![vivitar 70 210 f3.5 vivitar 70 210 f3.5](https://wide-angle.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/RV110953.jpg)
I find it makes a good pair with either the 24-105mm or 28-100mm lenses for a two-lens solution, since the overlap is useful to avoid unnecessary swapping, (or indeed the 24-50 or 35-70 f4 on FF) and 200mm is usually long enough for general shooting even on FF.
Vivitar 70 210 f3.5 full#
On a film camera you probably wouldn’t notice any loss of IQ at full aperture unless you take colour slides, so it’s quite a good lightweight choice. 100% crops on FF digital show up quite strong CA at the edges and corners on some occasions, which isn't so obvious on APS-C. On the A900 it seems sharper (bigger pixels, I guess) and 100% crops near the centre are usually very good. It’s also smaller, lighter, has a wider range, and gets in-camera jpeg corrections so if you have an APS-C DSLT there’s really no contest, but stick it on a Dynax 5d and the differences would be less obvious. However the Sony 55-200mm is sharper – extremely sharp, in fact, if you can focus it well enough which is not easy. On APS-C digital the 70-210 rates as a nice lens, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it if I had nothing better. Like the 75-300mm lens, MF is nice with 1/3 turn on the big rubber front ring, even with the hood on, and has the focus hold button in case you find that useful. So in good light you can leave it at f8 and be there, and in low light f4.5 at 70mm is useable and not too slow for a decent portrait. Corners are only slightly softer than the centre at full aperture and any focal length and not bad looking at 100% crop, and they clean up nicely one stop down. Testing on APS-C shows it to be pretty sharp at full aperture and with little CA, as you would expect from a 3x zoom. In truth it isn’t that much smaller or lighter than the 100-300mm which I had already, but it does have a usefully shorter MFD (1m instead of 1.5m), which means you can track small tame birds on the ground without having to stand up. Having the 55-200mm Sony DT lens already for my DSLT, I bought this principally as a lightweight tele for my film cameras. A good-looking lens of solid construction but not excessive weight, very similar in appearance to the 100-300mm and later 75-300mm, but not as big. Not one of the most sought-after Minolta lenses, but nevertheless one of the classic Minolta designs, with black silk appearance, inset distance scale and wide rubber focussing and zoom rings. Not as sharp on APS-C as comparable Sony DT lenses On APS-C corners look good even at full aperture Shortest, lightest FF-capable Minolta 200mm zoomĭoesn't occupy much space in the gadget bag