Minolta AF 400mm F4.5 HS APO G A-mount lens review by ab012
 ab012#419 date: Jan-22-2006 | |
|---|---|
| sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 5 | tested on:
|
| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Tokina 400 5.6 SD Minolta 300 f4 G (with TC) 70-200SSM G with TC |
| price paid: | missing |
| positive: | Super sharp from wide open, and also sharp with 1.4x APO. Relative Price. |
| negative: | Weight but comes with the territory. Wish the tripod mount was larger. |
| comment: | This is a very sharp lens. Wide open it is already very, very sharp. Not a lot of difference wide open and f8 - That MTF graph is correct! Watch out for the razor thin DOF though! Combined with the 1.4x APO it is still good at all apertures although there is gain from stopping down with the TC. A very useful combo 840!mm on the 7D/a700/a900cropped. The focus speed is ok- provided that it doesnt hunt all the way back and forth. The best way to use this is to utilize the focus limiter (see CTYankees review on how to set this). I ususally set it to 10m-infinity where the adjustments needed are small and so AF is fast. With 2x TC it is MF only. Needs a lot of care at these focal lengths though as the dof is tiny at closer distances. At these focal lengths though a very very sturdy tripod is needed or shake will ruin any sharpness. The AD elements do a really good job to keep CA under control, even when combined with the TCs. Build is actually very rugged, although hood design is slightly annoying when using wimberley plates as the size needed (not the one stated on the wimberley site - one will need a longer one for balance on a gimbal head!) will mean the hood cannot be reverse stored. All in all - it is expensive, but compared to its competitors it is almost a super bargain IMO since it offers super sharp f4.5 performance with AS in a relatively holdable package. |
; 10MPrating summary
- total reviews: 46
- sharpness: 4.92
- color: 4.87
- build: 4.87
- distortion: 4.96
- flare control: 4.80
- overall: 4.88