Thank you, Albert and Ray, for your kind comments.
ABW, that's beautiful rendering from your 85mm, and I agree with you about the way the steam looks. I've always felt that the way a lens handles things like steam and mist is one of the measures of a truly great one. It's kind of ironic that the subjects that take the best real sharpness and resolution to depict well are the ones with the softest, least defined edges.
Does anyone here happen to have any shots taken with the 300mm/6.3 that they can share? I don't need a lens that long very often, so on my present meagre photography budget I don't feel that I can justify the 300m/4.0, but I'd really like to get a Takumar rather than the hopeless F100-300mm that I've been using so far. I've had a look in the reviews section, and fortunately there are a couple of reviews there from forum members whose abilities I trust, so I think the 300mm/6.3 might do the job for me.