Playing With Lenses: September 2021

Saturday, 25 September 2021

A little stuck: Sigma Zoom Master 1:3.5-4.5 f=35-70mm Multi-Coated

Cost: $19.9 (market price around $20)

I would presume this lens was sold as a first generation auto-focus kit replacement lens. I would not expect to much of this lens, but when I found one in a local thrift store, and I was looking for more Minolta AF lenses to play with, it actually spoke to me.

The lens is very solid, almost heavy for such a small lens. As the exterior is made of (strong) plastic, the weight must come from a lot of glass inside the lens.

Both manual and auto focus work very well and smooth, resulting in proper edge-to-edge sharp pictures. Sadly enough, the zoom was not smooth at all on this specific copy. It made it a lot harder to use and likely not a keeper, despite the good image quality. A smarter man might try to fix it, as I'm sure that's possible, but I do not want to spent time on a such a cheap lens.

Aside from this problem, the lens has nice rich colors and almost no color aberration.

To bad from the zoom issue, as it would be a really good walk around less otherwise.

More examples on Flikr.

Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 35-70mm
Maximum Aperture: F3.5-4.5
Minimum Aperture: F25
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: Minolta AF
Optics: ? elements, ? groups
Blades: 6
Focusing: Auto
Minimum Focus: 0.5m
Filter Size: 52mm
Weight: 314g
Length: 58-84mm
Production: 1988
Serial Number: 1000488
Made in: Japan

More information on Sigma

Samples: