On Fri, 28 Aug 1998 13:42:36 -0500, "Russell Greenlaw" wrote:

>I am looking for a Macro Lens for My wife for X-Mas and us being relative
>neophytes at this I need some advice and answers.
>
>We have a Minolta Maxxum 400si with the 35-70mm lens. Also, we have a
>Minolta 70-210mm zoom lens with Macro capabilities. The question I had is
>what can a true macro do that the 70-210mm can't.

Close-focus is often added to zooms as a "convenience" feature,
but it is often not wonderful in the quality department (same with
most zooms at other focus distances at wide stops...). Stopping down
to f11-16 will generally improve things considerably. Macro lenses
can usually produce higher unaided magnification, and they are very
noticeably sharper at wider stops, and lower in linear distortion.
They are generally much better lenses than most zooms...

>Also, what does the aperture of the lens affect? I have seen 2 seemingly
>identical Minolta Maxxum Macro lenses that the only difference was the
>aperture(f/3.5 - f/2.8) and the price (239.99 - 389.99).

Possibly little, but I have tried the Minolta 50mm f2.8, and it
was really excellent!