lowcost4dslr

I was looking for more range on the wide side than the Minolta 35-105. So I purchased this Minolta 28-105 f/3.5-4.5 to get a more versatile lens and expecting the same image quality. This lens cost half price of the Minolta 24-105 f/3.5-4.5 for the same image quality and the same buid quality. So the question must be : is 28mm wide enough?

The Minolta 28-105 f/3.5-4.5 is also know as the Maxxum 28-105 f/3.5-4.5

A more modern version also exists and is called RS for Re Shaped. The only difference is the stripped focus ring. I present the Non RS version.

With the lens hood, this lens looks modern. You will not feel ridiculous unlike with beercan generation lenses or M42 primes. It is not all metal built like beercans, but the build quality is good with robust plastic.

The handling is good with a very fluid zoom ring. Maybe it is too fluid, because zoom creep occurs each time the Minolta 28-105 is handled with the lens pointed down :

The lens-hood can be stored reverted :

The cap is not easy to remove when the hood is in place. A center pinch lens-cap would have been more suitable!

The front element does not rotate when focusing: I love to use the Maxxum 28-105 with a circular polarizer.

The autofocus is very fast and accurate even in lowlight conditions.

Mounted on my Alpha 700:

With zoom fully extended:

Well balanced with the Sony Alpha 700 body.

The image quality is excellent:

colors are Minolta typical (not the washed out colors of the kit zoom!). When used at the long end for portraiture wide opened, the Minolta 28-105 produces nice and sharp pictures with a beautifull bokeh. F/3.5-4.5 enable to have just the right amount of depth of field between 60mm and 105mm. The 3D effect is slightly less visible than with the Minolta 35-105

This is why I prefer the 35-105 for portraiture (and combined with it's nice macro feature for  shooting part of a face)

The 28-105 is more suitable indoor than the 35-105 because of it's fast autofocus in low light. But in my opinion, 28mm is not wide enought APC-C cameras. There is a big difference between 24 and 28mm. When I realised that, then I used mostly the Sigma 24 f/2.8  wide II for indoor shooting before to purchase the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8.

I think this lens is excellent for outdoor shooting, far better than the Konica Minolta 18-70 kit zoom that was provided with my DSRL.

this lens compared with M42 lenses and with other autofocus lenses :
match @35mm with M42 prime lens Mir  1B, Tamron 17-50 , Minolta AF 35-105
match @85mm with Jupiter 9,  Minolta AF 70-210 Beercan, Minolta AF 75-300 Big Beercan, Minolta 135 AF f/2.8