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On eBay, shopping for whatever Minolta/Sony lenses may catch my eye, I came across this famous "beercan". And the current auction price was low enough to attract a bid from me. I may be very late in acquiring my first "Beercan", but I am so happy I have. I've avoided buying one til now due to me owning a Sony 18-200mm f3.5, a nice, very versatile, wide ranging lens. My model was rom the ealy pewriod of its offering, though it was new enough to have the "Maxxum" on the side. Popping it on my a700, I did note the increased in size vs the 18-200mm. Sitting on my front step, where I'm often found on warm days with some reading material, I quickly zoomed in, noticing a quick AF, on a stand of Brown-eyed susans in my yard's corner. And my view through the VF was sharp. I snapped off a string of white balance bracketed shots and compared them in camera. One of the many features I like of the alpha700 is its abiity to give me a sampling of 3 differing white balances, with only the one "Snap" of the shutter. Trust me on this. I push the "shoot" button but once; the LCD review shows me 3 quite noticable different frames from which to pick my fave. I was pleasantly surprised to notice the "beercar's" sharpness from my first shot! While the Sony 18-200m,m has a tendency to "Soft-shoot" at times, too many times, especially when the light offers up a contrasting mix of full and partial shafe mixed in with some dapplings of full sun. This was not soft! Going to my DRO setting and upping the level to "DRO 3" and resnapping the same target, resulted in a nearly perfect, well "Zoned", picture of the corner of my front yard. Describing the corner of my front/side yard quickly is to say it's a mix of shrubs, fore and aft; mixed grasses of varied colors and heights; varied flowers, short and tall and, and especiaqlly, uncountable shades of green. The far corner is some 75 feet from my perch on the highest step, allowing me some room for the short, 70mm end of the beercan's range. Using the a700's DRO adjustment was enough to bring out much detail in the most shaded sections. And further testing, including a walk around the house and 2 acres, was enough to impress me with the "New" lense's, well aged abilities. If only it, too, had an 11x range (200 divided by 18 = 11.x) as does the Sony 18-200mm, but a rather cramped 3x. (210 divided by 70 = 3.0) I'd have a new "everyday" lens. (and I'm told I've 1078 characters remaining)Read full review
I found this product by doing a general search. My wife is into photographer as a beginner and has really bloomed into making great work. So, I wanted something for her that she would love and enjoy, but most importantly... I needed an anniversary gift as well. She loved it and it took her about a few days to figure the appropriate settings to use it. She loves it because it helps her as a beginner to get those really close up shots that experts would get without sweating. I really think this was a great buy and without Ebay's help or searching on Ebay, I would never have found a great item. Be bless with all your endeavors. -J.J.-
Minolta lenses are legendary for their true color and sharp photos. This lens is no exception. We bought this lens for resale. It is well built, focuses fast, and looks great. If you have a Sony digital camera with all of that wonderful technology you need to get Minolta lenses to realize that full potential of quality photos... that is unless you want to spend thousands of dollar buying comparable Sony "G" series lenses. ABOUT MINOLTA LENSES FOR SONY DSLRs Minolta lenses are built much better, take sharper pictures, and are legendary for their fabulous true color reproduction. SONY partnered with Minolta to get their legendary lens technology, and then started making all of their newly designed cameras with lens backwards capability so that you can use these fabulous Minolta classics... so if you have a Sony DSLR… great news! This lens is fully compatible with your SONY camera including the incredible new A55 and A33 models. If you bought a new Sony camera WITH ALL THAT FABULOUS NEW TECHNOLOGY and you have been using a “kit” lens that came with it or a secondary manufacturer lens like Tamron or Sigma, you are not even close to realizing the full potential of the beautiful pictures you could be taking. If you bought a lens from a secondary manufacturer like Tamron or Sigma for your A33 or A55 it’s only a matter of time before you start getting lens error messages and have to reboot your camera every few shots, believe me I know, it happened to me with 2 different lenses. I wish I wouldn't have wasted my time with the new plastic lenses and gone with Minolta lenses in the 1st place. You can’t match the quality per dollar of Minolta against any other brand including Sony’s own lenses! In summary, If you are not shooting with 1 of these fabulous lenses, buy 1! Resell your current lens right here on ebay to offset your cost. If the 28-135MM that usually goes for only $350-$450 is too much for your budget buy combo sets that cover a wide range and usually go for only $99-150. Definitely put the 28-135 on your wish list, and as soon as you can afford 1 it will be the best lens you will ever own! IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY SHOPPING FOR A FABULOUS NEW SONY DSLR DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A MODERN PLASTIC LENS... Buy the camera body and whether or not you buy a lens from us, get yourself a great Minolta lens!Read full review
This lens is quite a heavy piece. You can feel the old style and design when you hold it in your hands. Mounted on a camera it feels very robust. In terms of picture quality I think it fully satisfies the general user. You may feel a little soft at the far end of telephoto range but it is by far the best for the money you spend on it. It is designed for full frame bodies so sharpness and vignetting on an APSC size camera cannot be an issue. The only down size of the lens is the speed of it. Since it has a very long focus travel it makes your manual focusing very accurate but the body has to rotate for quite a long time from end-to-end resulting not the quickest performance. Overall this is a best buy for the money you spend on it.
This is my second Beercan 70-210. The first took great pics but was really wore out. I carefully selected this one, and got a perfect copy for about half the price of a comparable new Sony lens. How did I do in comparison? *Build quality (all metal, fit & finish) were superb. *It's heavy and long, but in fairness its internal focusing and zooming and all metal, which when compared to a Zeiss 24-70 is nothing unusual. *Focus on my 850 is plenty fast and quiet. Accurate too. *Overall sharpness is excellent, and not just the center..this copy is consistently sharp out to the edges! Color is rich, bokeh is very nice too. *F4 constant aperture is slower than pro-series lenses, but better than kit lenses by far! *Downside is I still have a 25-year old lens with no warranty or repair, if ever needed. **Full-frame is very sensitive to lens issues, and I find very few besides some CA and ghosting. I cannot imagine how well this lens would perform on a a550 or a700. Almost makes me want to get one, this lens is THAT good!!!Read full review
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