Minolta AF 135mm F2.8 A-mount lens review by Phil Wood

Phil Wood#44234 date: Mar-10-2019
sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 4 overall: 4.8	tested on: film camera: APS-C: 6MP; 10MP; 12MP; 14MP; 16MP; 20MP; 24MP full frame: 12MP; 24MP; 36MP; 42MP; 61MP
ownership:	I own this lens
compared to:	Minolta 100mm D macro Tamron 16-300mm Sony 18-250mm Minolta 28-135mm Minolta 70-210 (all variants) Minolta 75-300 (all variants)
price paid:	105 GBP
positive:	Small, sharp, solid lens.
negative:	Nothing major - shorter MFD would be nice.
comment:	I'm not a huge fan of nicknames like 'pocket rocket', but you can see where it comes from. This is a lovely little lens, some of the G zooms might have it beat, but I don't have one of those. It holds its own very well against my zooms - faster, lighter, smaller and better IQ. The 100mm macro is sharper and has better IQ and has macro - but it is heavier and it isn't 135mm. The Ziess 135 is reportedly better - and so it should be considering it's decades newer and ten times the price. If you shoot A-mount and want a 135mm prime you can't get better value than this little gem. That said mine doesn't get a lot of use - I prefer the 100mm macro and the Sony 85mm f2.8 as short teles, I don't know why but I've never got on that well with 135mm. Update 12 Sep '19: I forced myself to use this lens by using it in a Dyxum Challenge - and it grew on me. I now use it regularly on FF and APS-C; it's a gem.