Minolta AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro

This is a better lens than the comparable one made by Minolta The reason I bought the Sony SAL50M28 lens was to get clearer magnification of small objects indoors with the assistance of two photo lamps from a light box kit. This lens is just somewhat sharper than the comparative Minolta Maxxum 50mm F2.8 lens. Overall it's a better lens than the Minolta with the same specs, but I don't think it's worth twice as much as some dealers want. I was still dissatisfied with it and bought their lighter less expensive 30mm Macro DT lens. This gave even better resolution, but I was disappointed in its construction with the grey grainy plastic base mount as a substitute for metal. This feature was picked up from Minolta's use on sub par lenses in their last struggling years.

Slow But Sharp Macro This lens does one thing very, very well at the expense of being a good general 50mm prime 2.8. If you are purchasing this lens for macro applications, I would recommend a solid tripod with intricate height adjustments and bright lights. If you are looking for a 50mm prime, opt for the f1.7 instead, it is lighter, smaller and faster on the focus. (also the wider aperture makes it faster, of course) It is also worth noting that you should try to operate the focus on manual, as the motor labors to extend the end of the lens, which is quite long.

An amazingly sharp lens I also have the Zeiss 50/1.4 and this little gem gives it a good run for the money, albeit it is obviously much slower. With Alpha 99-ii this lens has supplanted 24-80 zoom range, as the images are so sharp that cropping takes care of 'zooming'. Incredible walking around lens. Very highly recommended.