With Sony having bought Minolta's camera and lens part of the business, the new Sony Alpha series incorporated Minolta Camera's technology into their Digital Cameras. Best outcome of this is that all the Minolta Maxxum lenses can fit perfectly onto the new Sony Digital Cameras. Two great advantages of these : 1. 20 year's worth of Maxxum Lenses are instantly available to be purchased for the Sony Cameras. 2. The Maxxum lenses, like this one, are superbly made glass lenses, with great optics. (Many of the current lenses are suprisingly not made of glass!). 3. A really wide range of used Maxxum lenses are available on ebay for excellent prices ! While most Minonlta Maxxum lenses are nice, be careful when buying used. Be willing to pay extra for those that come with the original box - as this means they were properly cared for, and spent most of their life safely stored in the original box. Look patiently for someone selling clean Maxxum lenses, like this one, for a good price. The 75-300mm lens is great for Portrait Photography and for Nature photography. For Portraits, you will get very sharp focus of the subject, while the background & foreground will be blurred. To maximize this effect, stand a little further back from the subject, and zoom in. This is a beautiful lens, and I am thoroughly enjoying using it with my new Sony Alpha A55 ! Thank You for reading and rating my review.Read full review
This Minolta Lens has the perfect range if you want to take great portrait pictures, and still have the abillity to get close to your subject without spending alot of money. The picture quality and function is as good or better than most expensive aftermarket lenses costing considerably more(excluding the APO versions). APO lenses are the sharpest but will cost you 4 to 5 times the price of this lens. Like all Zoom lenses it wanders a bit on the top end in auto focus mode,this is usually due to lighting factors since the camera uses contrast of distant subjects to focus in certain conditions and focal lengths.The use of manual focus is best when shooting subjects at great distances and in less than optimal lighting. Also sharpness tends to be lost at max zoom, but this is pretty common of all non-fixed focal lenses.The solution IMO would be to overlap your lenses by at least 5-10mm so you won't be at the max focal length of your lens. This should preserve image quality and sharpness of any lens. This is a Macro lens with a 1:4 magnification. IMO it is near impossible to use for this purpose since min. focus distance is 1.5 meters, unless you want close-ups of larger objects. A fixed lens with a shorter min. focus distance would be more appropriate for true macro photography. I rated this lens 4/5 because it's a good all around lens for most photography situations. It didn't score 5/5 because its not an APO version. Pros Quality,design and performance at a realy good price. This(D)lens works (with Film /Digital camera if equiped) to meter lighting when using a (D)flash unit. Focal length is further multiplied by 1.5-1.6 crop factor making this lens a 110-450mm when used on a 5D or 7D. Cons Loss of sharpness at top end of zoom range. Not an APO. I have been a long time fan of Minolta since my first camera (SRT 201) which I still use, and it works like it did the day I purchased it.To me that says alot about quality. They have never let me down. That is why I continue to use their cameras and lenses. Minolta has put much effort into the design of their products, and quality control is consistent throughout production. Though not considered by most photographers to be professional level gear,they still have the reputation and credit of being the first at many new design innovations and features long before their competitors.It is sad to see them leaving the consumer imaging market.Read full review
I wanted a lens for taking still life photos for a trip we are taking to Alaska later this year. I had done research on this lens and it fit well with what I wanted on a mid priced telephoto lens for my Sony Alpha 1 camera. The lens is pretty heavy as compared to some of the newer lens however the quality is superior to the newer lower priced 300 MM lens on the market. I would have loved to have had the 2.8 lens that are out there but I did not want to spend $2,000 to $6,000 for a lens. E-bay allowed me to find the lens I could afford. The individual I purchased it from was great to work with, it was even better than he described and was packaged very well. Thanks e-bay for the great lens, I am sooking forward to great pictures of Alaska in August.
just tried the lens on my Sony A 33 SLT camera...the old Minolta lens are a bargain..way cheaper than the Sony Lens of comparable range and speed...and the build is way better unless you spend a whole lot of money for the faster glass or brand....affordable photo fun.... It was really nice of Sony to incorporate the older style Minolta-Konice lens mount into their new Sony Alpha SLR line of cameras...seems most companies just change everything to make older gear obsolete...and sell more product... So for this reason I bought Sony---for the lens adaptability... Ps..from what I can tell without using my new Minolta lens..it's going to be just fine for my needs--- SteveWb
The Big Beercan as it is so called, is an excellent value for a long lens. The autofocus is fairly quick in good lighting. It takes beautiful pictures with amazing color. The autofocus does tend to slow down in low lighting situations, however it has a focus limiting switch on the side. This can come in handy to reduce the amount of time spent searching for focus. Pitfalls of this lens are the large size and heavy weight in comparison to other lenses of this focal length. It is extremely well built however, and I would choose it over any other lens in its price range and focal length.
This is a lightweight zoom lens with good range and image quality. With a minimum focal distance of 4.9ft it is best suited for situations where getting close is impossible or undesirable. In good lighting it can be handheld with good results up to the 135 focal length, but a tripod is recommended for longer lengths. The aperture provides a range a range of f4.5(32)-5.6. It works well in either auto focus or manual mode. In manual mode focus is easily done with the grooved plastic ring positioned near the end of the lens.
This lens has more reach than the 70-210 “Beer Can” having 6x at the long end. It does get longer as it zooms which the Beer Can does not. I think that this lens is very nearly as good from 75-210 as the other, and the extra length is indispensable on occasion. Get one while you can.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
this is for the orig af75-300 not the newer 75-300/4.5-5.6 II be sure to get the orig big beer can rated 4.67 on a 5 scale I now have 2 of then and they are great see http://www.dyxum.com/lenses/detail.asp?IDLens=52 for the many reviews and pictures in mint condition can be well worth over $400 may not be as fast as a newer much more expensive lens but in daylight and at f8+ the pics are just as good this is a very heavy well built lens if money is no object then look for a G type lens wish I could afford one
i recieved the lens a few days ago and have been playing with it, it works great, i am happy with the results from this lens, this has been my first slr camera and with this lens i get great results, i live in hawaii and travel around the island,this new lens brings distant objects up close and takes great shots. i cant wait until this weekend when i get to go out for a longer period of time and use it to its full potential.
I bought the lens as a replacement to a Minolta AF 300mm f/2.8 APO. Whilst it was fairly quick in the AF department and the condition was excellent, it wasn't complete and the AF motor sounded rough. The lens is capable of capturing superb quality images with wonderful classic Minolta colours, but I had been spoiled with the 300mm 2.8, so sold it on. That said, I found my Sigma AF 100-300mm EX DG (IF) APO at least as good as the Minolta 300/4, and that being a zoom, was more versatile. I would suggest that you take a look on the Dyxum website for owner reviews as I didn't own it long enough to write a comprehensive review. http://www.dyxum.com/lenses/Minolta-AF-300-F4--HS-APO-G_lens21.html
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Lenses
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Lenses
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
