Konica Minolta AF 100mm f/2.8 Macro

I bought this lens several years ago on ebay. The plan was to use it for occational macrophotography, but mainly to use as a portrait lens. WOW! This lens will not disappoint you! It is consistantly razor sharp with beautiful colors rendered in full brilliance. I could talk this lens up, but lets just say that the pictures are perfect from a wide open aperature until stopped down to f/16 (I have never stopped down farther). Its negatives are its size and weight, and its relatively slow AF speed compared to smaller primes like the 50mm f/1.7, but what do you expect? It IS a large lens with large glass elements.

Sharpness, color, lack of distortion, my lens seldomly exhibits flare and when it does I blame myself for my technique, focus limiting switch

kind of large, AF is not blazing fast and can hunt a bit in low light, but I do not consider either of these to detract from the score I give because ot is not meant as a walkaround lens for quick shooting

Minolta AF primes, older Pentax manual focus primes, Minolta, Sigma and Tamron zooms

none needed

I have purchased many macro lenses over the years in the 90mm to 105mm focal length range. These include the sigma 105/2.8, the vivitar/phoenix ( made by cosina ) 100/3.5, and the highly reguarded tamron 90/2.8. In fact I have owned two of some of the above lenses. The minolta 100/2.8 D version is overall the best of the group. In comparison, the surprisingly good vivitar is fully multicoated and has only 5 elements in 4 groups, resulting in amazing contrast and color neutrality. No above lens has higher contrast. Slides will tell otherwise, but in prints you could not tell that this lens isn't optically perfect. Slide film, though, can show the other lenses producing better sharpness and detail. The tamron has resolution nearing perfection at around 5.6 to 11. The sigma is also a great performer and I especially like the slightly greater focal lenght - it really shows in my slides. But when it comes down to opticall performance at f/2.8 all the way to f/16 ( I have't tested beyond f/16 ), the minolta has the consistently best combination of sharpness, contrast, and color neutrality. It also is very solidly built and has very fast autofocus when my maxxum 9 is set to speed priority autofocus. The minolta also has the smartest division of focus ranges - 0.6 meters to infinity as opposed to the other lenses much less.

Everything about it is a strenght.

No lens case comes with it.

Tamron, Sigma, Vivitar, Phoenix.

Never used it.

This medium range of macro lense produces excellent quality image with good contrast and superb sharpness. The out of foucs background looks like melted cheese. Thanks the circular aperture that the bokeh in the images are all pleasing cirles. I owned a Canon EF100mm f/2.8 USM before. The USM one is sharp at macro but become very soft at infinity. The Minolta one I got is the newwest (D) version which totally out perform the one from Canon in term of color, detail and overall focus range (from macro to infinity).

Excellent build and optical quanlity. The lense include the lense shade.

The focus ring is a little bit tight.

Canon EF100mm f/2.8 USM

Never for this lense but for changing the focus screen of my Dyanx 7. The service of Minolta Hong Kong is very good and fast response.

Finest prime lens produced by Minolta for the Maxxum line. Sharp and contrasty. Crisp. Becasue of the very deep placement of the front elemnt, I do not mount a filter for most use. Fantastic slide images result from this lens. Great for portraits and the subject 'lifts' off of the paper. Very good bokeh. Quick AF in the non-macro range (Maxxum 9), but I usually manual focus.

Light weight. Crisp images.

I expected a more 'solid' feeling lens at this range. The lens is a compromise of high quality materials and some plastics that diminish its overall appeal from a build standpoint.

Many. (!)

Only 1 failure of a flash in 10 years, and that repaired free of charge, out of warranty, returned in about 10 days. Excellent.

this is one lens I can't miss it in my camera bag ,Its optical performance is far more superior to alot of brands on the market including Leica,I mean for B&W (Portraits)& macro photography.Try not to use with filter as it will degrade the quality of the picture .The made & quality control of this lens I give a 2 thumbs up.This lens is not as hot & popular as other brands .If you are serious into real photography & doesn't borders by critics or advertisement ,this lens I will recommend second to a German made Leica.

excellence optical quality compareable to any 35 mm SLR German made lens.Sharpness & Contrast much more superior to other Japanese Brands.Very nice weight balance on my Dynax 9.

look a bit plastics & the rubber grip seems a bit too thin in widthfor me to use on manual focusing

Sigma Macro 105EX & EX180,Canon 100 &USM L 300 ,Nikon Micro 105 ,ED IF 200 & zoom-Micro70-180 ED ,Minolta macro Apo 200 & 50mm F2.8 & Leica R series Micro lenses

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