The Minolta Maxxum 100mm Macro lens is excellent. I invested in a ring light and had great results. I plan to visit other locations since I am now retired and have the time. One of the best investments that I have made is my Sony A-350 and 100mm f/2.8 macro lens. Easy to use, great color and boken. This lens also makes a great portrait lens, I find that I keep it on my camera most of the time.

A little slow focusing but I think that goes with most macro lenses. when you use the lens for a while you get used to it and it is not really a problem.

I got serious about improving my photography skills over the last two years. Purchased a Sony A-100 two years ago and nine months ago upgraded to a Sony A-350. I have purchased several lenses mostly used Minolta Maxxums on ebay. About eight months ago I got interested in macro photography and purchased a Minolta Maxxum 100mm f/2.8. I planted a flower garden and attracted several large butterflys which I photographed with great enjoyment and great results.

Macro photography opened a whole new world for me which I greatly enjoy. I took a vacation last week and spent a week in Canada at Niagara Falls Ont. I spent most of my vacation photographing beautiful butterflys at the Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory. A great time was had by myself and my lady friend who is now hooked on macro photography.

Customer Service

I have never had occasion to use customer service.

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I have several Minolta Maxxum and Sony A-mount lenses, Ikind of went overboard making lens purchases on ebay. I also have a Canon XT that I picked up on sale at Walmart for only $300.00 and I have bought a few Canon lenses. The Canon XT is a great camera but my favorite is the Sony A350.

Sharp from F2.8 to F32 with good color reproduction. No CA. Both for macro and protrait. An excellent piece of equipment.

Focusing a bit slow, hunting all over. But for macro, and since using manual focus, there's no issue here.

Have been hunting for this lens after hearing much rave review so before. Initially bought it for macro but now finds that it's comparative to my raynox lenses. But the beauty is it's also a portrait. So, it's a 2-in-1 deal that's most handy. No regrets for the premium price paid and the long wait to own this piece of equipment.

Sharpness, color, lack of distortion, my lens seldomly exhibits flare and when it does I blame myself for my technique, focus limiting switch

kind of large, AF is not blazing fast and can hunt a bit in low light, but I do not consider either of these to detract from the score I give because ot is not meant as a walkaround lens for quick shooting

I bought this lens several years ago on ebay. The plan was to use it for occational macrophotography, but mainly to use as a portrait lens. WOW! This lens will not disappoint you! It is consistantly razor sharp with beautiful colors rendered in full brilliance. I could talk this lens up, but lets just say that the pictures are perfect from a wide open aperature until stopped down to f/16 (I have never stopped down farther). Its negatives are its size and weight, and its relatively slow AF speed compared to smaller primes like the 50mm f/1.7, but what do you expect? It IS a large lens with large glass elements.

Customer Service

none needed

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Minolta AF primes, older Pentax manual focus primes, Minolta, Sigma and Tamron zooms

Excellent build and optical quanlity. The lense include the lense shade.

The focus ring is a little bit tight.

This medium range of macro lense produces excellent quality image with good contrast and superb sharpness. The out of foucs background looks like melted cheese. Thanks the circular aperture that the bokeh in the images are all pleasing cirles. I owned a Canon EF100mm f/2.8 USM before. The USM one is sharp at macro but become very soft at infinity. The Minolta one I got is the newwest (D) version which totally out perform the one from Canon in term of color, detail and overall focus range (from macro to infinity).

Customer Service

Never for this lense but for changing the focus screen of my Dyanx 7. The service of Minolta Hong Kong is very good and fast response.

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Canon EF100mm f/2.8 USM

Light weight. Crisp images.

I expected a more 'solid' feeling lens at this range. The lens is a compromise of high quality materials and some plastics that diminish its overall appeal from a build standpoint.

Finest prime lens produced by Minolta for the Maxxum line. Sharp and contrasty. Crisp. Becasue of the very deep placement of the front elemnt, I do not mount a filter for most use. Fantastic slide images result from this lens. Great for portraits and the subject 'lifts' off of the paper. Very good bokeh. Quick AF in the non-macro range (Maxxum 9), but I usually manual focus.

Customer Service

Only 1 failure of a flash in 10 years, and that repaired free of charge, out of warranty, returned in about 10 days. Excellent.

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Many. (!)

excellence optical quality compareable to any 35 mm SLR German made lens.Sharpness & Contrast much more superior to other Japanese Brands.Very nice weight balance on my Dynax 9.

look a bit plastics & the rubber grip seems a bit too thin in widthfor me to use on manual focusing

this is one lens I can't miss it in my camera bag ,Its optical performance is far more superior to alot of brands on the market including Leica,I mean for B&W (Portraits)& macro photography.Try not to use with filter as it will degrade the quality of the picture .The made & quality control of this lens I give a 2 thumbs up.This lens is not as hot & popular as other brands .If you are serious into real photography & doesn't borders by critics or advertisement ,this lens I will recommend second to a German made Leica.

Customer Service

not yet

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Sigma Macro 105EX & EX180,Canon 100 &USM L 300 ,Nikon Micro 105 ,ED IF 200 & zoom-Micro70-180 ED ,Minolta macro Apo 200 & 50mm F2.8 & Leica R series Micro lenses

light and cheap

The inner piece of the lens moved sideway.Gives a feel of cheap product.

This lens is satisfactory in terms of the price I pay for what I get.I use studio flash and most of the pitures are taken with f11 or f16.The colour is alright and resolution is fair.Compared to Carl Zeiss lens minolta has still a far way to go.Enlargment of the photos by CZ lens and you will understand what professionalism is all about.Image made by minolta len appear blurred when enlarged.

Customer Service

never tried.I sold the lens after I found the brillance of the CZ lens

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CZ makro planar 100mm 2.8

Well built, excellent quality output even at f/2.8

Expensive for one lens (RRP:£800)

After seeing this lens on eBay and getting it for £240, I was unlikely to be disappointed... the reproduction of this lens is astounding, much better than I could have hoped for. The lens feels really solid, like you might hope for this much money. Bokeh is nice, contrast is great, AF is pretty quick; it's suited to macro photography as well as portraiture, and some low-light applications.Out of all my lenses stated above, this is far and away the best one in my camera bag and the results are always pleasing. It spends more time on the front of my camera than anything else, if you can afford it BUY IT, you wont be disappointed!

Customer Service

none needed yet.

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Minolta AF 50mm f/1.7
Tamron AF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6
Sigma AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6
Tokina AF 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5

This lens provides 16 X 20s that rival the image quality of medium format. Very sharp, crisp images yielding accurate color rendition

When used for non-macro/ action photography AF is pretty slow, small tencdency to flare when photographing point light sources

I loved this lens but had to sell it to support a large format habit...I am going back to this lens asap for an all round 100mm. It has provided me with many of my favorite images, technically and aesthetically...it can hold its own!

Customer Service

none needed

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nothing similar

Very sharp lens, solid metal consrtuction. Super-smooth focusing barrel.

Try to use MF whenever possible as AF can be much slower.This I believe applies to all macro lenses as they go to infinity then try to get the AF done which in other words means that you waste some time.

A very sharp lens, but do try the third party ones too as almost all can be also very sharp and good in handling and construction.

Customer Service

No need for any.

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None.