Review 4 of 13
Price Paid:
$180.00
from UK pounds with Dynax Summary: Two or three previous posters under this product have actually reviewed a different version of the lens. Older lenses, such as those which came with the 505 and 404 models, are not the D lens which is intended for review here.
The key value of this lens is its inexpense and its light weight. The cameras with which it ships as standard currently (Dynax/Maxxum 5 and 4) are likewise aimed at this market. Therefore one cannot expect professional results from it.
That said, I have used it extensively for travelling when my heavier lenses are too much of a burden, and it fulfills this market admirably. My landscape photography is sharp and contrasty. Sharpness is adequate up to prints of 8x12 from Reala 100 (quality print film), when using a tripod and on full manual mode, apeture set around f8. I rather suspect that some disappointed reviewers are using very small/large arpetures or are using cheap filters, shooting into the sun, or using slow shutter speeds or even worse, firing the fill flash. All of these things will worsen an image from any lens.
It is certainly true that my more expensive lenses give better results, but you'd need to be enlarging heavily to notice it. It is a worthy learning lens. Strengths: Price, weight, advanced 'D' flash metering. Small filter size (cheaper) Weaknesses: Lightweight build, after several months mine took a hard knock and ceased functioning. Supplied lens hood not particularly effective. Similar Products Used: Various Pentax manual focus prime lenses, Minolta autofocus lenses. Customer Service: Have used Minolta UK customer service for fixing a light leak problem with my Maxxum 5 - they took 4 weeks but were good about keeping me up to date.
| 
Sample Images
More Products from Konica Minolta
Link to this page
2 of 5
1 of 5
3 of 5
4 of 5
5 of 5
