Yesterday I hopped outside with the Sony a6000, and one of the cheapest, ugliest lenses in my collection. The Phoenix (made by Cosina) 100-400 slide zoom lens has such a late 80s-early 90s vibe about it, you feel like making a mix tape and drinking a Zima the moment you use it for the first time. Definitely a look and feel left over from analogue days. I think it came out during film, but was still around and being sold in the early digital days. Haven't seen exact dates of production, but likely mid-1990s through early 2000s.
But, it isn't terrible. Especially for the price. This is my 2nd version of this lens. The first was branded Vivitar and it fell apart after a few days. This one is branded Phoenix and I think this came in a box full of old Minolta stuff that I picked up on CL for $40. I use it and abuse it now, and haven't had any problems.
It isn't fast focussing, it needs lots of light, and did I mention how ugly it looks? But, it is tolerably sharp, it can hit focus, and the slide zoom is pretty handy when shooting dogs and other moving subjects. I mostly keep it around as a rainy-day zoom lens. It needs light, but it can get by on a foggy day, and if it gets waterlogged, I'm sure I can pick up another for $25 on e-bay. It is an old Minolta/Sony a-mount, so I used the LAEA4 adapter and it found focus most of the time, though not fast enough to track my dog, Chase, when he was barreling toward me. Â
I've used this to shoot rainy-day bike races and built my own rain cover by taping a garbage bag around the end of the lens. Worked like a charm.