Your favourite A-mount lens

I'm a cliche, but mine is "Special Sauce" 50/1.7 (beercan 50).

I am the original owner of my copy; my parents bought it for me when I was a kid, when the kit with the Minolta 5000 was available in the US, probably at Sears (Sears and Roebuck and Co.). So nostalgia is a factor, as is the fact that I have carried around, including on a trip to India, so it is my most travelled friend.

It has flaws, but the flaws are endearing: The tiny grip for the focus ring, the clunky feel of manual focus, the plastic pull out lens hood ... silly, but it has personality.

But whatever "it" is, the lens has "it". My finger won't hover over the delete key, even with a photo that is out of focus, or blown out, or the flash didn't fire ... on any body, Maxxum 7, a900, a7ii ... even with a bad picture, there is "something about it ..." that says "Special".

From these threads about A-mount Not Dead (or this entire forum!) we know there is Something About It. New lenses with fancy piezo-electric focus motors and magnetic apertures won't work at all without a camera connected, and a battery. With A-mount I can jam the aperture open, and spin the focus ring, and I can still use the lens. E-mount lenses, not gonna happen. A-mount isn't as easy as the old Steel and Glass lenses without any electricity, but it's close.

Whatever "it" is, that's why we're here.

Optically 85/2.8 Sam. I would love it again in E mount.

But in the end, as of range, size, colours and rendering the little minolta 35-70/4 is my preferred one.

I recently picked up the 135/1.8 ZA and it's an awesome lens. But the size and weight means I often won't choose to take it with me. For that reason I'd say my favourite is my Minolta 200/2.8, which is so much lighter and also pairs well with the matched Minolta 1.4x and 2x teleconverters. That provides a compact and flexible travel telephoto option, while also delivering beautiful portraits when there's enough working room.

I also love my Minolta 85/1.4(D), which replaced an original version which was just as good but which I unfortunately dropped on a hard church floor. My Sigma Art 35/1.4 is also a great lens when needing something wider.

So while the 135 delivers in terms of overall image quality, it has some stiff competition.

Thanks- this was a good thread to wake up to, and see all the responses. The reasons are engaging reading.

I like that some of you are going for some of those first generation lenses. Nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia to give a lens a boost.

As for me, while I've shot a lot of classic lenses and quite a few G's, the one I think that stands out is the 135mm STF. It seemed to be the culmination of all those Minolta efforts with colour reproduction, rendering and art, to end up with something that was for years, unrivalled anywhere else. It didn't hurt that you had to go old-school and manually focus the lens. It just added to that whole, creative experience.

Different lenses for different reasons. To simplify;

Portrait; Minolta 85 f/1.4 G (D). Minolta 100/f2 honorable mention.

Everything else; Sony 70-400G (V1).

My first love was 70-210 F4, it did produce classics and a great lens for portrait (yes).

BUT 100MM F2 is by far the best for me, its size, bokeh, sharpness at F2, colour wow .. this is a beauty. Has produced some great photographs.

Have been using 135mm 1.8 for sometime now and this lens is out of the world, the pictures are miles apart from any contemporary lens. Still have not used it as long as 100MM F2 but am sure it will challenge the first place.

Seeing all enthusiasm on the 100F2 I guess I need to start shooting with it more. It doesn't see much use time.