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It's tough to beat the size and performance of the Minolta MD for the going rate. You can get better performance out of the Leica R 35-70/4 or the Contax 35-70/3.5, but you pay for it both in cash and in size.
Personally, for my uses (which aren't terribly different from your proposed usage) I find the Canon FD 28-85/4 to be just right. The built in flare stopper does its job very well and the constant .5M MFD is useful. I love the focal length range, which is most useful on the long end. While it's not the perfect 28, it's very usable close to mid-distances, and gets acceptable at landscape distances around f/8. Otherwise, it's a consistent performer at any other focal length. It's also fairly small and light, and the short FD adapter helps keep it that way. The big downsides to the lens are... 1) It's not very well built, so finding a good copy can be a challenge. I got lucky the first time out, but other people have complained about problems with the zoom mechanism and misaligned elements. 2) The front of the lens, including the filter ring, rotate during focusing. This doesn't bother me, but if I wanted to use a circ pol on it, it would be a minor annoyance. 3) Canon FD lenses can be challenging in general colorwise on the Sonys, particularly outside of their L-line, and that's especially true for the zooms. If you plan to use preset profiles in your post, then be prepared to do some fine tuning, particularly on colder colors in high contrast shots.
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