6/21/10
Check out the long awaited, and highly anticipated Minolta AF 35-80mm F/4-5.6 shutter cap review. The good news is; it’s small and light-weight; the bad news; well, maybe you should just check out the review, it’s a good way to waste ten minutes, especially if you’re bored at work and want a good laugh.
The little 35-80mm was a gimmick lens (and of dubious value) that Minolta tried to market in the late eighties. Instead of using quality optics to help generate sales, they opted for a unique sliding shutter-type front lens protector, similar in operation to the Starship Enterprise doors. The marketing pitch was probably something like “you’ll never lose the lens cap” etc. It would also make a good conversation piece, if you like conversation. I spent many grueling hours exploring every aspect of this lens, and for my efforts; it produced the worst images I’ve ever seen from a SLR type
lens. You may say “you probably got a bad copy” or whatever, but I’ve had a couple of readers tell me their copy is awful too!
If you want to know what the image looks like when using the maximum aperture, plop a Cokin “Dreams” filter on any one of your decent lenses and you’ll get the idea.
I used the A900 for this review, (except for the usual A700 macro shot) simply because I didn’t want to waste my time providing too much information, and I was just plain lazy. It’s hard to get excited about a lens that produces such a veiled mess that you can actually see it by looking through the viewfinder!
This lens gets my official, (and first) “worthless” rating. The old Sony/KM 18-70mm kit lens would put this shutter cap lens to shame.
Both shutter cap lenses are pictured below, but only the left one is being reviewed now. I took the product shots together, that way I can save time when getting the Minolta AF 80-200mm shutter cap review ready.
 |
| Click for review |