Minolta MD lens test – Star-D 135mm F2.8

October 3rd, 2008 | Categories: Photography | Tags: ,
Leave a comment

I purchased a lens off Ebay to test out. It was fairly cheap, like $25 all told and it looks great and feels great in the hands. I’ve taken a few test shots with the lens and I’ll post them here if anyone is interested in seeing what this older 3rd party lens is/was capable of.

Here’s the lens in question.

135mm F2.8 Star-D Minolta MD lens (click to enlarge)

135mm F2.8 Star-D Minolta MD lens (click to enlarge)

Here are some shots from the lens. I’m not going to edit them in any way. This is how they came off the camera. Sorry ’bout the extra shot of the lens, the gallery doesn’t allow removing images, weird.

So far it’s a really nice feeling lens. The aperature ring opens and closes smoothly and the focus bezel moves like a dream. It’s gonna take some getting used to, but I don’t mind manual focus too much.

  1. art gonzales
    July 25th, 2011 at 13:21
    Reply | Quote | #1

    I recently bought a minolta MD 135mm lens and am trying to figure out the lens settings for day time pictures. My camera is a minolta x-370. I know the settings change depending on the environment , but more or less for a bright sunny day for pictures in the back yard. I really like the camera and lens and am trying to get good pictures but some come out ok and some fuzzy. I can’t find a free manual for the lens online.

  2. art gonzales
    July 25th, 2011 at 13:22
    Reply | Quote | #2

    I recently bought a minolta MD 135mm lens and am trying to figure out the lens settings for day time pictures. My camera is a minolta x-370. I know the settings change depending on the environment , but more or less for a bright sunny day for pictures in the back yard. I really like the camera and lens and am trying to get good pictures but some come out ok and some fuzzy. I can\’t find a free manual for the lens online.

  3. K Owens
    November 7th, 2011 at 09:49
    Reply | Quote | #3

    I found a copy of this lens at a garage sale. The aperture is stuck wide-open at f2.8 on it. On an Olympus PEN digital (micro four-thirds) camera, which has a manual focus assist feature, (plus a third-party adapter for Minolta lenses), I got some fine pictures handheld at a sporting event. Resolution seems very good, color reproduction also very good. There were some chromatic aberations/color bleeding, though, at some shooting angles. Micro four-thirds or four-thirds may be perfect for this lens as they’re using the center area of the lends only.

You must be logged in to post a comment.