| I'd almost always rather have a decent set of primes instead of a wide range of zooms. As KMD said, they are designed for the one task, and they tend to do it well. At a given focal length almost any zoom is a compromise.
Having said that, one of the sharpest lenses I have ever owned was a Minolta 28-85. Unfortunately, the one I bought to replace it after I got burglarized in NYC wasn't nearly as sharp - there's a definite softness to it. Remember, even in lenses of exactly the same make and model there will be variations from sample to sample. If you can, try out several lenses and buy the one that looks the best.
Nowadays the lens I use the most is a Minolta 50mm macro. (With the area difference between 35mm and the CCD in my DSLR, that works out to about a 70mm equivalent.) I really like that lens - very sharp, edge-to-edge. |