Minolta AF 70-210mm F4 (beercan) A-mount lens review by KS56

KS56#9256 date: Jul-25-2011
sharpness: 4.5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 4.9	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:	missing
price paid:	missing
positive:	Sharp Well built Constant aperture Internal zoom Inexpensive
negative:	Slow focusing
comment:	The Minolta 70-210mm f4 was one of the first zoom lenses I purchased in the mid 1980's. My Minolta film cameras are long gone by now but I still find this lens very useful for low light shooting with my Sony A700 and now with my Sony A77. The focusing is slow but the image quality is still very good. It is a very sharp lens and very useful for macro photography. When 1/4 life-size magnification is not enough, I attach a Nikon 6T diopter in front of the lens for greater than life-size magnification. As a bonus, when turning on SSS in the camera, the lens actually becomes an anti-shake lens, something I suspect Minolta Engineers never dreamt of when they first designed this lens. Kudos for good reverse engineering by Sony to make this possible.