Typical zeiss glass, wonderful color, sharpness, contrast and bokeh. Lens is an excellent value if you understand and use it within its limitations.

Not suited for handheld shots due to the weight and focusing design. Put the lens on a tripod and take your time focusing stop down to f8 when light composition and subject allow. probably best suited for the AX or RX camera body. if this lens isnt sharp enuf you can always go to the 2.8 apo, but be prepared to sell the wifey (or hubby) and kids to medical research to pay for it.

This is an excellent lens. Some of the reviews I have read would suggest otherwise. I was very dubious about the lens's sharpness until I actually used it. At f8 the the lens features excellent sharpness, contrast and color. This lens also has wonderful bokeh. I believe most of disparaging remarks made about the lens's sharpness are related to its focusing design. It takes between 5 to 7 twists (I'm not saying full turns) to go from its closest point of focus to infinity, the more modern internal focusing designs require significantly less turning. this is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. The bad is that its not a fast focusing lens. The good is that you have alot more control fine tuning your point of sharp focus. The RX camera body features a focus assist and I noticed every time I tried to focus with just my eyes alone I was either just long or just short of the point of sharpest focus according to the RX's focus assist. Usually 1/16 to 1/8 of a turn off. Its easy to see why, if someone was rushing and unfamiliar with the lens, they would assume its not very sharp. Zeiss refers to this lens as a "light weight compact design..." ummm Maybe if you have been lugging around a 6x7 studio camera and a full set of lenses it is. For those of you who have only used plastic cameras, you're in for a shock especially if you attach it to an RTSIII with a full load of AA batteries. I'm not complaining, having lugged around an 8x10 camera and a 4x5 camera for years, this is much easier...sort of.

Customer Service

Im not sure what to think of tocad.....

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I havent used an Imax camera yet

Field tests show good contrast and sharpness at wide open and very good at f8. Relatively light weight for a 300 f4. Very good performance when usedwith Mutar II and III. The only affordable long tele in the Zeiss range.

No LD glass. Zeiss doesn't make bad lenses and forget about all those bad comments from other users!

The Tele-Tessar has a conventional design without the use of low dispersion glass. Therefore it is not as sharp as the 100-300 Vario-Sonnar which employs special LD glass. My 500 f8 Mirotar is in fact sharper. However, the Tele-Tessar is fully corrected for monchromatic colour, i.e. its contrast and sharpness is outstanding for scene composed of monocolor, e.g. green forest..etc. After studying the MTF graphs of the Tele-Tessar, I concluded that it is sharp enough for my applications. The main advantages of 300 f4 over 100-300 4.5-5.6 are that it is one stop faster and can be used with Mutar II and III giving very useful focal length of 420mm and 600mm. For wildlife, candid and sport, this is indispensable. Originally I was going to buy the Canon 300 F4 L lens for my EOS3, but I found a good used W. Germany Zeiss 300 f4 and decided to expand my manual focus Contax system. I bought the Mutar II and III to go with it.

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Zeiss 500 f8 Zeiss 180 f2.8 Sigma 400 tele-macro f5.6 HSM

Beautiful design, sharp contrast and definition throughout aperture ranges. Beautiful twisting barrel action and accurate half-stops in between f-stops.

Bulkiness and unwieldiness really call attention to its portability. Limited maximum aperture limits light into pentaprism (unless you're lucky enough to have an RTSIII or similar). Large filter diameter of 82mm means just under $100 for a decent Hoya SMC UV filter. Soft case does no justice to portability. Slip on lens cap keeps on coming off. Poor weather demands the carriage of a tripod to compensate for limited aperture.

The quality exuded by this Tele-Tessar amazes me; its glorious ruggedness and its beautiful fluid focusing mechanism make it the envy of every boys camera club. When I finished admiring it and dragged it out for expeditions, the crippling weight has made me lament the 180mm 2.8 and teleconverter option. At f4, the viewfinder is darkened considerably, and as a wildlife photographer, looking for fluffy animals in a thicket isn't going to be easy, unless a pair of spotting binoculars are at hand. The limited aperture aside however, I found that the weight of the lens keeled the camera over. Mounted on the supplied tripod socket, the camera and lens set up is straightforward, rather than tilting earthbound. The finished slide-product is quite impeccable. The image distortion from centre to periphery of the field is remarkably excellent, as is the image contrast and definitions. That is, when I wasn't forced to use deliberately slow shutter speeds. The quality of the lens is in no way dubitable; I have not failed to be impressed by it. However having had it for a year, I've now finally accepted that it is not the lens I thought I wanted. For animal voyeurs and landscapists who prefer distance viewing this is recommendable.

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There aren't any CZ alternatives really, apart from the unaffordable 300mm f2.8. A 180mm f2.8 and teleconverter is a worthwhile consideration as an alternative

Reasonable size - good results.

Not the most modern lens around.

I''ve used this lens for quite a number of years and it is excellent compared to my Yashica 500 mirror which it replaced. I also use the MutarII converter to give 600mm and have had excellent results, although the max aperture is then f8. Results are typical Zeiss & match well the other Zeiss lenses I use in terms of colour, contrast etc.

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No repairs to this lens, but my cameras (RTSIII''s)were serviced by Kyocera in UK very well.

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Zeiss Apo 300mm 2.8 - this did give better results - in fact stunning results, but it was some £15,000 more expensive! I''m very happy with what I bought.

This lens is very sturdy, built like a rock. Very lightweight for a 300mm Precise focussing. Optical it is a very good lens (although there are better ones..)

The price; prices of Zeiss glass have been raised with 40 % in 3 years. Even at the second hand market, this lens is expensive. More expensive as equal canon and Nikon glass. The tripod mount colar is small.

For me (and probably many others) this is the only affordable tele in the Zeiss range, since the price of the 200 and 300mm aposonnars is far beyond the horizon. Finally, I found a second hand - made in Germany - lens, with no scratches or any sign that it has been used and I decided to buy it. I read several testing reports about this lens, which rated it as a very moderate quality lens. One exception for the German magazine Colorfoto of 2001/1, which rated it as a very good lens, of equal guality as several Nikon and Canon models. My expectations were quite low and I was very surprised to find out that this is is not such a moderate lens. Slides look tack sharp and etched and are very brilliant. On projection I don''t see a difference with my other slides (taken with for example 85 and 28mm zeiss glass). The slides are definately of publication quality (I use a tripod all the time). The lens is built like a rock, with very precise focussing. After several months where I have used the lens extensively for nature and some birdphotography I can say that the optical quality did not disappoint me at all. This is a very good lens which can produce excellent results of publication quality. But if you demand the most - apo correction etc. - buy the Zeiss 300/2.8 of some of the latest 300/2.8 Canon glass.

Customer Service

Zeiss repaired my 28mm. They did it well.

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None

This is a typical Zeiss design - very sharp, contrasty with beautiful color. Slides look etched as usual for Zeiss lens. Fit and finish is excellent as with other Contax lenses. Lens is very lightweight for a 300mm, but average in size. Focus is very smooth. Takes 82mm filters.

This is not an APO design, so although quite sharp with good edge delineation, it may not compete with recent APO designs from other manufacturers. It does not have internal focusing so it is a bit slow to focus relatively speaking. This also results in somewhat stiff focusing effort. Tripod mount is small and appears flimsy although I never had any trouble. Tripod mount locking collar is narrow and sometimes hard to get a good grip. Contax provides a slip-on lens cap.

A very fine lens optically but a bit dated nowadays. If you demand the most performance, i.e, APO level correction, internal focusing, etc., look to the Contax 2.8/300mm APO (superb, v. expensive), or to Leica APOs, Nikon ED, Canon L series, etc.

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No complaints - they promptly repaired my 180mm no questions after it fell apart.

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Nikon ED AIS, Leica R