Impressive images with a vintage Minolta AF 28-85mm 1:3.5~4.5, a medium-range zoom introduced in 1985 by Minolta for the Maxxum 7000 35mm AF SLR camera system. The lens, which can be used on A-mount Sony Alpha DSLRs, inherited its optical design from the hard-to-find manual focus Minolta MD 28-85mm 1:3.5-4.5, has 13 elements in 10 groups, 7 blades aperture, a rotating front element, measures 85.5mm long (110mm fully extended), weighs 490 grams, and takes 55mm filters.
Digital photo enthusiasts with Sony Alpha digital SLR cameras should do well with the lens, normally a low-end bargain, with its minimum focusing distance of 0.8 meters, and macro mode enabled by a slider switch at the wide end of the lens. The minimum focusing distance for the macro mode is 0.18 meters (without autofocus).
The AF 28-85mm is solid and well-built, with a double barrel design, plastic, a rubber zoom grip, and a narrow metal manual focus ring. Autofocusing is fast, though a bit noisy with the autofocus driven by a motor in the camera body. The lens has focusing distance marks in meters and feet, IR marks for 28, 35, 50, 70, and 85 mm, and similarly for focal length marks.
A unique characteristic of the lens, not seen on many other lenses, is the focal length change, where the lens barrel extends out to its longest extension as the lens is zoomed in to its widest, at 28mm. The lens barrel is withdrawn back when zooming in and is thus shortest at its longest focal length. The front element of the lens rotates when the focal length is changed.
In macro mode, the lens can capture images with a maximum magnification of 1: 4, and the minimum focusing distance is 0.18 meters. To enter the Macro mode, set the focal length to its widest, press the 'Macro' button on the zoom ring, and rotate the focal length control ring until it stops. Do the reverse to exit the mode.
On an APS-C Sony DSLR with 1.5x crop sensors, the lens is equivalent to a 42-127.5mm zoom, a very convenient range with a 'standard normal' focal length at the short end, favored for street photography, with the long end extending to what is colloquially referred to as a 'catwalk' focal length. The lens is equally suitable as a go-to lens, for portraiture, street, and travel photography.
The lens, despite being almost or nearly 40 years old, still worked flawlessly on the test Sony DSLR-A350 it was mounted on. Zooming is smooth, and autofocus, besides the noise, is fast. Colors are great. The images, though, remind me to spend a bit more time with the lens and to see if I can come up with a better range of subject selection.
The DSLR-A350, as used for this shoot, is Sony's top-tier consumer SLR for 2008, and comes fitted with a 14.2MP APS-C CCD sensor, the second-highest pixel count for an APS-C format DSLR at the time of its launch (after the Pentax K20D, which has a 14.6MP CMOS sensor). The camera has an electronically-controlled focal-plane shutter with a speed range from 30 to 1/4000 second, plus B, flash sync at 1/160 second, ISO sensitivity from 100 to 3200, a 2.7 inches 230,400 pixels LCD screen, and a unique Live View mode that no one else has. Metering is Multi-segment, Center-Weighted, and Spot.
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