coase wrote:

I recently got a nearly mint Big Beercan Minolta AF 75-300 for not much dough and thought to use it as my "good" 300mm occasional lens as I rarely shoot at that focal length. I decided to do an indoor test vs the so-so condition Minolta AF 75-300 f4-5.6 plastic fantastic in the silver grey color that I've been using. I was mostly interested in the long range so most of my tests were at 200 and 300. I was very shocked to see how different they were at 300mm wide open and how much better the plastic fantastic was! I shot these on a tripod and let the camera meter in A mode with ISO on Auto. The target was a chair about 7 feet away. Not only does the cheapie lens seem clearer but it has more contrast and requires less light. The camera ramped up the ISO higher for the Big Beercan than the smaller lens. Shot with an A7ii and LAEA4

I wonder if I just have a bad copy of the Big Beercan (it seems quite excellent) or is this typical?

Minolta AF 75-300 f4-5.6 @300mm f5.6

Big Beercan 75-300 at 300mm f5.6