Mr Carl keeps telling me I should get it and everyone who has it does indeed seem quite pleased. Lots on ebay for good prices too.

For me honestly I don't see much to critique really it's a nice shot. I really like the choice of flower, lighting, choice of framing and exposure, the way the window is blurred nicely, all quite pretty. Perhaps some of the others here more expert in these types of shots would have more to comment on it.

it's really soft and dreamy, the colors seem somewhat muted but in a good way.

I have two of these 50mm f:1.7 lenses and the 50mm f2.8 macro. It is a rare day when I leave the farm and do not take a 50mm in my kit bag. It fits in a small corner and comes in very handy when the light is low and the flash is forbidden. The faster aperture also helps for a softer bokeh wide open over the zoom lenses I normally use the 16-80 and bbc 75-300

As for the image of the topic I like it. I'm not sure if I would like a bit more "sharpness" or just keep it as is. A flower can be soft.

I like the soft glow. I think it conveys a sort of peacefulness.

I've been thoroughly happy with my 50mm f1.7. It always has a place in my camera bag. It's a sharp lens wide open and a very sharp lens stopped down just a tiny bit. If there is anything negative to say about it, it's that the lens hood is ridiculous.

Hi Eric, Paul and Ovlov.

Thanks for the comments. I agree that the image could have had a touch more DOF, but I wanted to see what the 50mm could do bokeh wise (forgotten it was so nice-I spend too much time using zooms!), as a result I think it was shot wide open.

Ovlov, I agree the hood is a bit of an odd design. It is relatively effective when used normally, but as soon as you use a filter it takes the element to the front of the hood, rendering it pretty useless. At least it's included in the lens FOC, some manufacturers (naming no names) make you buy all hoods- and they say alpha mount glass is poor value ;-)

Cheers
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

I hopped over here on the link from your other post. Hope if I get my hands on such a lens, I can take such nice shots. A very supple flower.

Skippy

Thanks Skippy,

Appreciate your comments, it means a lot. Oh and feel free to join the site at any time. Be nice to have you here!

Andrew

I've been using the screw-in rubber collapsible hood that I used for years on my Zuiko OM 50mm f1.8 lens. So far, I have not noticed any vignetting even with the hood screwed into a UV filter. The A700's cropped sensor probably helps.

Andy

Andrew,

Like somebody else said above, not a lot to critique. I love this lens, myself, and I recently took it to my buddy's graduation and took some great pictures of him and another friend. The best images I've shot to date so far were from this lens. It has never let me down.

Hi all,

I have recently started shooting my a300 with a Maxxum AF 50 F/1.7. I wasn't sure what to think about it at first, but I have really started to apprectiate the sensitivity. My hope was to use it without flash, for low-light, of course, and it does a very nice job of that. But I was also impressed with its performance for fill flash. I have been able to remove shadows without making the picture look "light blasted" for lack of a better term. Interestingly enough, the most impressive shots with this lens may be the full sunlight ones, when there are really no worroes about exposure. As a regular lens with higher f stops, this old Minolta seems to deliver beautiful clarity. Although I have the two lens kit from Sony (the regular kit and the long zoom) I know that this is the lens my camera will wear most of the time. Zooming is okay, and very useful, but there is something about using this lens that makes the composition of each shot a little more deliberate. Well that's how I feel about it today, anyway.

One more thought. Could someone elaborate on the proper use of the white balance control. When? How? Why? In combination with what other settings? Thanks.

Skippy

Skippy,

I agree with what you've said about the lens. Ever since my purchase, I ditched my other lens for this one on 99% of all occasions. As far as the white balance goes, you choose the white balance setting based on how white should look. If the color temperature is too high (yellow/red-ish hue) then to balance it out, you must reduce it to a lower temperature so that the whites can look white.

Similarly, if you're shooting where there's an ambient blue illumination (if I'm not mistaken, if it's cloudy outdoors,) increasing the temperature in the white balance will make the looks more white than blue. Also, if you've noticed, some skin tones won't be well produced if the color temperature is cooler.

Here's an example of a warm-ish color temperature:

and here's another one of my friend in NYC:

the second one was shot in the shadows of skyscrapers and there were clear skies that day. That added a lot of coolness to the color. Also, it was shot by a point and shoot.

Now, you can intentionally create a warmer or colder setting or even modify your photos to come out as such, if said saturation of temperature affects the outcome in a good way. Ultimately, it's all about having neutral tones. As far as the presets go, it's the factory setting based on how the camera performed under their controlled tests in the preset's lighting conditions. Of course, not all flourescents have the same color temperature. Some are warmer and some are colder. That's why I shoot in raw because I never know when something is absolutely one way or another.

Hope that helps.
--Kiran

Hi Skippy,

Glad you seem to be liking your A300 and old 50mm. I think Kiran got it pretty much spot on with his explanation of WB. One of the best features of the A300 and A350 (which most but not all reviewers miss) is the fact that you can judge your WB settings on the fly- the LV makes it very easy to get a good WB.

Have a look here where Carl shows you how to make a WB adjustment on the A300:
http://www.alphamountworld.com/reviews/sony-a300-review?page=0%2C2

Lastly, as Kiran says the main idea is to create an image where the WB is adjusted to give a neutral/accurate image. However there is nothing wrond with tweaking the WB for creative effect. The second photo down (http://www.alphamountworld.com/forums/photo-sharing-forum/try-portrait/2008-6/858), by regular poster Cross-Lane shows how WB can be used for creative effect.

Hope that helps.

Andrew

Hi, I've decided to invest in a Minolta AF 50mm/F1.7 lens but keep seeing comments that the lens hood is poor design and prone to flare. Is there an alternative hood set-up available and that you would recommend? Thanks.

of the ones Sony/Minolta made/makes. That and the 50mm 1.4 are just all around great lenses. Can you imagine if the magnification ratio were 1:3 or 1:4? Talk about even more versatile :)

Your shot is very nice Andrew, not much to add to this that others haven't already done. From the looks of the shot it seems you used it just about wide open, would that be correct? I like the effect, not nearly enough pictures are soft as they should be. Too much sharpness craze I think.

Even though the 50mm 1.4 is rather pricey compared to the ebay 50mm 1.7, I still really like knowing I have a lens that is brand new and lets in the most light of all the Sony/Minolta lenses. I really like having both.

Perhaps ill get around to doing the 50mm 1.4 review compared to the 50mm 1.7.

Carl

I use an inexpensive collapsible, screw-in rubber hood. I generally avoid using any filters to minimize the possibility of vignetting, which would probably be more likely with a full-frame camera than with an APS-C camera.