Minolta AF 24-85mm F3.5-4.5 A-mount lens reviews
 joelam#45776 date: Oct-15-2021 | |
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sharpness: 4 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.4 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | af35-105 old af24-105 D |
| price paid: | about 50USD |
| positive: | good to very good sharpness except at 85mm, sharpness rating could be 4.5 if not for 85mm Minolta color size and weight? |
| negative: | f3.5 only at 24mm overall sharpness not as consistent as 35105old good from 24mm to 70mm, and beyond that IQ degrades rapidly. |
| comment: | I understand from various comments and review that this lens gets excellent sharpness to corner at 24mm. As I think corner sharpness is more important to wide angle than tele-side for most cases, I might like this lens as a useful walk-around lens. I get a mint copy from the 2nd hand market at very low price in my country. As expected it is very good at 24mm. Stepped down to f5.6, IQ becomes excellent for the whole frame, though the overall image is somehow not as perfect as af35105old at 35mm. This lens has 2 downsides. First, the aperture is small compared to 35-105 or 24-105. F3.5 is only available at 24mm and at 50mm it is only 4.5. Second, resolution at 85mm becomes very weak while it is still good at 70mm. Sharpness at 85mm/f8 is not really very good, worst than long end of af35-105 or af24-105. However, using this lens as a small aperture 24-70 zoom would be a happy experience when looking at crisp and colorful images produced. Color-wise, I like this lens over the af35-105old and af24105D. Images have a more neutral and modern look. af35-105 is on the warm side while af24105D makes a unnaturally-vivid sky blue. This lens is not really small and lightweight if you consider the 24-70mm usable range and aperture from 4 to 4.5 for most of the range. Nevertheless, I would be happy to keep it for street photography and wide angle city scene. |
; 36MP| MarcoZ#44456 date: Jan-13-2020 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Minolta ad 28_85 Minolta afd 24_105 |
| price paid: | 70€ |
| positive: | Con A850 FF si hanno contrasto,risolvenza e colori di ottimo livello. Ben controllata la distorsione a 24mm. |
| negative: | Niente |
| comment: | Veramente un ottimo obbiettivo bilanciato in tutti i suoi parametri tecnici che rende ottime immagini architettoniche,paesaggistiche e di reportage. Un tuttofare da avere nel proprio corredo. |
| aplmike#44346 date: Aug-15-2019 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Maxxum 35-105 original |
| price paid: | $70 / EBay |
| positive: | Good walk-around range for FF, smallish, lightish, quite sharp. |
| negative: | Some CR and distortion. Wide end not very wide on APS-C. |
| comment: | At 24mm and around f/8, my copy gets near to sensor resolution in/near center on A99M2/A68; not quite as sharp as 35-105 original corner to corner, BUT much lighter and really nice to have 24mm at wide end. Long end a bit softer but still quite good. Distortion and (already not too severe) and CR pretty easily fixable in LR. |
| Aperture73#37849 date: May-4-2017 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Minolta 28-105 3.5-4.5 |
| price paid: | USD 46.00 |
| positive: | Colour & sharpness are good. |
| negative: | Plastic barrel |
| comment: | This lens built is good & I've paid a good bargain for this gem. I've ditched my heavy 24-70 fast lens for this light weight lens. |
| transiently#37842 date: Apr-24-2017 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 4 build: 3 distortion: 3 flare control: 3 overall: 3.5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | 28-85, 35-105 original, 35-105N, Canon 24-85 USM |
| price paid: | I got a decent deal |
| positive: | Very good sharpness even at wide apertures, with the exception of 24mm corners, but even these are not at all bad on my example. Needs less stopping down for first rate results than 28-85 and particularly 35-105N. Higher contrast than 35-105N, but at some settings, lower than 28-85 and original 35-105. Closer focus across the range than the older lenses. Internal focus and quite high gearing makes it AF very fast compared with first series Minolta AF. Reasonably compact and not too heavy...though I really wish it could have been a bit nearer the size and weight of the 35-105 N, which had my ideal form factor for a mid-range zoom. Very smooth zoom control. Although the scores are not precisely enough delineated to allow me to reflect this, in fact the correction for distortion seems better than the 28-85 and probably 35-105 original. |
| negative: | Unsharp corners at close/ medium distances at 24mm until stopped down (but ok by 5.6 and good by 8), probably due to field curvature. Some distortion also at visible at 24mm. (rating 3.5) Flare performance not massively better than older lenses eg 28-85, but the range of conditions in which you don't have to worry about it is a bit greater with this. At night it still flares miserably at bright light sources. 62mm filter thread. Mechanical design means that zoom creep and inner barrel wobble are apparent on well-used examples. |
| comment: | An impressive lens which was one of the best of its kind when introduced in the early 90's. Generally slightly better distortion performance than the Canon 24-85, but, as usual for Minolta, more flare. Both lenses are very sharp. The Canon is a little bit lighter. I need to do more side-by-side testing with other lenses to confirm this, but its colour doesn't look quite the same as the older lenses, and my images with it have a slightly different "feel" from those with my other Minoltas listed as comparators. I look forward to using it on full frame one day. The range of asking prices seems fairly wide, so if you are very patient you may be able to get a decent deal, as I did. Watch out for zoom creep/wobble on heavily-used examples, and as usual, check for de-centering. A previous and more worn example I tried once imaged similarly to this one but with obvious de-centering. My lens sometimes focuses behind the subject at 24mm (A37 camera). I haven't worked out why yet, but hope it won't also do this with other bodies, when I get one. |
| Siop666#34757 date: Jan-21-2017 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 4.8 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Sel 18-55 |
| price paid: | 100 usd |
| positive: | Good lens, this is more than 100 usd lens can do |
| negative: | No OSS when use on a6000 |
| comment: | Sel 18-55 is waste |
| CKL#18373 date: Oct-10-2015 | |
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sharpness: 4 color: 4 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | - Minolta 28-135 - KM 28-75 f2.8 - Sony A7 kitlens (28-75) |
| price paid: | 50 Euro |
| positive: | - It's a compact lens and focus quite fast. - Not as sharp as the 28-135 bearcan or the KM28-75 - 24mm is excellent |
| negative: | - Beyond 24 mm it must be stopped down - Long end is rather soft. |
| comment: | Tested on the A7 with my second copy of the 24-85 (first one had some decentering issues). I'm impressed by the 24mm, sharp corner to corner at f4-f4-5. However beyond 24mm it's not as good and the lens must stopped down to f5.6 for some decent corners. On the long end (50mm-85mm) it's rather soft and the lens must be stopped down to f8. The lens is supported by DXO Optics and I recommend this software. It fixes the barrel distortion and vignetting. |
| QuietOC#15265 date: Jun-5-2015 | |
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sharpness: 4 color: 4 build: 3 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 3.8 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I used to own this lens |
| compared to: | Canon EF 22-55 USM Minolta AF 24-50 F4 Sony 24-70 F4 ZA OSS Canon EF 24-85 USM Minolta AF 24-85 RS Minolta AF 24-105 D Sony FE 28-70 OSS Sony 28-75 F2.8 SAM Minolta AF 28-80 D Minolta AF 28-85 Minolta AF 28-100 D Sigma AF 28-105 F2.8-4 Canon EF 28-105 F3.5-4.5 USM II Minolta AF 28-105 RS/Xi Minolta AF 28-135 Minolta AF 35-70 F4 Minolta AF 35-80 II Minolta AF 35-105 & New Sigma AF 28-105 F2.8-4 Sigma AF 35-135 F3.5-4.5 |
| price paid: | 49 USD (used) |
| positive: | Smooth zoom and focus controls Internal focus Parfocal Compact Little distortion Minimal CA (purple/green at 24 mm, blue/red at 85 mm) |
| negative: | Focus plane more curved than 28-xx and 35-xx zooms Focal length decreases with close focus Short zoom throw Very short focus throw Slightly warm color cast A bit of purple fringing wide-open at the long end |
| comment: | The first copy was purchased without hood on eBay for $55 in 2015. A nicer second copy with hood was purchased on eBay for $46 in 2016. This copy seems to be much sharper at the long end. "JAPAN" This lens was $500 when released in 1994. It is quite a heavy lens weighing nearly twice as much as the later 28-80D. Like other internal focus normal zoom lenses the focal length decreases with close focus, quite significantly at the long end. It reports F4 from 26 to 40 mm, so it is a bit slower than the 24-50 F4 and 24-105 F3.5-4.5 both of which are F4 at 50 mm. The original 24-85 performs identically to the later RS version. The apertures aren't even significantly different shapes. Both have curved aperture blades that keep the aperture mostly round when stopped down a little. The RS version might be slightly smoother, but it doesn't really show up in images. The focus plane of the 24-85 is not as flat as the focus plane of the 28-xx and 35-xx zooms or even the 18-55. It focuses closer than the 28-105, despite both listing the same minimum focus distance of 500 mm. The 24-85 has a bit less distortion than the 28-105 on the wide end. It has very similar amount of distortion to the 18-55 at the same focal lengths. It shows just a little purple fringing in the center wide-open at the long end--less than the 35-70/4 and much less than the 28-80D. Corners continue to get sharper past f/8. The lens is fairly parfocal, but you do get a noticeable amount focus shift from the initial slop in the zoom mechanism. Even the 18-55 SAM II has less slop. Image quality is quite good over the zoom range though it is not appreciably better than the 18-55 kit lens. The APS-C corners are better at 24 mm than the 24-50 and 24-105 and only slightly worse than the 24 mm f/2.8 primes. The image quality overall is also better than the 28-85. Test chart comparison on an A65 with the 24-50 F4, Carl Zeiss 16-80, Tamron 17-50 F2.8, and Sony DT 18-135 SAM. |
| Freddan_6#12136 date: Feb-17-2015 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.3 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Sony 18-55/3.5-5.6 SAM, Tamron 17-50/2.8, Minolta 24-50/4 Minolta 28-85/3.5-4.5 |
| price paid: | 350 SEK=42 $ |
| positive: | Quite sharp full open. Very sharp in the middle, on the edges of APS-C sharpness decreases. Warm Minolta Colors. Small. |
| negative: | Not really wide enough on APS-C. |
| comment: | OK Build. Better than the kit-lens. Need a hood, mine was lacking. Bought it 2nd hand from someone that could not spell Minolta, thus the low price. The Tamron and Kit-lens has an edge in sharpness, the Minolta 24-85 has longer reach, and has f:4.5 on the long end. Approx same sharpness as Minolta 24-50/4. Sharpens up nicely when stopping down to f:5.6. Better sharpness than 28-85/3.5-4.5 between 70-85mm. Update: For FF it is not so sharp in the absolute corners @24mm, and don't really sharpen up until F8-F11. |
| rolleiman#11805 date: May-3-2014 | |
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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: | SAL 18-55; Minolta 35-105N |
| price paid: | $90 USD |
| positive: | Good range for APS. No glaring optical weaknesses. Convenient and comfortable size and weight; good feel. Internal focus. |
| negative: | None for me. |
| comment: | I find this a big improvement over the kit lens; sure you lose the 18mm wide angle, but I rarely use that and having more reach is a good tradeoff. While the size is almost identical to the 18-55, having 14 elements instead of 8 is bound to weigh more. Mine is tight, smooth and free of zoom creep so probably that's a wear over time problem exacerbated by the heavy front elements. It's also sharp enough on the long end to withstand considerable cropping, which extends the usable range considerably. I'd put it in the contenders for the 'If I could only take one lens..' derby. Nice colour and contrast; minimal CA, sharp from 4.5. A keeper. |
| psychni#11043 date: Apr-16-2013 | |
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sharpness: 4 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 3 overall: 4 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | SAL 16-80 zeiss Tamron SP90 2.8 SAL 70-300 G |
| price paid: | missing |
| positive: | Sharp in the center Fantastic colors Light and compact |
| negative: | Not sharp in the corners Flare control |
| comment: | Have it for over 15 years. This was my companion of a minolta 800si and the for a Dynax9.. What a camera!!! When took the A700I replaced by the SAL16-80 zeiss and parked then. Now is the standard lens for my new A900 but will replace soon with my already ordered SAL 24-70 2.8 (great expectations). This is for this budget a fantastic lens!! |
| mnerd#10953 date: Feb-28-2013 | |
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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: | KM 28-75 F2,8 Sony 18-135 F3,5-5,6 |
| price paid: | 150 USD (used) |
| positive: | + weight, compact + colors + build |
| negative: | - price I'd paid, but lens is as new - no ADI |
| comment: | missing |
| derekw#10785 date: Dec-15-2012 | |
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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: | Sony 16-80 Minolta 35-105 |
| price paid: | 90 GBP used |
| positive: | Very sharp throughout the range. Minolta colours Virtually no PF |
| negative: | Rare Not a D lens |
| comment: | This lens is so good that it holds its own with two of the best availabe lenses covering a similar range. Just a touch soft at 24 f3.5, it becoms sharp at f4. At all other focal lengths and apertures it is sharp and very sharp above f5.6. If you dont need 16-24 save yourself some serious cash and look for one of these. At similar focal lengths and apertures it at least matches the two lenses mentioned above. A sleeping giant!! |
| eddieitman#10688 date: Nov-11-2012 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.4 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Minolta 35-70 F4 Tamron 17-50 F2.8 Minolta 35-105 Minolta 50mm F1.7 Sony 35mm F1.8 |
| price paid: | missing |
| positive: | Well what a sleeper this lens is, I picked it up as part of a combo deal on a Dynax 303si with the 75-300 (new) and this attached to the camera . My first impression was it looks quite nice similiar to new lenses being made by sony now but i thought it would not compare to the old Minoltas i have, Biy was i wrong The colours certainly have the Minolta Pop to them and bokeh is very nice with rounded blades producing nice circles at F8 even I actually prefer this lens to the Tamron 17-50 F2.8 superb lens It is very resistant to flare and can produce good results even when pointing directly at the sun. Its quite and fast |
| negative: | I did not get one earlier |
| comment: | A rather surprising lens that i had overlooked definite keeper |
| Alfmeister#10554 date: Oct-3-2012 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Sony 18-55mm f3.5/5.6 |
| price paid: | 60 USD |
| positive: | Sharp, relatively light and built to last. |
| negative: | None. |
| comment: | My favorite lens. Good range even on an APS-C. Smooth zoom and quiet auto focus when shooting video on my Sony A37. Useful hood that's easy to reverse for storage. Pairs well with Minolta 100-200 f4.5. Truly a great bargain. Highly underrated. |
| rouncey#10343 date: Jun-30-2012 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 4 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.1 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Tamron 90 di Minolta beercan Minolta 35-105 old Tamron 70-300di usd Tamron 55-200 Minolta baby beercan |
| price paid: | 65gbp |
| positive: | Sharp!!!!! Colour Quick focus Constrast Bokeh is pleasing |
| negative: | Hood |
| comment: | Well for the money this was a fantastic buy.Lovely and sharp,great colours and great contrast,a really superb little lense for portraits,its sharp but pleasing on faces,if that makes sence?.The hood is a bit useless,but seems to work,havent noticed any flare yet,build on mine feels like it might fall apart lol but i doubt it will,its just a real joy too use to be honest,whatever you throw at it it delivers,a real no brainer,if you can get one cheap enough i doubt if you would regret buying one,im impressed by it. |
| chriseen#10326 date: Jun-25-2012 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 4 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 4.7 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | 24mm f2.8 28mm f2,8 50mm f1.4 135mm f2.8 35-70mm f4 70-210mm f4 50mm Macro f2,8 100mm F2,8 macro 80-200mm f2.8 500mm f8 Reflex Sigma APO 300mm f4 ( sold ) Sony Zeiss 16-80mm f3,5-4,5 |
| price paid: | 150 euros |
| positive: | Quite sharp at all apertures on A700 Good and useful focal range on aps, Small and reasonably light, Decent hood, Strong built Perfect weight, compact Very fast focus ! |
| negative: | sometimes zoom creep , but that's not an issues to me. |
| comment: | My copy is sharp and contrasty at all focal lengths . The built is very good, lightweight and small all-around zoom Its an easy to carry around, even whole day long . It's a nice built lens with a very good quality. Compared to the kit lens, this lens produce much much better image. its sharpness and color saturation that I like very much . I find it good balanced in weight for the Sony Dslr's and Slt's. It produces images with very beautiful and saturated color, excellent contrast and total sharpness . Almost all older Minolta lenses have something to their colour and this one, in particular, has that dreamy colour everyone talks about . The difference in color between this lens and the Sony kit lens is like black and white. Autofocus is really superfast and non problematic. This is probably one of my favourite lenses and the one I reach for to walk around ,almost matches the 35-105 . Some seems complain about CA, I've not see any Chromatic Aberration and even less flare-prone than expected. Keep your kit-lens for wide landscape (use f11 or higher), take this 24-85 mm f 3.5-4.5 lens as your working horse . The overall user ratings 4.36 should be higher in my opinion . |
| donniefitz2#9961 date: Feb-22-2012 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 5 flare control: 4 overall: 4.5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Minolta 35-70 f/4.0 (baby beercan) |
| price paid: | 120.00 |
| positive: | - good zoom range on APS-C - very sharp - good Minolta color - good build |
| negative: | - a bit heavy - prone to flare without hood - a slight bit of barrel wobble |
| comment: | I bought this lens from KEH and it looked brand new when I got it. It's a large lens and a bit heavy but it really does look awesome (if that really matters to you). I found the sharpness to be excellent on my a700 and I would say it's as sharp if not sharper than the baby beercan with much better zoom range. And 24mm at the wide end isn't bad for an APS-C camera. I use this lens for general stuff and for portraits. I really like it a lot and I highly recommend it. |
| kaiser_jeff1986#9875 date: Feb-2-2012 | |
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sharpness: 4 color: 4 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | minolta 28-105mm xi, minolta 70-210mm, minolta 28mm, quantaray 18-200mm (sigma rebadge) |
| price paid: | 80 usd |
| positive: | sharp, minolta colors, good zoom lens... |
| negative: | soft on corners... have to raise the f stop a bit... |
| comment: | very good walk around lens light but its built tough. the colors are very vibrant and is very sharp at f5.6+ used it in my a700 most of the time. happy with it. |
| Ratsters#9549 date: Oct-30-2011 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 4 overall: 4.7 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Minolta 24-50 f4 Sony CZ 24-70 |
| price paid: | 175 USD |
| positive: | Light, well built, good reach, sharp at f8 and 28mm ++ Very fast and precis focus, almost faster then modern day lens, it's true it's a very light lens, almost too light for the A900, but for a walk around lens you can ask better. See 2nd NOTE at the bottom. |
| negative: | Soft at 24mm but gets better at 28mm and up, same result as on the A900 or the a580. |
| comment: | This lens has good reach, light, well built, but disappointedly soft at 24mm even at f8; it gets better at 28 and up. I've test it on the A900 and it's OK for the price but just so, but on the A580 it is surprisingly good. NOTE: Got me a second mint copie of the lens, and I'd like to add: very fast and precise focus, sharpness is equal to my other copy. Added NOTE (June 2014): I had an accident with one of the 24-85, it broke beyond repair; since I like these “Walk Around” lens, and they come cheap, got me a 3rd copy.... surpised, this one is even better then the first two one. Brand new, from Japan and in the original package. I re-tested on my A900, A580 and A700 and the quality, sharpness, accurate focus etc, is excellent. Conclusion: since these lens are considered “Kit Lens”, unfortunately craftmanship will vary greatly from one copy to the other.... probably why this lens received such low ratings. |
| Photovisionz#9433 date: Sep-17-2011 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.3 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Minolta 24mm 2.8 Minolta 24-50mm Minolta 35-105mm Minolta 50mm f3.5 macro |
| price paid: | 320 |
| positive: | Sharp Good range Great colours CA well controlled |
| negative: | Slight barrel distortio at 24mm and slight pincushion at tele end |
| comment: | I have bought this lens primarily as a travel / walkaround lens. It performs well. The 25-85 lens is MUCH superior to the 35-105 (which has very low contrast giving a totally flat image).There are few FF walkaround options forthe a850 or a900. This does the job. Colours are great, distortion can be corrected and CA is negligible. The lens is reasonably robust and the lens hood works well. Autofocus is excellent. No barrel wobble on my copy. The centre is sharp but the corners are a little soft wide open. By F8 when this lens is sharp across the field. SUMMARY This is a good walkaround for Sony FF with some compromises. |
| derekw#9182 date: Jun-26-2011 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Minolta 28-105 RS Minolta 35-105 original |
| price paid: | 70 GBP |
| positive: | Sharpness Minolta colours Range |
| negative: | None for the price |
| comment: | Very sharp at all apertures through the range and almost matches the 35-105 at comparable focal lengths. IMHO one of the best'budget' zooms you can buy. |
| Robin#9087 date: Jun-4-2011 | |
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sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 4.8 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | missing |
| price paid: | 130 USD (used) |
| positive: | - range - sharpness - great minolta colour - flare control - distortion - great boken |
| negative: | - build - litte CA in 85mm |
| comment: | This the very best lens for this price! |
| Aleksey463#8814 date: Mar-20-2011 | |
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sharpness: 3.5 color: 4 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 2 overall: 3.5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Kit lens 18-55 Minolta 35-70 F/4 |
| price paid: | 4000Rub(=140usd) |
| positive: | Smooth zoom wheel Good range |
| negative: | Flare bad at shooting against light |
| comment: | I've bought this lens for movie at A55 because it has good zoom range. I can't say nothing good about IQ because Kit is better. |
| MikeRG#8685 date: Feb-20-2011 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | 35-70 F4 35-105 F4 18-70 kit lens |
| price paid: | 70 GBP (used) |
| positive: | Sharp Lovely colours Wider than the 35-105 |
| negative: | Not easy to put the hood on backwards for storage. Made my 35-70 baby Beercan totally redundant. |
| comment: | Picked up an immaculate copy of this lens from eBay. Delighted to say this seems to be an extremely sharp example, from what I've read they can be a bit hit and miss. Wide open and even stopped down it beats the two older Minolta lenses every time, it's sharper and the fabled Minolta colours are just as apparent. Has the added advantage of a much more useful range on an APS-C body - don't miss the 20mm at the long end (compared to the 35-105) and really appreciate the extra 11mm at the wide end. Might not be quite as wide as the kit lens, but it's in a totally different league in terms of build quality and performance. This lens is an underrated little gem, pick up a copy if you can find one. |
| JNPhoto#8317 date: Nov-29-2010 | |
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sharpness: 3.5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.1 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | missing |
| price paid: | 75.00 |
| positive: | Light weight, small, nice wide angle |
| negative: | not the sharpest lens, too contrasty for my taste |
| comment: | A great used lens. I love the range, and the close focus range. It's a bit too contrasty for my taste. |
| Mark_k#8217 date: Nov-9-2010 | |
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sharpness: 4 color: 4 build: 4 distortion: 3 flare control: 3 overall: 3.6 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | missing |
| price paid: | 350 |
| positive: | Sharp lens, well built, |
| negative: | Not compatible to newer dSLRs |
| comment: | That was a huge step for me when I bought this from my rubbish kit lens on Dynax 7000i. It was sharp, well built and incredibly well. It served me through the ages of Dynax 7000i, Dynax 800i till Dynax 7 and replaced by a 24-105. Too bad found it not compatible with A100 and onwards. Sony politely asked me not for further repair...since they think this lens does not worth the cost |
| mrggt#7983 date: Sep-17-2010 | |
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sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.3 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | missing |
| price paid: | £80 |
| positive: | good sharpness,colour,distortion, filter size, PRICE!! |
| negative: | zoom creep |
| comment: | looking for a zoom lens for my a850 and wanting something that could give me a resonable wideangle for landscapes. i must say i really am pleased with this lens because the quality really is very good. distortion control is very good and worthy of a 4.5 if i could have given it this grade. all in all for the price this lens is, i would say buy one because if you ever go full frame this is a great lens capable of excellant results, the samples i've posted are no crop to the original and no sharpening at all! and shot at f22!! i wanted to push the lense to its limits and it did'nt let me down. |
| freelock7#7869 date: Aug-26-2010 | |
|---|---|
sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I used to own this lens |
| compared to: | Minolta 35-70mm Minolta 50mm 1.7 |
| price paid: | missing |
| positive: | colors, sharpness |
| negative: | missing |
| comment: | One of my favorite lens with the 50mm 1.7 prime. Produce wonderful colors |
| donalf#7719 date: Jul-24-2010 | |
|---|---|
sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 5 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | sony 18/55 cz 24/70 |
| price paid: | 130 euros |
| positive: | sharpness |
| negative: | none |
| comment: | very good lens got in from ebay as new better than a lot of primes get one you will not regret it , |
rating summary
- total reviews: 61
- sharpness: 4.49
- color: 4.79
- build: 4.20
- distortion: 4.31
- flare control: 4.07
- overall: 4.37
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