New lens for A230

[Fatback]

Going to buy a lens, or two for my Sony A230. So far I'm looking at the Minolta AF 28-100mm F/3.5-5.6, and the MINOLTA AF 50mm f1.7. Taking in the crop factor of my sensor. These two should give me a good range along with my kit lens. I mostly do outdoor shooting, and I'm getting into portraits more as well. I am also considering the Sigma 28-70 F2.8. Both Minolta lens together will cost the same of the Sigma. Do you guys have any suggestion for other Minolta, or Sony lenses? My budget will be around $150 at most.

[OldClicker]

Welcome to AlphaLand and to the forums. I saw three of your shots and really like the 2nd (portrait).

I assume you kit is the 18-70. You certainly can do better than that even with the current 18-50 kit lens.

Grab the Minolta 50mm f/1.7 - bargain lens. My early lenses were a 50mm plus the Minolta AF 35-70 f/4 ($50) and Minolta AF 70-210 f/4 'beercan' ($190). Most people balk at only going down to 35, but I don't do much at the wide end and used the kit if I had to. For my next lens I saved for the 100mm f/2.8 Macro ($350) - excellent macro, long portrait and general 100mm lens. If you are careful buying the old Minoltas used, you can find some really great image takers.

Terry

[Fatback]

I have the 18-55mm kit lens. It's actually a pretty decent lens, but I would like a little more range. Yea I think I'm defiantly going to get the 50mm F/1.7, it seems like a must have. Still trying to decide on what other to get. The 35-70 F/4 has great reviews, and it would give me twice the range I have now. What do you think about the 35-80mm F/3.5.-5.6? Seems to be a great sharp lens, but it's made of plastic.

Thanks for the advice.

Dale

[Anbesol]

I was also going to recommend the Minolta 35-70 f/4. You can usually find it for super cheap, and its quality is worth a lot more then its sale price. Its also extremely practical in that it both has a constant f/4 wide, and it is puny, making it much more pleasant to carry around.

Neither a lens starting at 28 or 35 will be very useful as a landscape lens, on an APS crop. For landscape you will want at least 24mm wide.

The 10mm gain on the telephoto end is not worth the f-stop loss. Definitely pick the 35-70 between those.

[Fatback]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm going to get the 35-70 f/4, and soon after that the 50mm f/1.7.

[Anbesol]

Cool, stick around and show us the shots you get with it.

[Fatback]

You can count on it. I have plenty of more questions anyways, and the guys at TPF just ignore my threads. I like it here though, a dedicated Sony, and Minolta forum is just what I needed. Now I don't have to listen to people argue about which is better Canon, or Nikon.

Dale

[OldClicker]

My Sony kit was called the 'country cousin' by a Nikon rep doing a presentation on safari shooting at our club last night. He earned the right to say what he wants - he and his shots were excellent. He is a 'shooters' kind of guy; seldom spending more than 1 minute in post processing for any shot. - Terry

[grig]

I am using Minolta 50 mm F/1.7 lens with my Sony A200. Very good one for making portrait shots. IMHO it's more useful indoors.
Here is the example of a shot I made with it (follow the link).
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/8084/dsc00896q.jpg