5stars
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Durable100% agree
Sharp image100% agree
Good value91% agree
81 Reviews
Best value on the planet
No one can argue the quality of Minolta glass. I'm tickled to death that my Sony body is compatible with the old Minolta lenses. This 50mm is a great everyday lens but particularly good for portraits indoors. This lens excels in low light situations and has a very nice creamy bokeh. The sharpness is a bit soft at 1.7 and probably performs best at f4-f8. Having said that, however for the price I don't think you can find a better lens out there. It's autofocus is very fast on my A550. I think it's a winner!!Read full review...
Good $20 portrait lens for MFT cameras!
$20 for a portrait lens for your mirrorless system (if you have an MD adapter) is quite a deal. Mind you, this lens on modern day cameras isn't too sharp, but for portraits, you don't want sharp. Unless, of course, you're going for that grungy look or if you want to show exaggerated wrinkles and blemishes for a dramatic look, then this lens is probably not for you. But hey, $20 let's you experience the Focal Length at least for a really cheap price.Read full review...
Excelent lens for Sony Alpha
I bought it to use with a Sony Alpha 200. Until then i understood why people always said that Sony could not be compared with Canon and Nikon. But using the 50mm the colors and sharpness the camera becomes much better! Its still not a profi camera, but the results are excelent.
Beautiful bouquet, the aperture f1.7 makes it possible to take great photos without flash in almost all indoor places.
The lens are fast, cheap and build to last.Read full review...
Konica Minolta Normal AF 50mm f/1.7 Lens
Every photographer of any camera should have a standard 50mm lens. This Minolta 50mm f1.7 lens is quite unique for it's appearance. Though it looks very cute and small, it does quite a lot of neat things. Photo quality is outstanding due to the fact that it has an eye like us. Very good lens for low-light pictures and sharp tact pictures from a strong/rugged body. When I received mine from auction from Ebay, I loved the look of it. I treat this thing better than my other Minolta Lens. Installed it onto my A200 and A900, worked flawlessly and very fast focusing. Pictures turned out OUTSTANDING!! Recommended. Get it for a good price on EBAY!! I've heard that the Minolta 50mm f/1.4 is better and more expensive because it's a better quality lens. But I think I'll stay with the f/1.7 for now until I can afford it.
Fast, tact-sharp, has retractable lens hood, very compact and dependable for such a neat lens, simple to use, less weight and smaller size lens to fit in bag, and it's a strong lens.Read full review...
My First Prime Lens
So I don't get swayed much by numbers, and I am more hands on, thus why I bought a Sony Alpha opposed to a Canon or Nikon. I sure am glad I did (Sony makes most of Nikons high end sensors anyhow)I bought an A230 and while not a top shelf pro camera, my pictures rival anything Canikon can spit out. So I decided I neede a fast portrait lens yet didn't want to drop $400- $500 just yet knowing full well I may be awful at photography, not true I apparently have a knack fo it and this lens has helped a great deal. Super fast, sharp, beautiful colors. I couldn't be more happy with this lens, as a matter of fact it gets the most use of all 3 of my lenses. You have to really dig for a good copy of this lens, but if you do like I did, the pay off is well worth it. Minolta lenses are great and I am working on getting a "Beercan" just to have in the arsenal. Don't be fooled or pressured by folks saying Nikon or Canon cameras are the best, chances are they have Sony components and most dSLR's today are just as good as each other just different buttons. I hope this helps anyone looking into a Minolta lens!Read full review...
A "big" lens in a small body
Having just purchased an A700, I needed one fast lens. I can work around most things with a slower zoom, but when you need light, you need light. The only alternative is a fast lens.
Build quality is excellent, sharpness is also excellent with almost edge to edge sharpness at any aperture. Wonderful Minolta colors and resolution. I have purchased another one for a back-up because this lens is almost indispensable. I also plan on eventually purchasing the full-frame A900 body (when it is available as a "used" camera on ebay) and this will work perfectly as the "normal" lens as it did in film cameras. I am also going to look at other high-quality Minolta lenses with that in mind. The prices are going up now so it's time to make decisions.
More rediscovered stuff from Minolta.Read full review...
Konica Minolta Normal AF 50mm f/1.7 Autofocus Lens
NOTE: Camera: Minolta Maxxum 5D. I bought this lens primarily for headshot photography - indoors and outside. Other lenses I own are the Minolta 70-210mm 1:4 (32) (beercan) and the Tamron 17 - 50mm 1:2.8.
Minolta's 50mm f1.7 prime (meaning fixed - it cannot be zoomed in/out) lens is hands down the sharpest lens I have yet used on my Minolta Maxxum 5D. I can now see every detail on a subject. The eyes of my subjects are especially clear. I do not know if it's because this lens is a prime, or not, but it focuses much faster than my other two lenses.
And at f1.7, this lens is a master in low-light situations. I can keep my ISO low and still get beautifully lit low-light photographs.
I do not have anything bad to say about this lens. If you own a Konica Minolta/Sony Alpha digital camera, this lens is a must in your arsenal. You can find it for a fantastic price on ebay.Read full review...
Minolta's flagship lens
This was Minolta's flagship lens.
It was the lens they included in the box with their basic camera offerings. New camera owners used this lens first. For most camera owners, it was the only lens ever mounted on the camera. It had to be precise, reliable, and simple to operate.
A flexible and general-purpose design inherently requires compromise. For specific shots, there will always be another lens that is better in some way. Telephoto opportunities are obvious examples.
Photographers new to the camera and lens sometimes get images that are a little blurry. When that happens, the lens is almost never the problem, and changing lenses is unlikely to correct it, with one exception.
If we exclude special situations, most novice and amateur photographers would not be able to reliably distinguish photographs they have taken with this lens from photographs taken with an appropriate specialty lens.
There are more fertile areas to investigate. Lenses sometimes grow mold, so check for mold. Camera movement and mirror-shake, caused by the mirror moving up, are almost always the culprits. Big, long, heavy telephoto lenses are the one exception. They will significantly reduce mirror-shake, but then, you should really be using a tripod and mirror-lock-up anyway, for those kind of shots.
This is a fast, lightweight, precise lens. It is perfectly suited to the category of general-purpose. Very few lenses made these days come anywhere close to the quality of these jewels, whether general purpose or special purpose.
For amateurs and novices using the relevant cameras like Minolta SR's and SRT's, in terms of price for performance, it doesn't get better than this. You could easily spend ten times as much, without noticing any improvement.Read full review...
Minolta Lenses
Sony makes great DSLR cameras, but nothing beats mounting a quality Minolta or Konica Minolta Lens to the DSLR. Why, well they are for the most part all metal bodies, and the great glass that made Minolta famous! Plus here on eBay those fantastic lenses are very affordable. Why not try one or two to round out your Sony/Minolta system.
Specifically, you can't go wrong with a 50mm 1.7 or 1.4 lens! Mounted to a ASP-C DSLR you have a very fast 75mm (approx.) mid range prime telephoto. Or try a lens that incorporates a 70mm focal length, and enjoy a 35mm equivalent of a 105mm lens, which is the best focal length for stunning portraits. Just remember when you are selecting a 35mm lens, the equivalent focal length on an ASP-C dslr is approximately 1.5X the 35mm (Full Frame) focal length...This makes a 400mm Minolta a powerful 600mm telephoto. Shop around and you will find f3.5 or faster long telephoto at a mere fraction of the cost of the new 'plastic body' lenses. I recomend that you confine your search to AF (Auto Focus) lenses to insure that you can take stunning photos with a minimum of fiddling with manual focus, and it also insures that the lens will be compatible with the Sony alpha mounting system.Read full review...
Good manual lens, great bokeh, on a sony alpha (adapter needed)
I use this manual lens in my alpha 330 with a Md to Alpha mount adapter, it isn´t as sharp as an "af" lens mostly beacuse the glass on the adaptor, not a lens problem itself, it´s also a only manual focus lens so it´s difficult to get a full focus image at full aperture (f-1.7) the good point: it was cheap even with the adaptor, and if you take your time, you can get really cool photographs, amazing bokeh.
it´s not for everyone, but it´s fun to play and experiment with it.Read full review...