Officially blown away – purchased mint Minolta 70-210 F4 'Beer Can'!

sybersitizen · Jun 22, 2016

dermessingcom said:
... I am using the Minolta Maxxum AF 70-210mm F/4 with my Sony A7II and an adapter (doesn't consume any light) and here is one of my examples:

The picture is very dark ...

Yeah, looks like a stage three smog alert.

dermessingcom said:
and has thousands of dust spots. I guess I could clean the lens up but am not sure if it´s worth it.

The camera's sensor is what needs cleaning.

dermessingcom said:
But more importantly - why is the picture so dark although I lit it "well" enough?

Do you have something that was not underexposed and shot through miles of haze?

JimH123 · Jun 23, 2016

Douglas F Watt said:
Thanks Guys!

I also have been able to see what they mean by its tendency towards purple CA! Wow! Real contrast with some modern lenses like the Tamron 70-200 2.8. But it weighs less than half that beast. So it can be the short tele lens for days when I don't want to tote a honkin' 2.8 around. Which is most of the time.

Fortunately, DxO OP10.2 has a profile for the lens to get rid of the CA.

Why doesn't Sony make a newer version? Part of their no/minimal support for A mount these days.

Douglas F Watt · Jun 23, 2016

JimH123 said:
Douglas F Watt said:

Thanks Guys!

I also have been able to see what they mean by its tendency towards purple CA! Wow! Real contrast with some modern lenses like the Tamron 70-200 2.8. But it weighs less than half that beast. So it can be the short tele lens for days when I don't want to tote a honkin' 2.8 around. Which is most of the time.

Fortunately, DxO OP10.2 has a profile for the lens to get rid of the CA.

Why doesn't Sony make a newer version? Part of their no/minimal support for A mount these days.

Click to expand...

artichokes · Jun 23, 2016

Totally agree with you. Just bought my first ˋbeercanˋ last week from KEH and am having a great time with it. Itˋs not ˋmintˋbut close to it, and best of all I got in on the 20% off Minolta sale and paid just $75 I think it was free shipping too!

jwasturias · Oct 27, 2016

Hi,

I read about this parfocal claim before.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case with my beercan. For example, I manually focus with max amplification at 210mm, zoom out to 70mm and it is not in focus when I check it (magnify image).

It is closer than some other lenses such as the 28-135 or 100-300 apo, but not really usable as parfocal solution. (Perhaps on video , the resolution may be enough between 150-210)?

Did anyone else notice that all beercan style lenses (I have the 70-210, 35-70, and 28-135) are darker for the same f stop. (Compared to more modern lens e.g. 100-300apo.)

I thought it was only the 28-135 because of the large number of elements, but it is also the beercan and the 35-70 f4. They are half a stop darker in fact! (shutter speed 1/250 compared to 1/320 on the APO, same iso and both f5.6). This is consistently so.

When put on an LE-a4 adapter on an e-mount camera I lose another half stop and the result is 1 stop darker than a native e-mount lens. (e.g. during above tests 1/500 on e-mount native lens (kit lens 18-55) and 1/250 on the beercan at f5.6

Not that it stops me using these lenses

Just surprised that I only have heard about this regarding the 28-135 but never with the true beercan.

--
Jan

QuietOC · Oct 27, 2016

jwasturias said:
I read about this parfocal claim before.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case with my beercan. For example, I manually focus with max amplification at 210mm, zoom out to 70mm and it is not in focus when I check it (magnify image).

It is closer than some other lenses such as the 28-135 or 100-300 apo, but not really usable as parfocal solution. (Perhaps on video , the resolution may be enough between 150-210)?

Many of cheap Sony lenses are more parfocal than the Minolta 70-210 F4. In their lens service manuals Minolta has an adjustment procedure for many of their zoom lenses to minimize the focus shift with zoom. It sounds like your copy of the 70-210 isn't adjusted properly. Mine keep focus when racked all the way from 70 to 210 or back, but drift out a little in the middle of the zoom range. That is how they should act when properly adjusted, but that is still not perfectly parfocal.

FWIW: The little Minolta AF 28-80 F3.5-5.6 D is quite parfocal. Most of the other cheap zooms tend to have a lot of mechanical slop.

Douglas F Watt · Oct 27, 2016

QuietOC said:
jwasturias said:

I read about this parfocal claim before.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case with my beercan. For example, I manually focus with max amplification at 210mm, zoom out to 70mm and it is not in focus when I check it (magnify image).

It is closer than some other lenses such as the 28-135 or 100-300 apo, but not really usable as parfocal solution. (Perhaps on video , the resolution may be enough between 150-210)?

Click to expand...

Many of cheap Sony lenses are more parfocal than the Minolta 70-210 F4. In their lens service manuals Minolta has an adjustment procedure for many of their zoom lenses to minimize the focus shift with zoom. It sounds like your copy of the 70-210 isn't adjusted properly. Mine keep focus when racked all the way from 70 to 210 or back, but drift out a little in the middle of the zoom range. That is how they should act when properly adjusted, but that is still not perfectly parfocal.

FWIW: The little Minolta AF 28-80 F3.5-5.6 D is quite parfocal. Most of the other cheap zooms tend to have a lot of mechanical slop.

Was unaware of the parfocal adjustment options. Could you advise on how that's done? Still love the beercan and SH.

QuietOC · Oct 27, 2016

The aperture size is also adjustable on these lenses. There is a procedure to properly set the aperture size in the service manual. The T-stop exposure value can be quite different than the F-stop value with many lenses.

QuietOC · Oct 27, 2016

Douglas F Watt said:
QuietOC said:

jwasturias said:

I read about this parfocal claim before.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case with my beercan. For example, I manually focus with max amplification at 210mm, zoom out to 70mm and it is not in focus when I check it (magnify image).

It is closer than some other lenses such as the 28-135 or 100-300 apo, but not really usable as parfocal solution. (Perhaps on video , the resolution may be enough between 150-210)?

Click to expand...

Many of cheap Sony lenses are more parfocal than the Minolta 70-210 F4. In their lens service manuals Minolta has an adjustment procedure for many of their zoom lenses to minimize the focus shift with zoom. It sounds like your copy of the 70-210 isn't adjusted properly. Mine keep focus when racked all the way from 70 to 210 or back, but drift out a little in the middle of the zoom range. That is how they should act when properly adjusted, but that is still not perfectly parfocal.

FWIW: The little Minolta AF 28-80 F3.5-5.6 D is quite parfocal. Most of the other cheap zooms tend to have a lot of mechanical slop.

Click to expand...

Was unaware of the parfocal adjustment options. Could you advise on how that's done? Still love the beercan and SH.

Well, in the service manual it involves a collimator, a flange back tester, and a microscope.

What is actually adjusted is the front lens group, which on the 70-210/4 just requires loosening those three screws in the focus grip. The procedure is to basically turn the front group so focus at infinity is maintained at 70 and 210 mm. After you do that you are supposed to check the back flange distance over the entire range of focal lengths and swap out shims to keep that in the 44.6 to 44.7 mm range.

There a supplement to the service manual for the 28-135 that describes a modification kit that allows adjustment of focus shift caused by spherical aberration. A modified 28-135 should show less focus-shift when stopping down. You don't ever get that information in a sale listing.

Scans of these service manuals are available for $19 from Pete Ganzel.

Argaive · Jan 11, 2018

So I'm not the only one then!

Hi Douglas,

I purchased one of these in '86 to go with my Maxxum 7000 and 9000 and I continue to use it with my Alpha 900. It blew me away back then and it never fails to impress me even now. It's showing signs of wear by now but it'll certainly be less expensive to replace it than to get something new.

I've discovered it's a great studio lens for head-shots and the like, and to my surprise it's a pretty good show lens as well in spite of it's somewhat slow for the purpose f4 limit.

Here are a couple of images, one from the studio and show pic. The snake pic is a 1200x1200px slice of a 24mp original.

Just so you know what to expect, I do a certain amount of adult-oriented art photography as well. That said, here's my site: http://argaive.photo/DailyPic/ .

Cheers!

A 1200x1200px slice of a 24mp original.

Attached to a Minolta Alpha-7 Digital (6mp aps).

tbcass · Jan 11, 2018

Doug used to be a regular here but now his posts are few and far between.

dkeller · Jan 11, 2018

Would be nice. I suspect it would be priced more like $1500

Lelly · Jan 14, 2018

I recently received my daughters 'hardly used' A55 camera and lenses. Good timing as my dear very used A55 is showing it's age now cosmetically and mechanically. (The lens to mount contact is 'iffy' at times, it cannot write to SD cards and the body skin is rubbed off and peeling in places). I now have excess lenses to sell including a well-rated Sigma 18-250 which does not match my old 'beercan' for clarity and colour. The Sigma is half the weight and length though, 530 grms vs 740 grms for the beercan.

dkeller · Jan 14, 2018

The Beercan's sharpness and color are hard to beat. Purple fringing can be a problem but can be corrected. It is a heck of a lens, especially for the price on todays market. I was using a Tamron 18-270 PZD which I thought, still think, was a pretty decent lens. When I took my first Beercan shots I had the same reaction you expressed--I was totally blown away with the color and sharpness.

tbcass · Jan 15, 2018

dkeller said:
The Beercan's sharpness and color are hard to beat. Purple fringing can be a problem but can be corrected. It is a heck of a lens, especially for the price on todays market. I was using a Tamron 18-270 PZD which I thought, still think, was a pretty decent lens. When I took my first Beercan shots I had the same reaction you expressed--I was totally blown away with the color and sharpness.

KEH has 70-210 f4 in excellent condition for only $109. It's not a lens I'm interested in because I have a Tamron 70-200 f2.8 USD but if anybody is it's a bargain.

Loading…

www.keh.com

Mark K · Jan 16, 2018

Mine is a gem, ...I love it more than the newer 70-200f4 FE

--
Mark K

stardotstar · Jan 16, 2018

Its hard to beat most of the older KM Lenses!

Douglas F Watt · Jan 16, 2018

tbcass said:
Doug used to be a regular here but now his posts are few and far between.

tbcass · Jan 16, 2018

Glad to see your still about Doug. When I don't hear from someone I fear the worst like Walt Knapp and Canadian Club RIP :-(

Yes my A99ii is great and so is my RX10iii.

--
Tom
Look at the picture, not the pixels

Ron Poelman · Jan 16, 2018

No, it hasn't gone away.
What has arrived is modern software.
Just a heads up, I've had some pretty fair results using C1 lately.
No, not the C.A. tool.
Try this;
Select the Colour Editor.
Select the Advanced Tab.
Select the Eyedropper.
Take a sample of that nasty green or magenta stuff.
Wind back the Saturation with the slider.
Keep an eye on the rest of the shot,
you may need to adjust the Smoothness slider
to keep the Saturation fix "localised".

Results will vary with the complexity of the subject,
but I find it very effective and intuitive.

--
Ron.
Volunteer, what could possibly go wrong ?

Officially blown away – purchased mint Minolta 70-210 F4 'Beer Can'!

Forum Pro

Senior Member

Senior Member

Well-known member

Member

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

New member

Forum Pro

Senior Member

Leading Member

Senior Member

Forum Pro

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Forum Pro

Veteran Member

Similar threads

Keyboard shortcuts