Peter Jansen wrote: > Does anyone have experience with the FA* 400mm f5.6 ED > (IF) lens (for 35mm)? How does the quality compare to > the FA* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)? How about with the A > 1.4X-S converter?
I have the FA*400mm f/5.6 and the F*300mm f/4.5 (optically identical to the FA*). I haven't used either with a convertor so I can't comment about that. My sample of the 400mm isn't quite as sharp as I'd like, although I may be expecting a bit much. I want to do some more testing before I start drawing concrete conclusions. However it is definitely sharper than the manual focus Tokina SL 400mm f/5.6 that it replaced. The F*300mm f/4.5 is an incredible lens. If you have the FA* 300mm already I'd advise trying it with the TC, if AF is not required. In fact, my 300mm is so much better than my 400 that I've been giving a little thought to selling the 400mm. If you're interested, twist my arm a bit and I'll shoot some sample slides for you, while deciding whether or not I really need to keep it. Cheers, - Dave http://www.digistar.com/~dmann/
