( 1 reviews )
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( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: 02-16-2004
I have owned this lens for a couple of years. It is a reasonably good consumer lens, with some softness in focus, especially on the long side. The autofocus works quickly on both my Minolta cameras (Maxxum 7 and Maxxum QTsi), and works in relatively low light. On the down side, it is relatively slow (in terms of aperature), as you would expect from a consumer zoom, and when fully extended you will have difficulty getting a narrow depth of field, even when opened wide. Thus, I would recommend this lens only as a stop gap to fill in your lens kit. The fact that this extends from the portraiture sizes of 100 and 135mm all the way to 300mm lets this lens fill in some considerable gaps in a lens kit, but if you buy this lens I would recommend starting to save for a good 100mm and 300mm prime lens or a professional level 80 to 200mm zoom. It's contrast (good contrast makes your pictures really "snap") is acceptable, but certainly is not the kind of contrast you will get with a prime or a professional zoom. In terms of comparing to other lenses, this is less expensive than the 100 to 300 Minolta lens, though lacks some of the features of that lens that are especially useful on the Maxxum 7, appears to be a better lens than the 75-300 Minoltas, and has more range than the 70-210 Minoltas, plus it has the Macro feature. Please note that in rating this lens I am considering price as well as capability; if rated purely on capability, of course, I would have to rate it lower to leave room for the professional grade lenses that cost five times as much.
