70-150 moderate Telezoom

Given the issue of the hand holding the 80-210mm and its weight I acquired a shorter  telezoom having many of the qualities of it in a more reasonable 460gram form. Serial #112984

Instead of opting for Minolta's own, I got Tamron's 70-150 F3.5  type 20A mounted to Minolta MD which offers excellent image quality across the focal lengths and very good close focussing that doesn't need engaging first to use in that mode.
Introduced in 1980, it was a very popular model although amateurs were looking for bigger zoom ranges and lighter construction in that period before auto focus cameras became prevalent so it only remained in production upto 1984.
Actually this lens is really an F4 as Modern Photography magazine tests alluded to without spelling it out but it has a bright enough image and uses a 49mm filter thread which is the same as the wide angles and 135mm F3.5
I find it a perfect compromise for when I may need something I can fine tune just beyond the 50mm standard lens, in the knowledge the upper range can be complemented by either the 200 or 300mm lenses.