not so brilliant, the AF is slow and sometimes just cannot focus.

For BIF it is not a good combo as compared to the 100-400mm zoom

OTOH the OIS is really amazing

All in all a welcome addition when I want to carry light...

And the price tag is reasonable

Yes work weel in proxy photo

That 100-400 is always on my long term targets But price, size and weight have also made me not to decide for it... How do you find the sharpness and af vs the 70-300?

Bought the 100-400 many years ago at its launch..

At 300mm it is sharper than the 70-300mm but the diff is not night and day same at 420mm vs 400mm

Again what for me is critical is AF when light is a bit limited and with the TC also. The limited aperture is responsible for that.

In good light the AF is fast and accurate.

The 2xTC gives good results if the SNR is high = very good light and at rather moderate distances to avoid haze or air vibration and keep SNR high

1.4x TC gives very good results at least in the center.

Great images; they reminded me to test the PreShot mode out sometime soon. And to keep my fingers crossed re. the supply issues on this lens. I rented one for a trip last month and it really is a marvelous piece of kit.

Human Elements wrote:

Great images; they reminded me to test the PreShot mode out sometime soon. And to keep my fingers crossed re. the supply issues on this lens. I rented one for a trip last month and it really is a marvelous piece of kit.

I am adding some more from today hike. Different subjects, same impressive performance from that combo.

Can work as a portrait lens. At 300/f5.6 there is a lot of background compression

Thank you for tossing more fuel into the GAS machine.

: )

So true! But luckily it's never available here. Thank you Fuji for saving me money.