The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 28mm f/2.8

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 28mm f/2.8

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 28mm f/2.8

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 28mm f/2.8

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 28mm f/2.8

Cameras and Lenses: Images with a Minolta AF 28mm f/2.8, widely praised as a compact, inexpensive, and reliable wide-angle prime, a 'sweet-spot' 42mm standard normal full-frame equivalent on the Sony DSLR A-350.

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

The Minolta (Maxxum in the US) AF 28mm f/2.8, often overshadowed by the brighter and later-issued Minolta AF 28mm f/2, is an A-mount lens made for the Minolta Maxxum 35mm AF SLR camera series. This exceptionally compact and lightweight wide-angle prime, introduced in 1985, is known for its solid build, sharpness, and natural color rendition.

The lens has a metal mount and internal components enclosed in a plastic outer barrel. It features a 5-element in 5-group design, a 7-blade aperture (f/2.8–f/22), a minimum focusing distance of 0.3 meters, and uses 49mm filters. Weighing about 185 grams, the lens includes an integrated sliding hood and has a narrow focusing ring at the front that rotates during autofocusing.

In its original form as a 35mm full-frame lens, with a wider field of view than that of a 35mm wide-angle, the 28mm is significant as a pioneering wide-angle focal length that redefined street photography, photojournalism, and landscape documentation with a field of view that offers a natural wide perspective with more context than standard lenses without excessive distortion.

On the Sony Alpha DSLR-A350, the AF 28mm f/2.8 is equivalent to a 40mm (42mm exactly) lens on a 35mm full-frame camera, a focal length popular with many photographers as they realize the potential of exploring the unique balance between the context and content of images the lens is capable of capturing.

The 40mm (or equivalent) focal length, often referred to as the 'sweet spot for street photography,' is very versatile and can be used, aside from being the optimum for street photography, for other genres, including city and urban scenes, landscape, portraits, travel, as well as documentary and storytelling.

The balanced nature of this focal length also means photographers don't have to make significant compromises when framing their shots, with enough width to establish the scene's context while providing sufficient reach to extenuate the main subject.

Images, as captured with these crops and close-ups from the garden, are punchy in contrast, with warm color rendering, and reasonably sharp in the center at f/2.8. Optimal sharpness is achieved when stopped down to f/5.6 or f/8, the recommended aperture for landscape settings. The 7-blade diaphragm helps to garner pleasant bokeh.

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 28mm f/2.8

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A350 (released 2008), designed for entry-level users, is one of the APS-C consumer DSLRs recognized with having the highest-resolution CCD sensors when launched in 2008. The camera features a 14.2MP CCD sensor, a 230,400 pixels 2.7-inch tilting screen, a unique quick-AF live view function, and built-in sensor-shift image stabilization. Images are excellent at low ISOs (100–400), but tend to be noisy at higher ISOs (400 and higher).

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Olympus PEN E-P5, Minolta AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Olympus PEN E-P5, Minolta AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Olympus PEN E-P5, Minolta AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Olympus PEN E-P5, Minolta AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

Olympus PEN E-P5, Minolta AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

Cameras and Lenses: Images with a super-sharp Minolta AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro (RS), a lens acclaimed for its optical sharpness, true 1:1 reproduction capability, and versatile floating-element design, a 100mm full frame telephoto equivalent on the Olympus Pen E-P5.

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

A combo shoot with a super-sharp sleuth, the 1993 Minolta AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro (RS), a very fine lens capable of a 1:1 reproduction ratio at its closest focusing distance (developed for the Minolta AF 35mm SLR film camera system).

The lens was mounted on the Olympus PEN E-P5via a third-party M4/3 lens adapter, which has a ring for lens aperture control. Focusing is fully manual, with peak-focusing assist on the E-P5.

The mirrorless digital and AF macro are, of course, vintage, with mint or near mint, or even hardly used conditions frequently available on auction listings at affordable prices.

The 'RS' or 'Re-Styled' version of the Minolta AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro, launched in 1993, is a substantial upgrade of the original iteration launched in 1985, and came with a new rubber focus grip and a Focus Hold button, while maintaining its credibility and core functionality as the world's first autofocus macro lens.

The original 7 elements in 6 groups design and construction of the lens was retained, as well as the number of aperture blades, and the size and weight of the lens.

The lens, though intended to be controlled electronically by the camera body when it was designed for, does not work like so when fitted (via the adapter) to the E-P5. With the electrical system redundant, the lens is equal to any other manual focus lens fitted, with a caveat. The lens has no aperture ring, and as used, the aperture of the lens opening can only be managed by the short-throw aperture control ring on the body of the lens adapter. With the aperture scale neither indented nor numericized, determining the aperture to set is, at best, a guesstimate or manually adjusted to the visual apprehension of the scene.

Focusing is fully manual as well, with the focal length of the lens first registered with the camera's IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilization) registry index (click here for the How-To). Manual focusing (best done with peak-focusing assist), with the AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro (RS), could be slightly cumbersome, though, as the lens has only a very thin manual focusing ring located right at the front end of the lens, backed by a slightly wider lens barrel. The ring, however, smooth and well-damped, is indexed with the magnification ratio settings for the lens. Image sharpness, though with the peak-focusing help, can be less precise than the pinpoint accuracy of modern digital AF lenses.

On the 2x crop sensor E-P5, the lens field-of-view is equivalent to a 100mm prime on a 35mm full frame camera. Aside from being excellent for what it was intended for, a macro lens, the focal length can also be used as a versatile portrait lens, with beautiful background compression and bokeh with minimal facial distortion, and just as well for product and food photography with its ability to highlight textures and details, and pet photography. While the magnification ratio of 1:1 is the same on any sensor the lens is used on, a crop sensor will capture a smaller portion of the object, making it look twice as big as seen on a full-frame sensor.

Olympus PEN E-P5, Minolta AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

The Olympus Pen E-P5, though with initial hiccups on its inability to correct image shake at slower shutter speeds (addressed it with Firmware Update 1.4), is recognized as one of the better digital PENs produced by Olympus, applauded for its 16MP CMOS sensor first seen in the E-M5, solid and reliable design, with image quality, focus speed (with Micro Four Thirds mount lenses) in a strong package, especially when paired with the separate VF-4 Electronic Viewfinder. The digital mirrorless also features a 1/8000 second top shutter speed, an advanced 5-axis in-body image stabilization system, 9 fps continuous shooting, and a 1.04 million dot 3-inch tilting rear touch screen.

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 100mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 100mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 100mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 100mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 100mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

CCD Resurgence: First impression images with the highly acknowledged Minolta AF 100mm f/2.8 (RS) lens mounted on a 14.2MP CCD Sony Alpha DSLR-A350.

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

First impression images with the Minolta AF 100mm f/2.8 Macro (RS), a legend of its time, a classic known for its excellent sharpness and 1:1 magnification capability.

Despite its production run that ended more than 30 years ago, the lens is still a hot spot today with digital photo enthusiasts enamored of its dual-purpose design.

The lens is the first autofocus 100mm macro lens capable of 1:1 (life-size) magnification, and a portrait/short-telephoto lens with beautiful subject separation.

The lens, introduced in 1993, is the second of the series, with the original AF 100mm f/2.8 Macro, the first autofocus 100mm macro lens capable of 1:1 (life-size) magnification, launched in 1986, the RS, and follow-up Minolta AF 100mm f/2.8 Macro D (with ADI metering) in 2000, and the Sony AF 100mm f/2.8 Macro in 2006.

The RS (re-Styled) version is a refresh of the original, with a new barrel design featuring an enlarged rubber focus ring, a focus range limiter (to reduce excessive focus hunting), and a focus hold button (to lock focus on a subject), useful when using continuous autofocus (AF-C). ADI metering allows the lens aperture to be automatically adjusted by the camera based on the lighting conditions.

Designed with an 8-element, 8-group floating element with rounded blades which was maintained throughout the production series, the lens has a minimum focusing distance of 0.352 meters, measures 71mm in diameter and 98mm in length (approximately 119mm fully extended), accepts 55mm filters, and packs a rather hefty (compared to current lightweights) weight between 505 and 519 grams across the series.

The lens is highly acknowledged for its excellent sharpness, even when shot wide open at f/2.8, and is said to be capable of maintaining excellent sharpness across the aperture range. Ideal applications for the lens include life-size close-ups or used as a short telephoto lens for heads and shoulder portraits, wildlife, landscape elements, sports, and candid street photography from non-intrusive distances.

On the Sony Alpha DSLR-A350, the AF 100mm f/2.8 is equivalent to a 150mm medium telephoto lens on a 35mm full frame camera, a versatile focal length excellent for capturing images with a shallow depth of field and subject isolation. At 150mm, a macro lens with a 1:1 reproduction ratio is perfect for detailed close-up shots of insects, flowers, and other small subjects.

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 100mm f/2.8 Macro (RS)

A snug fit, though a bit heady at 1.2+ kg combined weight, the camera/lens kit is a pleasure to use. For handheld manual focus close-ups with the lens at its closest focusing distance, the camera can be cupped in the hand with the thumb and index finger conveniently distanced over the focus ring. At the other end, shooting with the camera held at arm's length, with the camera set to Live View, is equally fun and exciting.

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 24mm f/2.8

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 24mm f/2.8

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 24mm f/2.8

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 24mm f/2.8

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 24mm f/2.8

CCD Resurgence: Square cuts and close-ups with the Minolta AF 24mm f/2.8, on a 14MP CCD Sony DSLR-A350, an excellent wide-angle equivalent setup.

<< Click on image for enlarged Lightbox display >>

The Minolta AF 24mm f/2.8, a prime for cameras fitted with Minolta AF and Sony α mounts, is one lens you must have if you are after its highly acclaimed and recommended sharpness, and image quality legendary of the 'Minolta Colors.'

The lens was released by Minolta in 1985 with the launch of the Maxxum 7000 (7000 AF in Europe and α-7000 in Japan), Minolta's first integrated AF 35mm SLR film camera.

The compact and lightweight lens is constructed with a plastic exterior housing and metal internals, has 8 elements in 8 groups, 7 aperture blades, and a minimum focusing distance of 250mm. It is 44mm long, weighs 215 grams, takes 55mm filters, and delivers sharp images with good color rendition.

On the Sony DSLR-A350, which has a 1.5x APS-C cropped sensor, the lens is equivalent to a 35mm (36.48mm, to be exact) lens on a full-frame camera. This focal length is very versatile and highly recommended for street and travel photography, architecture and urban landscape, food and low-light photography, documentary portraiture, and general use.

The AF 24mm and the A350 have the same Minolta AF/Sony α lens mount fitting, so the lens is a seamless fit on the digital body. It's almost like the best of two worlds: the age difference between the lens and the camera does not make a difference.

While the Minolta AF 24mm f/2.8 is one of the highlights of the A-mount Minolta AF series, the Sony DSLR-A350 is equally the highlight of the CCD-sensor digital SLR series introduced by Sony after they took over and rebranded the KonicaMinolta franchise.

Sony DSLR-A350, Minolta AF 24mm f/2.8

A boon for CCD enthusiasts, the camera and lens are easily available on auction listings, even in brick-and-mortar stores, as low-end buys at prices for the asking.

Vintage Camera Marketplace by ImagingPixel

Malaysia's Online Marketplace for Vintage Film and Digital Cameras, Lenses,
and Camera Accessories. Follow ImagingPixel on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.