Red Color Len?

Ever seen a Red kaler lens befoh? Neither have I... but 2 days ago i got this lens as a free gift from a nice gentlemen in the post.

Can see the red kaler anot?

Really red kaler one leh! no no .. not blue!

Nah see?! Red Kaler lens la!

It says Crystal Optics IR series Super Wide Macro .... IR is Infra Red? Thats why the color of the lens is red? lol!

Almost Full Moon ledi .....

Click to enlarge
420mm | 1/50s | iso400 | f2.8 | 100% cropped

Taken with 70-210 Sigma APO f2.8 with Sigma APO 2X TC on a Sony Alpha A200 Handheld. I need a new tripod that could support such a heavy lens.

Minolta Maxxum AF Zoom 35-70mm f4 Macro aka Mini Beercan

As an Sony Alpha A200 DSLR user i always browse around the internet to find the best and affordable lens for my camera, knowing the fact that most recent Konica Minolta DLSR cameras also using the same type of A mount that actually opening us up to a vast varieties of lenses to choose from.

At the same time, i been asked by several Sony Alpha owners whether such a lens (some which is as old as 20 years) is still reliable? The answer is both yes and no, it all depends on how the previous owner look after his lenses and if he know what hes doing then these lense can survive alot more than just 20 years.

The key to this is to find a reliable use lens reseller whom will answer most of your questions and also will not hesitate to teach you a thing or two about how to choose lens. I got a few contact of lens reseller in my contact so if you need any lenses just send me an email ok?

With that being said ... I actually bought another lens, as like all my previous used lens this one is also a legendary Minolta lens. Made as early as 1985 this lens survived more than 20 yrs of reputation and still making its marks on today's DSLR.

My Newly arrived Minolta Maxxum 35-70mm f4 Macro

Nicknamed The Mini Beer can, the Minolta Maxxum 35-70mm f4 Macro is originally built for film SLR but due to its great performance ... its still accepted as one of the best performing Minolta lens even on a DSLR.

A thank you note from my fav reseller

My lens seller sent me a note togehter with the lens thanking me for the purchase and telling me how great this lense is! in handwriting! not cold computer printout! How about that?!

49mm Spiralite custom polarizer

Wait ... theres more! Most reseller will just give you a cheap UV filter bundled with the lense you bought but this particular reseller actually given me a 49mm SPIRALITE CUSTOM circular POLARIZER! FOR FREE! Hows is that for value?!

Seriously i still do not know how much would a regular 49mm circular polarizer would cost but today i bought a regular UV filter from a camera shop downtown and they charged me RM60 (approximately USD18) for it. A polarizer would definitely cost alot more than that! So go figure it out :)

I took a few photos of my (yea its mine now! lol!) Minolta Maxxum AF Zoom 35-70mm lens with my Pheonix 100mm macro lens right after i received the package.

Minolta Maxxum AF Zoom 35-70mm front element

Minolta Maxxum AF Zoom 35-70mm front lens descriptions

Compact size for its range for easy storage, compared to the SAL1870 kitlens you get bundled with your Sony Alpha A200

Clean blades with no signs of oil nor fungus

Minolta Maxxum AF Zoom 35-70mm backside Metal A mount

Some technical brief data about the lens obtained from the internet :

Year: 1985

production: Discontinued
max. aperture: 4
min. aperture: 22
focal range: 35 - 70 mm
elements/group: 6/6
angle of view: 63,4 - 34,3
aperture blades: 7
minimum focus distance: 1000 (303 macro switch) mm
filter rotate when focusing: Yes
filter rotate when zooming: No
max. magnification: 1/14.3(1/4)
focus design: front
min. length: 52 mm
max. length: 70 mm
filter diameter: 49, front mm
hood: clip-on, round
weight: 255 g
color: black

Ok lets cut the craps and go straight to the photos quality, after all .. thats exactly why we bought a lens in the first place right? a few minutes after I got the package I am already on the street pushing this Mini Beer Can to the limit ...

So here goes!

Sharpness/ bokeh test , taken at 70mm, ISO400, f4 shutter speed 1/15s

Cloud test ... yes there is such a thing as cloud test bcoz i dem love clouds can?!

There is a known problem with this lens tho ... most of the reviews on the net reveals that this lense is particularly poor in handling flare, therefore ghosting is inevitable, to justify this i gotta take the lense out on a bright sunny day and try my very best to freaking get a ghost in the photos! lol nah i dun mean that ... literally :)

No this not the mechanic test! lol! Taken at 1/400s f4 70mm ISO400 .. no ghost here!

Color test ... this lens loves red!

Potrait test ... passED!

Can see the frozen soap dirpping from the sponge? shutter speed test 1/1250s, f8, 70mm iso400

Very bright day .. i gotta stop down to f8-f9 just to prevent from overexposure but still no sign of ghosting.

Car wash aneh spraying water at me lol!

This Minolta Maxxum AF Zoom 35-70mm f4 lens also boast its macro capability, in todays language this is barely a true macro lens. Its merely doing a closeup with a max magnigifcation of 1:4 as compared to the 1:2 ratio of my Pheonix 100mm macro lens.

But i m not complaining ... with its compact size, light weight and versatile focal length this will make a great walkabout lens as compared to my Pheonix 100mm macro.

Outta curiousity, I put this lense Macro mode to test. There is something quite "out-of-the-norm" for this AF lens. When i switch the lens to macro mode, the AF stop working and i gotta switch to MF. Apparently the lens is designed as such that whenever you activates the macro mode ... the AF feature will be disabled and you will need to focus manually to get your image right. Such a weird feature from an AF lens i must say.

This is the closest i can get to my Sony Ericson G900 which is about 30cm from the phone. Not close enough but pretty sharp image i must say.

soft drink cap at 30cm, great colors!

Evo 6 test! ... i seriously do not know wtf i m testing here lol! but nevertheless ... it turned out pretty great also!

10 sen corp test at 30cm no crop.

Corped and zoomed in ... still pretty sharp in the middle abit soft towards the edge

Verdict : WTF am i thinking?! why the fark i did not buy this lens ealier?!!! ARGH!!! *bang balls*

Cant seems to get ghost ... i think malaysia ghost only come out at night ... thats why! lol
Great piece of lens that performing exceptionally well in both indoor and outdoor!

Great Value for money too! I got this one for less than RM300 plus postage ( Approximately USD80 ... dont forget the free polarizer ok?)

The macro? well look at it this way ... if you bought this lense for its macro ability .... too bad, you got screwed! If not ... who da fark cares? its free anyway! better there than none rite? I m not complaining. Plus the fact that if you really got money to burn ... all you need to do is to add in a closeup filter with 4x magnification to turn this baby to a 1:1 macro lens and i heard the results is quite promising too!

To buy or not to buy? Need I say more?

Lou Sang with MAS

My first lousang of the year!!!

Mehnee dip dip tenkiu to MAS for this nice nice high krass lousang dinner ... if not hor i think this year i will be lousang-less edi!

We lousangED at the Mum's place .... i know what you thinking wan ... no! i m not sending regards to your mum ok? the name of the restorant is called "The Mum's Place" no bruff you wan! You see for yourself la!

Neh ... this is the mum's place i m toking about la

I like this fawer pikture .... leng mou?

Airbus A380 caught on camera

We also get a glimpse of what MAS Airbus A380 would looks like .... altho its a model plane but i m sure the real thing would be similar also ... in ratio lar! not in actual size of coz! U think i stupid meh! I hope they inbite me to go into the thier new Airbus n take pikture when they receive their delivery edi ... phuhh that would be freaking awesome innit? *hint hint*

At first they put this on the middle of the table .... i thot

"WUAH! this restorant really good leh! the first dish is an Aeroplen!!! I wonder what they use to make it look so lively wan!"

Niahma! really Ahbeng lar i tell u! Then i found out its not edible wan ok!!! ARGHHH!!! shhh ... lucky other bloggers dint find out about it!!! dun tell tham ah!

Homemade CNY pineapple tarts for bloggers!

I been eyeing at this pineapple tarts long long edi ... i dem sked they will ask us to buy it instead bcoz i dem pokai that time ... pocket got 80 cents oni sial!!! But they so nice to give it to us for free la!

This is Ms. Wai Fong ... she is THE BOSS of the nite (means she pay the bill one la!)

This Lenglui very nice ... blanja us makan sommo tell us tenkiu bcoz we kam to makan lol! I also tenkiu you for blanja me makan leh!

High krass Lousang ... they use salmon one leh! not use ciplak tilapia fish wan ok!

Broggers lousang-ing!

This one is beef ... but dem 9 chun one ok! Taste like Tung Po Yoke!!! Eat edi wanna eat sommo wan!

Assam pish ... Cheng ah!!! make u sweat kaw kaw wan! lol

Chiew Kap Mou Tik Kari Kai

Neber befoh i got taste so super keng chow mia kari kai as this! Delicious till eat ledi can get wet dlims wan!

There is actually more food wan but i too busy eating la! no time to take piktures! lol

Ok enuff about food jor ... i dunwan make u curse at me for making u hungwy .. now about the peeples!!!

This is fehmes brogger Sultan Muzzafar (i hope i get the spelling rite lol!)

Pweety Anna from FH & hansem KY

Mister Hansem From Agency and Lengluis from MAS

Fehmes Ahbeng brogger Kennysia

Superman Jon from Agency and lenglui

Captain hook, Kenny and John from MAS

Simon Seow and Nicole TALL lengluicamwhoring

KY, HB and Darling Suanie!

Beauty queen Cindy, Ringo, redmummy (front) Simon seow & Thomas (back)

Lenglui pro-photographer from MAS

Group Photo!!!

Doorgifts courtesy of MAS

MAS wish u all Gong Xi Fa Cai! but i get the pineapple tarts la .... YUMMY!!!

Got free makan and free gifts n can rub rub shoulder wih fehmes broggers wei!!! mana mau cari?!!!

Tenkiu lu deep deep MAS!!! if got free makan again pulezz inbite me again yah? I lap MAS deep deep!!!

Minolta Maxxum AF 50mm f1.7 Fixed Focal Prime Lense for Sony Alpha A200

Anoder new toy arrived recently, for a budget conscious photo-taker like me .... if given a choice i would go for used lens for at least its proven mah! Rather to buy a new one and belam gini-pig rite?

Before this i already had 2 lenses for my Sony Alpha A200, which is SAL1870 the all purpose kitlens that kam with the camera and a 100mm Pheonix macro lens. So I m actually short of 2 lense now ... I need a prime lense (something i could carry around with without hurting my back) and a super powderful tele zoom lense (this one will definitely hurt your back) to take the pikture of moon and stars and nekid girls in nude beach from afar! LOL!

As usual plenty of searching and reading before i decided on this newly arrived used prime lens.

Minolta Maxxum AF 50mm f1.7

All the experts/sifus strongly recomended it ... saying that this is a "must-have" prime lense. Die die also must buy or else will blardee regret wan!

Why? bcoz the pikture taken with this lens is dem 9 sharp, AutoFocus (AF) dem fast, Big Aperture (Wiki) and color dem 9 nice! The Bokeh (Wiki) also blardee best also! (WTF is Bokeh? at first i thot its some kinda kueh to be eaten by those who love to take piktures wan ... eat ledi can take pwetty pwetty piktures LOL! the fact is ... its alot non complicated than that la ... i expren to you when i got time la ok?)

Also this is TEH lense to take indoor piktures without the need for flash! (if you derno yet ... external flash for Sony DSLR is dem 9 expensip! If buy good set .. can be more expensip than buing the camera itself!) so due to budget constrains i habe no choice but to master my indoor p0rnography fohtography without relying on external flash (btw internal flash sucks .... so that dont leave me with lotsa choice also)

In short this is TEH Potraits lens la! What is Potraits? Potraits is taking human mia piktures la! Like i take piktures of your fugly face then that is call potraits lo! Mingpak mou?

Minolta Maxxum AF 50mm f1.7

Distance scale window of the Minolta Maxxum AF 50mm f1.7

Blades of Minolta Maxxum AF 50mm f1.7

The ass of Minolta Maxxum AF 50mm f1.7

Acherly this is not a very young lense .... ploduction begin in 1990 .. this lens long long ago alredi no more in ploducktion .. but it survived the test of time and untill today it remains as one of the few favourite entry level low cost prime lense for most Sony Alpha owners.

Not to say the new lens produced in this era kenot match this lens ... but in terms of plice really kenot fight lor! So why buy something that cost 3 times more expensive when you can get the same/better results with Minolta Maxxum AF 50mm f1.7 ?

Unless you dem 9 lich and got lotsa $ to burn then its ok la ... buden again ... who kenot take nice piktures with expensip equipments? Its those who can take nice piktures with cheap equipments oni consider powderful geh! (ok la its an excuse i made for myself so i can feel better for being poor can?! :P)

Ok lets cut the craps and lets see some piktures taken with this baby!

See the kaler anot? Leng mou?

Kajang - cheras highway ... aperture open big big ...

Sharpness test ... see ma! no flash!!

Potrait test .... PASSED WITH FLYING SELIPERS!!!

Underwater test - what u mean there is no such thing as underwater test for lenses?! I say got means got la! if you dun briff you ask my golfish and see!

Who say AhBengs kenot take nice piktures wan? WHO?!!!