After buying a camera body (Konica-Minolta Dynax 5D) for digital recordings with my older MD lenses - which is slowly getting better - I still bought this AF lens, mainly because the automatic adjusting much faster than I do. This is important when you are on the road or want to take animals. Another advantage is that the data (ISO, shutter speed, aperture) are visible in my photo collection and thus provide me with indications for manual adjustment of the MD lenses. Negative points I found no, neither technically nor in terms of delivery

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None to mention

Poor focus, contrast and color rendition.

This lens came as a camera mount cap for my Maxxum 7 and that should be its only purpose. I tried it out to see how it would do. I was fortunate to have my neighbor come by and allow me to take pictures of her. The results were overly warm - orange - and the sharpness was awful. The color rendition was way off. I pulled out my Minolta 28-100 (another story in it self)to use on the Maxxum 7 and the color was right on, the sharpness and contrast was right on as well.

Customer Service

Haven't used it yet

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Minolta 28-100mm 3.5-5.6 -reasonable at close quarters Minolta 100mm Macro -excellent lens

-light weight -convenient zoom range -price

-poor contrast and sharpness -the flimsy feel and build -plastic mount -made in Malaysia, not Japan -front elemental rotates when focusing

A truly terrible lens in all aspects, except convenience. It is possible to see the poor image quality even in a 4 x 6. I guess that this would be an okay lens for a beginner are snapshots on a family vacation. However, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't use a digital camera for snapshots. If you want to take "professional-minded" pictures, shoot on slide film, or make quality enlargements, this is not the lens for you.

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Minolta 28-105 (Very good) Minolta 50 1.7 (Excellent) Minolta 70-210mm f/4 (Good-Great)

Cheap Its good for a casual photographer

Many, see above

When I started photgraphy this lens was adequate but when i got my next lens (75-300mm f/4.5-5.6) I noticed the difference right away. The telphoto zoom was a lot sharper and brighter. Although the 75-300mm is by no means a professioinal quality lens its is clearly better than the 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6. I dont think this lens should represent a company with some of the best optics around, like Minolta. Minolta is way better then waht this lens ofers. But lets face it it comes with an SLR for very cheap so what can you expect?

Customer Service

None needed

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Maxxum 75-300mm

Price, weight, advanced 'D' flash metering. Small filter size (cheaper)

Lightweight build, after several months mine took a hard knock and ceased functioning. Supplied lens hood not particularly effective.

Two or three previous posters under this product have actually reviewed a different version of the lens. Older lenses, such as those which came with the 505 and 404 models, are not the D lens which is intended for review here. The key value of this lens is its inexpense and its light weight. The cameras with which it ships as standard currently (Dynax/Maxxum 5 and 4) are likewise aimed at this market. Therefore one cannot expect professional results from it. That said, I have used it extensively for travelling when my heavier lenses are too much of a burden, and it fulfills this market admirably. My landscape photography is sharp and contrasty. Sharpness is adequate up to prints of 8x12 from Reala 100 (quality print film), when using a tripod and on full manual mode, apeture set around f8. I rather suspect that some disappointed reviewers are using very small/large arpetures or are using cheap filters, shooting into the sun, or using slow shutter speeds or even worse, firing the fill flash. All of these things will worsen an image from any lens. It is certainly true that my more expensive lenses give better results, but you'd need to be enlarging heavily to notice it. It is a worthy learning lens.

Customer Service

Have used Minolta UK customer service for fixing a light leak problem with my Maxxum 5 - they took 4 weeks but were good about keeping me up to date.

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Various Pentax manual focus prime lenses, Minolta autofocus lenses.

smooth zooming & focusing ,silver look good colour rendition,vignetting well under control price

poor sharpness & resolution , can't be reproduced beyond 6x8 size

This lens comes to me as part of a kit when i was puchasing my Minolta Dynax 404si.I am a beginner in photography.I have taken around 5/6 film rolls shot with this lens.I like the silver look of this lens.Zooming is quite pleasant except that it is somewhat tight around the wide angle end.Focussing is also very accurate.Depth of field scale is missing. As far as the optical quality is concerned,i will say that it is not good.The quality of print is not better than the P/S cameras.Sharpness is poor at almost all f-stops & when the prints are enlarged beyond 6x8 , it is very poor to worse.Definitely this lens is not for the serious amateurs.I am planning to buying one of the primes,either 50mm/1.4 or 1.7 which has been appreciated by many of the photographers. But surprisingly the colour rendition is good & vignetting is well under control.Till now i have not encountered any flare problem.

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Nil

Cheap, light and cute.

Very bad sharpness at wide, reasonable at tele, disappointing color rendition.

I bought this lens with a Dynax/Maxxum 5 and returned it after a few rolls: this lens is a piece of junk and doesn't deserve to be sold with such a good camera body.

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Minolta 24-105 f/3.5-4.5 (far better)

Performance quite good for a kit lens. Sharp at 4x6. Extremely light weight. Good learning tool for beginner. Much better sharpness than the 35-70mm kit lens I got with the Pentax SFXn 11 years ago.

It is a plastic kit lens, not a glass / ED glass pro lens! I don't think it is a weakness.

The performance is ok. This lens can give me razor sharp image at 4x6. Unfortunately I forgot the setting (focal length, distance, aperature) . At 8x12 print, the error shows up. There is big difference between this lens and the Tokina 28-70 f/2.6-2.8 . I tested both lens on the same roll of Fuji Reala film. For sharpness and color, the Tokina is big winner. But, I still hang the 8x12 photo on the wall. It is not that extremely bad as a P+S with long ZOOM. My mother can accept that. For such kit lens, I don't expect it to be as good as a Tamron SP or Canon L. This is one for my mother or my friend to use with Maxxum 5 to "Eye-start" (hold the camera and see what's there) and shoot and then print to 4x6 in a supermarket. It is no way used by amateur photography to make slide and blow up on the wall. I also got the used 505si camera kit as a backup of my Maxxum 5. The lens came with 505si is not the same one came with Dynax 5/Maxxum 5. The one came with Maxxum 5 is an improved version of "D" lens with asperial element and this is the new one I am talking about. Somebody who may have made comment on the old version of the lens on this forum ! Pls check ! I haven't tested the lens come with 505si. I am going to sell it anyway as the new version got the "D" function.

Customer Service

The service centre in Hong Kong is very good. It is 10 minutes from my home.

Similar Products Used:

Pentax 35-70mm kit lens. Pentax 43mm limited. Maxxum 200mm APO. Canon 85mm f1.8. Olympus 28-110 (IS-300/IS-30) Olympus 38-180ED (IS-3000/IS-3) Some P+S. I print photo to 8x12 from time to time.

Compact size and light weight.

I defy you to take an outdoor photograph that is sharp. Somebody earlier described the lens as an expensive football; I would only add that it is at least light, so when you finally punt it will go a long way. Good riddance!

Not to be harsh, but it is impossible to take a sharp outdoor picture with this lens. Very frustrating. To read the reviews, the Minolta Maxxum 5 combined with this lens offers virtually all the features of the Nikon 80 and Canon Elan 7e without the weight and price penalties. I think there is a real market for lightweight high quality SLR systems (I formerly used an Olympus 2 Program with good results). Unfortunately, this lens is the weak link in the Maxxum 5 package; Minolta should be ashamed of putting such a poor product on the market with their name on it, period. After wasting so much film on it, Monolta should pay me for the lens! Since I do want the flexibility of a lightweight compact zoom, I'm now looking into the Tamron 28-200 XR and Sigma 28-200 Compact (the Tokina 24-200 ATX is too heavy for my purposes). Any experience with these lenses and the Maxxum 5 would be appreciated. I'll likely also buy a Minolta 50mm 1.7 for general usage where sharpness must be guaranteed.

Customer Service

Not used.

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Olympus SLR system

Very light in weight, glass lens are too heavy with entry class bodies. A lower price can give you a wide angle! better than Canon 35-80 f/4-5.6

Very plastic! Not good image result

I have been used the Minolta MD system for years. Then, coming up with its AF system. This lens is coming with the 505si body. Many people compare this lens with other high end lens, even the G lens. Remember the price. As a user of fixed-focus lens of MD, the result of this lens are not good. With the same price, I'd suggest get a AF 50mm f/1.7 if you are really interested in photograpic. If you are only use 505/404 bodies to replace a P/S camera and take films like, Kodak MAX 400. Well, this lens is petty good for your demand. Don't trial slide films by this lens!!

Customer Service

N/A

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Canon 35-80mm f/4-5.6 Minolta AF 50mm f/1.7 Minolta MC 58mm f/1.4 Minolta MD 50mm f/1.7 Minolta MD 28mm f/3.5 Minolta MD 135mm f/2.8