Minolta AF 85mm F1.4 A-mount lens review by karaatanasov
 karaatanasov#7590 date: Jun-19-2010 | |
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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 50 1.7, Tamron 90/2.8, Jupiter 85/2 - Lots of zooms like beercan, Tamron 17-50, Minolta 35-105... |
| price paid: | 650 Euro (used) |
| positive: | - Very sharp - Very nice bokeh - Excellent portraits |
| negative: | - Wide open produce aberrations - Very hard to focus on live people at f1.4 - slow focus |
| comment: | The lens is great portrait lens. It is also marvelously sharp and produces quite nice bokeh though not round but rather hexagonal (or octa...) Sharpness wise closed at f2 and further it fares well against the 90mm macro. AF is not very fast and is quite noisy. I thought the lens is broken until I saw another copy making even worse noises. If AF is accurate f1.4 is very nice. My copy fortunately is spot accurate on A700. Friends told me they were somewhat disappointed due to the high aberrations - these appear in slightly out of focus areas. This lens cannot do macro even close up on small objects is a bit hard at about 80cm. Built is typical minolta old school - built like a tank to last forever. I do not think there is any distortion. I cannot assess flare - have not seen issues but I do not do much photography with sunny backgrounds. The hood is great though and I would believe it will serve in such eventualities Can't wait for NEX-5 to arrive and try this jewel with A mount adapter! |
; 14MPrating summary
- total reviews: 53
- sharpness: 4.77
- color: 4.81
- build: 4.87
- distortion: 4.98
- flare control: 4.45
- overall: 4.78