Minolta AF 28-135mm F4-4.5 A-mount lens review by nitrosyl
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sharpness: 4 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 5 flare control: 3 overall: 4.2 | tested on:
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ownership: | I used to own this lens |
compared to: | - Sony Carl Zeiss 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 Vario-Sonnar T* - Sony Carl Zeiss 24-70mm f/2.8 Vario-Sonnar T* - Minolta 28-70mm f/2.8 G |
price paid: | missing |
positive: | - Very nice range. - Fairly sharp across the frame. - Built like a tank. - "Macro" mode is useful in some situation. |
negative: | - Rare, hard to find a nice copy. - CA - No OEM lens hood - Flare - MFD - Rotating front element when zooming - "Macro" mode is manual focus only. |
comment: | This lens is built like a tank and performs well across the whole frame (FF sensor) once stopped down a bit. Holding it I felt it's gonna outlive me by a large margin ;-) It would be the ideal lens for outdoor/landscape A-mount photographers. Indoor/congested area could be a bit of problematic due to its long MFD, but that's when you will appreciate the "Macro" mode (MF only though) at 28mm!! IMHO that's a very thoughtful design. By the way, focus confirmation is still active in macro mode and definitely helps when manual focusing. CA is a problem (though can be corrected in post-processing) in high-contrast scenes. And you gotta be careful with strong light source to avoid excessive flare. The lens works very well on APSC (lacks wide angle though), and its FL range definitely shines on a FF dSLR! Stopping down to f/5.6 and beyond its image quality is quite solid on my A850. |
rating summary

- total reviews: 202
- sharpness: 4.62
- color: 4.83
- build: 4.80
- distortion: 4.42
- flare control: 3.44
- overall: 4.42