Minolta AF 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5

Minolta Maxxum classic lens in todays digital world. Minolta Maxxum classic lens in todays digital world. With digital camera prime and zoom lenses for digital cameras costing more than the camera body itself it is nice to see that vintage and classic lenses from Minolta film cameras with auto focus "A" mount can still be used on todays Sony camera at a fraction of the cost while getting great lenses that are both fast primes and zooms. Todays Pro series of lenses sell for top dollars for the casual photographers or those on a budget wanting pro quality lens the Minolta Maxxum series of lens provide a welcome way of expanding the lenses range from wide to telephoto at reasonable with little to no trade of in image quality. and features.The Lenses I own for use on my Sony a-55 SLT digital camera are the Minolta Maxxum 50 mm f 1.7, 28-70 macro,35-85, the 80-200 zoom, 100-300 zoom all great film lenses purchased on E-bay at low prices in todays high prices world.

Budget lens This lens can't compare to the minolta 24-105 for sharpness. It does excel at avoiding the heavy vignette of the 24-105. It is so cheap that it might be a good lens for a hiking trip or something where you don't want to bring your best glass. It is also smaller and lighter.

Get them if you can. I am not a professional photographer but I would advise all owners of Sony Alpha DSLR to seek and obtain old Maxxum lenses especially 1st gen. It shows great foresight on part of Sony to keep Minolta amount and design Alpha’s to accept old lenses. Which perform better than ones that come with DSLR i.e. like mine 18-55mm SAM. That was the main reason I decided to buy Alpha. Sony has Zeiss lenses and if money is no object than by all means get them. Had previous life experience with Zeiss on old Praktica camera and lenses made then in DDR – unbeatable quality. I got my 1st gen Maxxum when it came out and quickly traded stock 50mm lens for what I think should be called ‘mini beercan’ 35-70mm, later got 2nd gen ‘beercan’ 70-210mm. Both great lenses and both produce amazing pictures. In retrospect I should have gotten ‘secret handshake’. Well, there is eBay for that and I will be looking for a deal. This one, I call ‘medium beercan’ 28-85mm it is extremely versatile and build like a tank – metal parts and glass lenses. Some minor inconveniences of old design are easily compensated by quality of images. Sony should get those designs out of mothball and they will have sure hit on their hands. it is old and, surpirse, it is better than new.