Band and concert photography and video
SONY 18-135 VS MINOLTA 28-135
Sony 18-135MM vs Minolta 28-135MM
First off I must say that the 28-135 Minolta lens was one of my favorites for a very long time.
Up until recently I wasn’t very impressed with Sony lenses except the “G” and Carl Zeiss lenses. I was very surprised at the results that I got from the head to head test I did.
VS 
I mounted each lens on one of our Sony A77s with exactly the same settings and as usual took the exact same shots without moving my feet at all. I shot at 28MM, 50MM, 85MM, 100MM, and 135MM. I took 20 identical shots with each camera and went inside and downloaded them. I was already impressed at the speed of the auto focus with the 18-135 and also that it was able to focus on a couple of low contrast shots that the 28-135 struggled with. I put the photos from each in separate folders then opened them side by side for comparison.
The photos were so surprisingly close in sharpness and color quality that rather than making a decision I waited until my wife came home to see if she agreed with my thinking. I showed her the photos 1 at a time side by side and had her pick the winner. I made a little chart and by the time we had gone through the 20 photos she had picked the Minolta 12 times and the Sony 8 times. Then I had one of our top photographers over and he picked the Sony 7 times, the Minolta 7 times, and 6 ties.
I still feel that the Minolta yields slightly better photos over-all but not by enough to sacrifice the extra benefits of the modern day Sony features:
- Better communication with the camera
- Better communication with the flash
- Silent focusing (much better for video)
- Somewhat smaller
- Definitely lighter
- Uses SAM instead of screw type focusing Sony told me that the new A77/A65s will wear out the old screw type lenses very quickly as they were not made for the super fast focusing that today’s cameras drive.
- Easy access to the AF/MF switch without taking your eye off the shot
- Much closer minimum focus distance MFD (18" vs almost 6')
- Works with the camera’s in-camera adjustment software
In summary the new Sony 18-135MM lens is far above the old standard 18-70 and 18-55 “kit” lenses and is worth considering as an excellent walk around lens for your Sony camera.
The range covers wide angle to pretty decent zoom and if your Sony camera has the built in tele-converter it will get you up to 270MM for bigger zoom photos. The Minolta 28-135 still beat it by a bit on 60% of the shots but they were close enough to justify keeping this lens and letting go of my beloved 28-135. I’m quite amazed at the lenses that Sony has recently released, the 35MM 1.8, the 16-50MM 2.8, and now the 18-135MM have impressed us enough to earn a home either on one of our 3 Sony A77 cameras or in our primary bag! If you shoot daylight video there is absolutely no doubt that the 18-135 is the way to go!Normally I would post photo comparisons but there is really no point in posting the side by side photos I took because they are honestly so close in sharpness and color that they would look identical when re-sized for the web!
I kinda wonder if some of the same Minolta team that designed the 28-135 helped with the Sony 18-135?
Update 8-25-12
We've now shot 2 weddings with the new 18-135 and we don't miss the 28-135 at all. The 18-135 has much better communication with the camera for indoor flash shoots and focuses much faster in low light.
Update 3-16-13
We've now taken tens of thousands of concert and wedding photos. For outdoor shots or with flash indoors this lens is fantastic. It has become my wife's favorite lens! The only thing that could have made this lens better for our purposes is if it was a 2.8 through the range so we could shoot indoor concerts with no flash. For that we use the Sony 16-50 2.8 lens. If you like classic rock check out our excellent photos on the RLC pages and the pages under the Band photography tab.
http://www.abetterdj.net/PAT-TRAVERS-BAND-PHOTOS.php
