Minolta MD 135mm f3.5 Lens Review

I had just acquired a vintage Minolta 135mm lens a few days ago so I'm about to write a simple (not so technical) review about this item.

I ask for apology in advance if I won't be able to tackle all the details about the lens since it's my first time to write a review.

Original picture of the lens I own

Taking this into account, this is my first Minolta lens. The lens is a Minolta MD 135mm f3.5 (made in Japan) with serial number 8066156.

LENS CONSTRUCTION

The lens I have in possession is in mint condition without any signs of use. I see no issues with the lens; no sticky aperture blades, no stiff focusing, no fungus or scratches on both of the elements just a few speck of dust which is common with vintage lenses.

I was really amazed by the condition of the lens.

The construction of the lens is all metal except the rubber focusing ring/grip. It's built like a tank so it'll probably last long for the next hundred years. Yohooo!!

Minolta MD 135mm f3.5 Built-in Lens hood

This version comes with a built-in lens hood which is quite helpful when shooting during bright lighting conditions especially when shooting directly or toward light sources.

I don't usually attach lens hoods with my lenses (the DIY hand lens hood does the work) but I'm happy that this one has it and it's there when you need it.

Notice the lens coatings.

The lenses have multiple coatings to help reduce flare. The front element itself has a slightly yellow coating and purple on the inside.

The front of the lens does not rotate as you turn the focus ring which is good when using CPL. The lens accepts 49mm filters.

Rear lens element.

On the rear of the lens, you can see the purple/reddish coating.

The lens itself uses the Minolta MD mount. With the proper adapter you can surely use it on Digital SLR's (but with infinity focusing issues) especially Mirrorless cameras which have shorter flange focal distance.

LENS PERFORMANCE

The lens produces beautiful images with my mirrorless camera. Expect excellent sharpness and contrast when you shoot with this lens.

135mm f3.5

135mm f8

Here's a side by side comparison of images shot at different F-stops.

The images here are unprocessed meaning they are SOOC's samples. (for your reference)

At f3.5 the lens is sharp at the center and a little bit sharp on the corners.

At f8 the lens becomes more sharp at the center and the corners.

135mm f3.5 Center 135mm f8 Center

135mm f3.5 Upper Right Corner 135mm f8 Upper Right Corner

135mm f3.5 Upper Left Corner 135mm f8 Upper Left Corner

When shooting at bright and contrasty subjects the lens produce some lateral chromatic aberrations. If you shoot wide open there are slightly noticeable red fringes on some parts of the images and and as you stop down it turn to green color fringes. Chromatic aberration won't be the problem of this lens since it's hardly noticeable sometimes (unless you go pixel peeping) plus its easy to remove this during post processing. It won't be a primary concern.

135mm f3.5

135mm f5.6

135mm f8

135mm f11

135mm f 16

135mm f22

The images above were shot indoors using natural lighting conditions. All images are cropped to showcase the different inputs of each F-stop.

First image is not quite sharp at f3.5 because I wasn't using any tripod during the test and I have shaky hands which resulted to the failure of focus. Sorry. :)

In my opinion f3.5 - f8 is the sweet spot of this lens. Images get sharper as you step down.

I do not suggest to use f16 to f22 indoors as it will require you to increase ISO and slow down your shutter speed. It will cause you a noisy and blurry picture especially when you shoot handheld.

HIGHLIGHTS

Considering the focal length of the lens it's made commonly for portraiture. I believe this an excellent performer in this field of photography. Below are the samples shot at f3.5

I love the color rendition produced by this lens. The skin tones are perfect.

The lens is razor sharp indeed. Images presented here are shot in jpeg format without enhancing the sharpness.

Look how sharp the image is. The details are really revealing. I can even count the pores if I want to. Portraiture performance is astonishing.

REMARKS

My copy of the lens is in perfect condition so there's no doubt that it'll produce excellent pictures. This is a manual focus lens so failure to focus properly will be the only reason to have crappy results with this lens. Focus peaking feature is now common with mirrorless cameras so manual focusing becomes easy and smooth.

The minimum F-stop of this lens is the main issue for my part. A small aperture of f3.5 is really limiting when shooting in low light. I would be much happier if it goes up to f2 or even f2.8. You wouldn't want to use high iso's and slow shutter speeds in low light conditions as it would attract more noise and camera shake.

This 135mm lens has an equivalent of approximately 200mm when used with APS-C sized sensor cameras.

This vintage lens does not have image stablilization/vibration reduction like your modern lenses. Due to its long focal range shooting is a real challege without mounting it to a tripod or a monopod. A shutter speed of 1/160 or higher is necessary to achieve perfectly stable shot when shooting handheld. I'll be uploading more pictures using this lens so visit the portfolio frequently.

If I missed some things message me so I can discuss it more further.

Thank YOU. :) :D

#Photography #VintageLens #Minolta #ManualLens #MinoltaLensReview #135mmf35 #Minolta135mmf35