Sharpness, solidity.

None so far.

Using with Sony A350. Delighted to have got this excellent lens. And at an unbeatable price for the quality.

- for the money few lenses will outperform this lens
- clear, bright and contrasty images
- little distortion throughout the range
- compatible with digital

- slow AF
- doesnt accept all polarisers

Bought this lens for the versatile zoom range. Potrraits, people, urban and for the particular perspective 100-200mm lenes give.

First it served my Dynax/Maxxum 35mm camera. I noticed it's fine construction, straight and simple, the small focus ring was never a issue for me. The authentic Minolta scales gave the lens a nice quality touch.

This lens was reviewed as being a good performer in most reviews and I was quite content, when my first slides arrived from the photo store.

Hereby I give my findings of the lens with the price and age of the lens considered.

First impressions, that turned out to be the overall characteristics of the lens, were its fine contrasts and sharpness, intens in the green and yellow colours, but overall very clear and bright images! It performed very good outdoors in bright light. Overall the lens is a steady performer, due to its fine colour rendition and very little image quiality fall of throughout the zoom range. At 150-200mm a little less contrast and more flare intrusion, but images stay good when stopped down.

The blur/bokeh is just fine and very characteristic, the AF is not very fast, perhaps faster on a 7000i. Flare control is not the best, try to achieve a matching lens hood if possible.

On 35mm film a top lens for the price, but also a competitor for more advanced lenses and the zoom range 100-200mm turns out to be fairly convenient! On my 5Digital the image quality are quite good as well., I was quite impressed of the images it produces on my 5D at the first time.

The good characteristics of the lens can only be more exploited more, due to the numerous image settings of the 5D. However at 150mm to 200mm the same as for the 35mm film. Stop down for better results, at f11 good performance.

overall this lens does cope very well with the digital camera. If you are looking for a budget lens to 200mm I can suggest you consider this lens.

Important note: Be carefull with filters on this lens, especially with polarisers.. It's a pity, but this lens doesn't perform with circulair polarisers very well on my 5D, unless it is a very good one! on mine the AF hesitates all the time and at 150mm to 200mm I get ridiculous blurry images. Best use no fliter, unless it is a grey filter.

Customer Service

None needed yet. Thrusty Minolta build quality.

Similar Products Used:

Tokina 28-200mm

- for the money few lenses will outperform this lens
- clear, bright and contrasty images
- little distortion throughout the range
- compatible with digital

- slow AF
- doesnt accept all polarisers

Bought this lens for the versatile zoom range. Potrraits, people, urban and for the particular perspective 100-200mm lenes give.

First it served my Dynax/Maxxum 35mm camera. I noticed it's fine construction, straight and simple, the small focus ring was never a issue for me. The authentic Minolta scales gave the lens a nice quality touch.

This lens was reviewed as being a good performer in most reviews and I was quite content, when my first slides arrived from the photo store.

Hereby I give my findings of the lens with the price and age of the lens considered.

First impressions, that turned out to be the overall characteristics of the lens, were its fine contrasts and sharpness, intens in the green and yellow colours, but overall very clear and bright images! It performed very good outdoors in bright light. Overall the lens is a steady performer, due to its fine colour rendition and very little image quiality fall of throughout the zoom range. At 150-200mm a little less contrast and more flare intrusion, but images stay good when stopped down.

The blur/bokeh is just fine and very characteristic, the AF is not very fast, perhaps faster on a 7000i. Flare control is not the best, try to achieve a matching lens hood if possible.

On 35mm film a top lens for the price, but also a competitor for more advanced lenses and the zoom range 100-200mm turns out to be fairly convenient! On my 5Digital the image quality are quite good as well., I was quite impressed of the images it produces on my 5D at the first time.

The good characteristics of the lens can only be more exploited more, due to the numerous image settings of the 5D. However at 150mm to 200mm the same as for the 35mm film. Stop down for better results, at f11 good performance.

overall this lens does cope very well with the digital camera. If you are looking for a budget lens to 200mm I can suggest you consider this lens.

Important note: Be carefull with filters on this lens, especially with polarisers.. It's a pity, but this lens doesn't perform with circulair polarisers very well on my 5D, unless it is a very good one! on mine the AF hesitates all the time and at 150mm to 200mm I get ridiculous blurry images. Best use no fliter, unless it is a grey filter.

Customer Service

None needed yet. Thrusty Minolta build quality.

Similar Products Used:

Tokina 28-200mm

Fixed f/4.5 aperture. Good solid metal build. Lightweight and compact. Low price and readily available used. 49mm filters are cheap and plentiful. This is a great first telephoto for anyone looking to expand their Maxxum's range.

The AF is a bit slow and hunts in lower light. The smaller max. aperture results in slower shutter speeds in low light. Rotating front element makes CPL use a bit of a hassle. CPL use in low light will require a tripod.

I have used this lens as my primary telephoto for 15 years and it has never let me down. I understand it has been discontinued for some time. The lens is lightweight, durable and compact. The fixed f/4.5 aperture is particularly useful when using the lens at 200mm (most teles stop down to 5.6) and while shooting in A-priority (my usual) mode. On a recent holiday, I got some nice wildlife and surfing shots using this lens. I enlarged several pictures taken at 200mm to 8 x 10 and was quite amazed at the detail and contrast in them. You could count individual whiskers on a tiger's head (he was about 100 feet away) in one enlargement. The colours were rich and vibrant. My only complaint is that I could've used 300mm on some of my shots, but that was poor planning on my part! (I'm considering replacing this lens with the 100-300 APO) I've shot sunsets with minimal flare. The supplied clip on lens hood is useful and reverses during storage. The 100mm end is useful as a portrait lens. The bokeh is fine enough, considering the smaller max. aperture. Add to this the fact that fortunately, you can still obtain one on ebay for under $100 very easily. It's a real bargain so I give it a 5 for value. Only because of its smaller max. aperture (versus say an f/2.8) and slower AF, I give the lens a 4 for overall rating. But you'd pay a lot more to get that big aperture and HSM motor!

Customer Service

Never needed!

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 70-300 Dl Macro

With 9.5cm length and 49mm filter size this lens is unusually smalle & light for a tele-zoom but is still very solid. Sharp throughout the range.

It can only focus down to 1.9 meters, but if you are portrait-oriented this won't be a big issue. f/2.8 would be better.

A very good price-quality lens, use it for portraits and you will compliment yourself on the choice. Quite easy to find at second-hand on ebay.com.

Similar Products Used:

Minolta 70-210mm f/4.5-5.6

Light, small size, f4.5 all the way. Sharp

1.9 m closest focus, slow AF

I bought this compact zoom lens 10 years ago. It is very sharp, I have enlarge some of portrait to 20x30, the result is amazing. Good color and details. But the 1.9meter focus is a limit.

Customer Service

None.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 80-200.

Sharp, cheap, rugged. Uses cheap 49mm filter.

1.9 meters minimum focusing distance. Some distortion.

This is one of several outstanding lenses from the early days of the Maxxum system. Optically, it''''s very sharp, but has some distortion. The distortion isn''''t going to be a problem for most uses. If you get a kick out of photographing brick walls, it''''ll bug you. It can only focus down to 1.9 meters, which can be a problem. It focuses very quickly on my Dynax 7xi, due to the 7xi''''s awesomely powerful AF motor. Overall, it''''s a great zoom lens at an unbeatable price.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

80-200xi, Canon 70-210/4.

Robust, light, small, fixed f-stop. A great companion for a 50mm lens due to using the same filter size. I often take it on day-trips with my 50mm. Well-constructed. Sharp! PRICE!!!

It is a shame about the minimum focusing distance. It only focuses down to 1.9 metres although mine seems to be okay down to 1.5 metres. No close-focusing function obviously. The AF can be noisy but actually this just needs re-greasing due to the age of the camera. Mine was bone-dry! Slow AF - a very low geared AF drive means that putting it on a modern camera won´t make any difference to AF speed.

This is a review for the older 100-200 f4.5 manufactured for the Minolta 7000, 9000 and the i-series. A wonderful little lens with amazing value for money. It is solid, yet light (the same size as my 28-85 f3.5-4.5 but weighs less) and great for day-trips. The fixed f-stop is very useful if, like me, your camera is almost permanently stuck in aperture-priority mode. Not an intimidating lens so it is great for shy subjects or if you don´t want people to know you are taking their photo. As sharp as my 70-210 f4. For the money it is a steal. The zoom extends quite a way when set to 200mm (almost twice as long as the 100mm setting) but I don´t consider this to be a downfall because you can´t get close enough to anything for it to be a problem. I gave it a 4 in the overall rating because of the minimum focusing distance.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

Minolta 70-210 f4 Nikon 70-210 f4 Tokina 80-200 f3.5-4.5 POS!!

- best bang for the money in the x-200 range - size - weight - solid build - 49mm filter = cheap

- rotating front - 1,9m minimum focus distance is too much! (I still give it 5 stars for the price vs. performance) - AF is very slow, even on the new 5&7 bodies. 600si is super slow focussing...

Discontinued, great for portraits and light travel. With 9.5cm length and 49mm filter size the body is smaller&lighter than the 70-210 f3.5-4.5! Sharp performer throughout the range. Couples nicely with 35-70 and old style 50mm f1.4, all 49mm filter. Build feels very solid. Distortion seems to be on the same level as 70-210 f3.5-4.5 (available samples).

Customer Service

not needed

Similar Products Used:

70-210mm f3.5-4.5 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 100mm macro