With the introduction of the Sony FE 24-105/4 lens, I was reminded that this is the second wide to medium zoom of that focal range for Sony; although the new one gets a new ‘FE’ mount, a constant F/4 aperture and OSS. It also gets a hefty price tag of $1300!!
Our second re-visited and revised lens review is the ‘a’ mount oldie but goodie Minolta/Sony AF 24-105mm F/3.5-4.5 lens, (introduced in about 1999-2000), later to be relabeled ‘Sony’ in 2006, and discontinued in about 2008/9. Current value on eBay seems to be $100-200 depending on condition, that’s about a tenth of the price of the new lens.
The older Minolta/Sony 24-105mm F/3.5-4.5 worked very well back in the early days of digital, even though it was designed as a film lens; I used mine on the Sony A900 for several years as an everyday walk around lens, and still enjoy many of the pictures I took. Unfortunately, I don’t have the original test pictures from the review to show, however, I did come up with a selection from different focal lengths and apertures to give you a good idea about how it performs on a 24mp camera.
I’m not sure if the auto lens corrections on newer Sony camera bodies supports this lens; if so, most of the issues in the review like color fringing, distortion and light fall-off will be greatly diminished.
In the gallery are 12 full size images for you to check out, each 6048×4032. These were taken in Jpeg format, so no RAW files or conversions here. Most of the images are pretty sharp, even using a wide aperture, however, it looks like F/11 results in maximum resolution for landscape type shots. I do see some soft edges on the right side of my particular sample, (mostly noticeable with a wide aperture), I’m not sure if there are variations in sample quality or not, I only had one that I purchased on eBay.
Rock Harbor 50mm F/8
Island Palms 35mm F/4.5
Boats 40mm F/8
Bay Club 24mm F/3.5
Sea Wall 105 F/8
Rock Climbing 24mm F/11
85mm F/8
City View 70mm F/8
Sea Gull 105mm F/4.5
Friendship 24mm F/8
White Building 30mm F/8
Lighthouse 105 F/11
Click yellow tabs Below to download the full size images.
Harbor Rock Island Palms Boats Bay Club Sea wall Rock climbing Harbor overlook City view Sea Gull Friendship White Building Lighthouse
Overall, I think the old lens would suit me just fine, it worked well back then on a 24mp camera, and the current crop of cameras are still between 24mp, or 42mp. If you don’t have a whole lot of money, and just want a good lens with a nice zoom range like this, I would definitely recommend it.
Check out my original Minolta/Sony 24-105mm F/3.5-4.5 review from 2007. I’ve updated it with the new photo gallery and full size samples. Note: always go to Photojottings when checking out anything from kurtmunger.com because I only update from Photojottings. Everything from the old site is frozen in time!
While I have no doubt the new Sony 24-105/4 will be an optical marvel, it’s also very expensive, and is significantly larger and heavier than the old Minolta/Sony lens. Heck, even when figuring on the large auto focusing adapter for using ‘a’ mount lenses to ‘e’ mount cameras, the little Minolta/Sony lens is still a smaller and lighter package!
Check out the Minolta/Sony 24-105mm F/3.5-4.5 lens on eBay and help support the site, thanks!