Minolta AF 135mm F2.8 A-mount lens review by Phil Wood
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 4 overall: 4.8 | tested on:
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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. |
rating summary

- total reviews: 139
- sharpness: 4.69
- color: 4.92
- build: 4.65
- distortion: 4.91
- flare control: 4.44
- overall: 4.72