Full frame lens

Lenses in this range are nice, if you are into very wide angle shooting. On full frame the 28mm is really a pretty good wide angle lens. I'd really recommend his next move be on the telephot end.
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Dave

The 1.7 specifically is not exactly a sharp lens. On an A900 you'll never get the full potential.

BTW: I also have the 28-85 old style and even though it has its uses, the 35-70 is my walkabout lens. The 28-85 is very soft and lacks the microcontrast that is so evident on the 35-70, and it is also very hard to avoid flare. (pluss much more heavy and larger)

I could have an excellent copy of the 35-70 and not so with the 28-85 though.

My first recommendation to a cheap but nice lens with mentioned reach,that is god enough for FF, I stick to the 35-70.

why go to the expense (or maybe it was a gift) of acquiring an a900, only to stick cheap glass on it? just like sticking the cheapest filter possible on to a 70200G zoom or 600mm G

ok, so perhaps the a900 purchase has left you with no money, and a cheap zoom is a stop-gap. still, a false economy in my book
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i know what i know, which is a fraction of what i don't

Because I got the a900 for only $1100, and it came with a lens.

Dylan F said:

Because I got the a900 for only $1100, and it came with a lens.

Click to expand...

Lucky man

The used 28-85 is inexpensive for sure. The designation of "cheap", implying total lack of quality, is misleading. It isn't a bad lens, not as good as some of the newer, very expensive glass out there, but certainly no a low quality lens.

It sounds as though you haven't been following his posts. He got a "can't pass it up" deal on the camera which exhausted his funds. He got a very usable, low priced, used lens so he could use the camera until he can get a top quality lens Nothing wrong with this approach at all--I am rather envious of his position.
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Dave

Minolta thought quite a bit of the 28-85 when new. See the price it went for way back when. I'm sure most have seen this but just in case. The 35-105 was highley regarded as well. Only the secret handshake was more for regular zooms. The primes were a hell of a deal. Back then zooms were more desirable.



Here is one pic I took with my 28-85. That I sold with a a100 body

not a bad lens, Im sure the a900 works best with Zeiss glass, but you will have no problems getting great pics with old minolta glass.



Taken with my a300

Wow, the price of that 300mm f2.8 APO must have been absolutely stratospheric back in 1985.

Mind you, I've just found one on eBay for £1500 which isn't exactly cheap either.

I was able to get one of the 19-35mm for like $20 something on Ebay.

According to dyxum.com the 19-35 is a lower rated lens then the minolta 28-85 besides having a less useful range in full frame, unless you reall like shooting in wide to ultra wide angle. I think he made a pretty good choice.
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Dave

Yemble said:

Wow, the price of that 300mm f2.8 APO must have been absolutely stratospheric back in 1985.

Click to expand...

Yes, the 300mm was indeed very, very expensive at that time.

I bought one of the first 7000 AF, a 50mm 1.7 and a 2800 AF flash when they first where available in Denmark, it seemed very expensive to me at that time. Added a 28mm and 135mm when they became available and later on swapped the 2800 AF for a 4000 AF which also seemed quite expensive. And compared to current cameras I will say things are less expensive to day.

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.... really, matter of fact it's all dark.

I bought a Minolta 28-85mm recently which I like very much on my A900. It is slightly soft below F 5.6 but that can be turned to an advantage when shooting head & shoulder portraits.

All the 1985 Minolta lenses were good & recently got better with the ability of ACR 6.3 & LR 3.3 to use lens profiles for distortion & CA correction. User created profiles can downloaded using the Adobe Lens Profile Downloader & profiles can be used created using the Profile Creator. Anyone who has created their own profiles that work well should submit them to Adobe Photoshop.com

Here is a first day test shot ,that I have posted before, which is a 100% crop of a photo of a magazine cover from about 9ft away





PS - these profiles created for any lens can be tried for other lenses & some work very well - the A850 profiles work for the A900.

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Keith-C