Minolta lens' fit Sony DSLR Camera?

<p>I have 3 lenses with Minolta mountings. I want to purchase a DSLR camera that I can use these lenses on. The research I have done suggests that they might be compatible with the Sony A100 series DSLR cameras. I have also read that there are adapters for some older lenses with outdated mountings. I am a novice photographer. Please tell me if I have chance of using these three lenses and what DSLR camera they might fit.<br />1. Minolta MD Rokker 50mm 1:1.7 55mm (lens made in Japan)<br />2. Focal 28mm F2.8 multi-coated automatic diaphragm wide-angle lens (for Minolta Mount including XD & XG)<br />3. Sigma Zoom (-BII) 1:4-5.6, F=60-200mm, Multi-coated (lens made in Japan) ("Macro" written on side)</p>

<p>The old (even the new ones) Minolta Autofocus lenses WILL work on the Sony A mount. Not sure about manual focus lenses though?<br>

When I got my A100, I had several Minolta lenses and a Sigma - all worked fine.<br>

*Hope* that is of a help?</p>

<p>I bought the sony a100 "because" I had minolta mounts, plus becouse the sony has the super steady shot built in to the camera body and there wouldnt be a need to replace the lenses I had to get antishake. <br>

All work fine. And saved me a lot of money buying new lenses. </p>

<p>Matt </p>

<p>Follow this link for a database of lenses that were *designed* to fit & work properly with the a-mount cameras (incl. Sony Alphas).</p>

<p>http://www.dyxum.com/lenses/index.asp</p>

<p>Janet, if you had done your research, you would have seen numerous similar questions about using old Minolta manual focus lenses on an AF Sony DSLR. But, let me explain this to you...</p>

<p>Minolta had the old manual-focus lenses, before they came out with an auto-focus system using a DIFFERENT lens mount. While you can buy an adaptor that will allow you to use your manual focus lenses on an AF camera, you will have to use them in 'stop-down' mode, which requires you to do more work, than if you buy a couple of AF lenses to go with a DSLR.</p>

<p>Since the lenses you have are not notable lenses, other than the 50mm f/1.7, which is okay, I would suggest that you buy a Sony DSLR with a couple of 'kit' lenses, that will probably meet your needs. And you have to remember that with the smaller sized sensor used on all Sony DSLRs, except for the A900, the effective focal lenght of a lens is magnified by a factor of 1.5X. In other words, if you put a 50mm lens on the camera, it would be like using a 75mm lens on your current system.</p>

<p>Since the kit zooms have a smaller maximum aperture than your 50mm and 28mm, you might want to buy a couple of used Minolta lenses. However, prices have gone up since you first invested in lenses, so be prepared. And if you buy zoom lenses, most will have smaller maximum apertures than you're used to using your prime lenses, but with the advantage of being able to change your ISO setting, this usually is not a problem. The only disadvantage is if you like to have shallow depth of field.</p>

<p>Hi Janet,</p>

<p>As Richard and Robert wrote Sony DSLRs (nor any other brand DSLRs) are not designed to work with manual focus Minolta lenses, but they will work with Minolta autofocus lenses. Your lenses 1 and 2 are definitely manual focus, so nr 3 probably is MF as well and won't fit either on a digital body.</p>

<p>Without going into detail, when autofocus technology came along some camera makers (eg Canon and Minolta) decided to go back to the drawing board and completely redesign the shape and size of their lens mounts while others (eg Nikon and Pentax) did not and adapted their existing mount (albeit with some complications).</p>

<p>Interestingly, both brands that changed their mounts completely <em>can</em> now indirectly fit more types of other lenses however, because various third party companies have produced a wide range of special adapters for them. If you really like to use your current MD mount lenses then that is technically possible on a Sony camera via a dedicated adapter from Minolta MD to Maxxum mount.</p>

<p>Such adapters come in different types, an example is <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/97536-REG/General_Brand__Maxxum_Body_to_Minolta.html">this one</a> from B&H. Depending on the type, you would lose the ability to focus on the horizon <em>OR</em> you would get slightly lower image quality plus slight extra magnification plus slight loss of brightness. Some of us hate these adapters and some of us love them, they tend to cost $40-60 so less than new autofocus lenses but more than the value of some used autofocus lenses and many used manual focus lenses.</p>

<p>I too use the Minolta Manual focus lenses for my Minolta camera setup, and i have the same struggle as you when thinking of Digital. I have invested alot over the years in my Manual Minolta camera and lenses. In fact i was debating systems and asking for advice in another forum thread on <a href="../digital-camera-shopping-forum/00RukG">here</a> . The difference being that i have many of the wonderful Rokkor lenses and you only have one lens that is really good glass. The others are Ehhh! at best. So your choice is much simpler.<br>

<img src="http://www.rokkorfiles.com/photos/olympus/e-300.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="232" align="left" /> <img src="http://www.rokkorfiles.com/photos/olympus/adaptor.jpg" alt="" width="352" height="232" align="right" /> <br /> <img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2420/2223439531_1a15808910_b.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="323" /><br>

<em>Photos Courtosy of <a href="http://www.rokkorfiles.com/olympus.htm">Rokkorfiles</a> and <a href=" H Wright</a> </em> <br /> <strong>The only choice for you is the 4/3 system cameras. </strong> Most likely Olympus E series of DSLR cameras, as they offer in body image stabilization. The basic camera with kit lens is very cheep by DSLR standards. Just make sure you get the camera with the 14-42 Lens, because your lenses that you have will make up the telephoto lenses for your setup (in manual mode because you have all manual focus lenses). The nice standard Rokkor 50mm 1.7 that you have will be a very nice and fast Portrait lens also. you just need to buy a simple adapter that comes with a focus conformation chip. They go for about $60 or so on the auction site. Because the goal is to use adapters that don't require glass and maintain the cameras original focusing scale and do not degrade the image quality of the lens. And for us Minolta manual focus lens users there are limited choices for DSLR's that use non corrective glass adapters. <strong>So good luck on whatever Olympus E system you get.</strong><br>

<br /> My friend has an Olympus E-500 and uses it all the time. Even tho he purchased his Olympus so he can use his old lenses too, he only uses one of them latly, besides the olympus lense. Olympus lenses are excelent quality and reasonably priced too. He has added more olympus lenses to his collection now and loves it. Just to let you know olympus offers the widest angle lens there is for DSLRs and thet goes even if you factor in conversions for diffrent DSLR sensor size.. well thats what the website says and i believe its tru except for the many thousand dollared full flame sensor cameras.</p>

<p>Janet, as said, the Minolta manual focus lenses will not work ont he Sony (or the Minolta AF cameras). However, seriously, you can get a 50mm af lens for $25 -$50 on ebay (Example <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/Minolta-Maxxum-AF-50mm-1-1-7-22-for-Sony-Alpha-DSLR_W0QQitemZ250348836365QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCamera_Lenses?hash=item250348836365&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A15%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318">http://cgi.ebay.com/Minolta-Maxxum-AF-50mm-1-1-7-22-for-Sony-Alpha-DSLR_W0QQitemZ250348836365QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCamera_Lenses?hash=item250348836365&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A15%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318</a>). The Alpha comes with am 18-70 lens that has gotten great reviews. But if you want another lens the last 2 lenses on your list can be replaced with the Sigma 28-200 or Sigma 28-300 (or the Tamron equivilents). On ebay, they are under $200 (Example <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/Tamron-Aspherical-28-200-3-8-5-6-LD-for-Minolta-Maxxum_W0QQitemZ170289708285QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCamera_Lenses?hash=item170289708285&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A15%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318">http://cgi.ebay.com/Tamron-Aspherical-28-200-3-8-5-6-LD-for-Minolta-Maxxum_W0QQitemZ170289708285QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCamera_Lenses?hash=item170289708285&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A15%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318</a>)<br>

So forget those manual lenses and get into the new Sony Alpha rhelm with some new glass and have fun!!!</p>

<p>You are correct Brian the lenses aren't that expensive when comparing to some other lenses (not compared to free lenses or ones already owned), but she does not already own a Sony Alpha or any lenses to go with it. So she would spend much more on the camera and the cheep lenses you listed, than if she just simply purchases an Olympus Digital 4/3 camera with lens. And the cheep adapter lets her use the lenses shes already got, not to mention turning the Rokkor normal lens into a fast portrait lens. How much would a f1.7 portrait lens for the Alpha system cost ya? The main point of her question was what would let her use her lenses she already owns.</p>

 

<p>Well, unfortunately the days when you could catch a Minolta AF 50 1.7 for $50 or less are pretty much over... expect the one in Brian's link to go for $100 or more by the time it's done. There are still some bargain Minolta AF zooms to be found for less than $50 though.</p>

<p>Because of legacy lenses I wanted to keep using (three cheers for manual lenses!) I had looked at Olympus DSLRs myself before buying my Sony A100. What I didn't like about Olympus was the tiny viewfinder, the tiny mirror and the comparatively tiny sensor aka 2x crop factor. If you're going to get a DSLR and still use manual focus lenses, then you'll need the biggest viewfinder you can afford to help you with focusing, and blowing up by 2x the center of your lenses' field of image is probably not very useful either if the lens was not specifically designed for that level of sharpness.</p>

<p>Paul, i know what you mean about the viewfinder. "Tunnel view" is what i hear alot of people call it. I don't see a big problem when i look through my friends Oly tho, but that's just me. Panasonic fixed that problem with their DMC L-10 and especially their DMC G-1. Which is the Smallest Digital interchangeable lens camera ever. Even all the old Leica lenses will adapt to fit that one. Remember Oly is not the only one that makes a 4/3 camera.<br>

Also the Rokkor glass is plenty sharp. Just click on any of those links i put in my last post you ill see plenty of photographs that are very sharp with nice contrast. Here is another <a href=" from Mr. D H Write's photographs</a> that i like. In fact ill show you another page chock full of digital images with the Rokkor lenses and also some off brand lenses. It is called <a href="http://digitalrokkor.altervista.org/minoltalens_50-58mm.html">the digital RokkorFiles</a> . That link will show the page with Photos from exactly the Rokkor lens Janet has. An Italian engineer and photographer who loves the Rokkor and other Manual Minolta lenses (understandably so) developed a mount that replaces the standard Canon EOS mount with one that accepts the Minolta MD, and those cameras only have a 1.6 crop factor (more sensor). I talked about that in another thread posting <a href="../digital-camera-shopping-forum/00RukG">HERE</a> . You can also see someone posted a photograph on that thread, taken with an old Pentax lens on the New Panasonic G1. You see most lenses that are zoom have there troubles along the outer quarter of the image circle more so on the off brand lenses. And the off brand primes are at their best in the center too. So the crop factor actually utilizes the lenses "sweet spot" Turning some off branded lenses that were before just Ehhh into pretty decent ones. But the Rokkor lenses still remain Very good lenses.<br>

Again to answer her question, bottom line is to utilize three Minolta MD lenses, a 4/3 camera is the best way to go when your just starting out; unless your like me and have a butt load of MD mount and Rokkor lenses (and still wants more ;)) then theirs the option of the adapted Digital rebel to consider.<br>

Now i am discounting the Alpha system from a suggestion to her because she is asking to use the lenses she alredy has. Wich suggests to me that she doe not want to spend alot of money. And in the DSLR world that translates to Cannon Digital rebel and the Olympus 4/3 system, those being the least expensive cameras to purchase. But hey if money is no object to Janet then i would suggest the A700 with a compliment of Zeiss lenses or even better the A900. The cost Of wich are atleast 2x an 5x respectivly, of the Olympus E-410.</p>

<p>dan Mar, you post is fine and dandy, but looking at the OP, it doesn't appear that Janet would want to use the old Minolta glass on a camera like the Olympus and <strong>then</strong> have to have to use 'stop-down' mode to take pictures. If you going to push something like the the Olympus then perhaps you should give her a lesson about the hassle she will face actually taking pictures. You should point out that the lenses will not communicate to the body and therefore she would have to do 'this and that' to take a pictue.</p>

<p>Robert:<br>

Using a MF Minolta on Olympus 4/3 is not a problem but limited to Aperture Priority Mode or Manual Mode and of course Manual Focus.</p>

<p>Claudio- I didn't sayit was a 'problem' if you use a MF Minolta lens on an Olympus 4/3 SLR, I said it was a 'hassle'. Looking at the lens assortment that the OP has, I would doubt that she wants to have do the extra steps to take pictures. Odds are that she is a casual shooter and not someone who wants to be bothered with taking pictures in stop-down mode. She doesn't have a large collection of glass and the value and quality of them isn't worth the effort.</p>

<p>Once she buys and tries a modern AF camera and AF lenses, do you honestly think she will regret dumping her present system?</p>

<p>Stopping down is a genuine hassle only those who grew up with point & shoot or autofocus and missed out on the good old days of manual everything. If Janet owns manual focus lenses anyway, and is interested in finding out whether she can carry them over to the digital age, then I suspect she won't suffer too much from potential stop-down trauma :-)</p>

<p>With film slrs and shorter manual focus lenses you are supposed to stop down and check DOF even when shooting with automatic aperture (since you can't check the result on the spot on a non-existent back panel lcd). And with longer manual focus lenses you would hardly ever set your aperture tighter than f8-9ish anyway, which means you can still focus just fine in normal light.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Well i don't know for sure about Janet but if i have to spend three or four hundred dollars extra to replace lenses that I already have because of "dumping a system" I would regret it. So yes i honestly think she would. Unless shes not worried about money & is well off financially, then it doesn't matter. Buy an A900 with a few Zeiss lenses in that case. I would if i could.. right after i purchased a Leica Digital M with MD adapter ;)<br>

And yes Paul De Ley you have a great point. Most people that arnt Manual focus users do not realise that wheather the lens is on a 35mm or a digital body, if its Manual there no diffrence in operationusing it. Thinking about people that are use to Auto focus lenses that find the manual focus a Hassel it sorta reminds me of kids coming out of Highschool now that arnt use to doing math without a calculator.</p>

<p>Paul- my first SLR was a SRT101, that I got in 1969, and while I really liked, make that loved, that camera, I wouldn't use a camera that I had use 'stop-down' mode. Janet's assortment doesn't indicate that she is even a hobbyist shooter, but rather a casual photographer. And that is why I said I didn't think she would want to use a camera where she had to go thru the extra effort.</p>

<p>danMar- The 'system Janet would be 'dumping isn't really much of a lost. And the price of an A350/A350 kit set up isn't going to add "three to four hundred dollars extra" to the cost of a body. And by switching from a film system to digital, she'll save more than that by not having to buy film nor have to pay for processing the film. She'll make-up the difference in a short time.</p>

<p>Yes the film and processes savings are a given, but that cannot be a factor here since shes going to buy a digital no matter what we have to compare digital camera to digital camera and consider the costs of using lenses she already has; which is zero. SO the A350 goes for about 800 with lenses to cover the spectrum she has. So lets actually compare. A350 Digital SLR Camera 2 Lens Kit with 18 - 70mm Lens & 55 - 200mm f/4 - 5.6 Telephoto Zoom. $799. Olympus E-420 Digital SLR Camera / Lens Kit with 14mm - 42mm f/3.5-f/5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom $466.65 and the $60 dollar adapter will let her lenses cover the rest of telephoto end plus giver her 2 nice and fast primes. Hmm... darn... i didn't get prices for the Alpha equivalent of those lenses.. Oh well lets pretend a fast prime portrait (100mm at ther 35 eq) and a normal prime (around 56mm at the 35 eq) will cost 100 each on eBaay. So its $999 vs. $527. Yes Robert is right on that one. So I stand corrected; it is not a three to four hundred dollar savings. Its more. I should have said more like three to five hundred more. that would have covered it. I was going by the prices for the A300 when i said about three or four hundred dollars extra savings. Sorry for that misunderstanding. Plus the Olympus has in body immage stabilzationand. So the best thing about that is she can buy lots of inexpensive Manual fosus lenses for less thain half what the ones for the Alpha would cost.<br>

But you know Now i am also starting to get off topic here ... The origonal question was<br>

"I am a novice photographer. Please tell me if I have chance of using these three lenses and what DSLR camera they might fit?"<br>

Janet, Robert and everyone else would agree with me when i tell you that you cannot use those lenses on any Sony DSLR without an adapter that would degrade the image quality. So my answer to that question you asked would be, yes you have a chance, and an inexpensive on at that. the least expensive DSLR system on the market now, the Olympus. So any olympus DSLR with an adapter (no image degrading glass) will work for those lenses. pluss you will have one of the only 2 DSLRs that offers in boddy immage stabalization (Pentax is the other)</p>

<p>dan Mar- Since you're pushing so hard for Janet to buy an Olympus and an adaptor to allow her to use the lenses she has, even though she has to use them in stop-down mode, why don't you give her instruction in the process she would have to go thru to actually her MF Minolta lenses on the Olympus body? Let her decide if she, as a novice photographer, wants to go thru this process every time she wants to take a picture. I think she will decide that she doesn't, but that she just wants to take nice pictures.</p>

<p>The problem with your answer is that you're not looking at the level of interest she has in photography and giving her an answer that meets <strong>your</strong> interest and not hers. I think that if Janet were to buy an camera that does not allow her to truly enjoy taking pictures, she will regret her decision and not use her camera as much as she would if she had a modern set-up. Her lenses are nothing special, and the quality of her pictures will suffer. Why would you want her to take pictures that are not as good as they could be?</p>

<p>I made the same mistake that you are making in offering advice many years ago. My sister was looking to buy a movie camera and she asked me for my suggestion. As I was quite interested in anything photographic, I suggested that she buy a camera that was way more than she needed or wanted, and because of that she quickly lost interest in taking movies. I learned from that experience that when someone asks me for buying advice, I tailor my answer to their needs, wants, and desires, not mine.</p>

<p>Janet, <br /><br /> As has been said, you can't adapt manual-focus Minolta lenses to any other DSLR cameras and obtain full function or the original full field of view they provided on your 35mm SLRs. You can adapt them to the FourThirds lens mount where they will work with 100% manual focus and iris control, and a net reduction in FoV equivalent to a so-called "2x crop". Most FourThirds SLRs will provide reasonably accurate manual and aperture priority metering with such adapted manual lenses. The high end models (E-1 and E-3) with top notch viewfinders will be reasonably easy to focus with, and those models that provide Live View and magnification for manual focusing on the LCD will be easy to work with for more static subjects. <br /><br /> IMO, the best adaptation of manual lenses like this, however, is to the new Panasonic G1 camera. Its fully electronic imaging system ... viewfinder and lcd ... has major advantages for using manual focus, manual iris lenses, and it presents the same sensor format/FoV as the FourThirds SLRs. The sensor is 12Mpixel resolution and is quite good on noise characteristics up to at least ISO 800, even 1600 is very usable for some circumstances. The metering and focus are more accurate than with any SLR's OVF and metering system for these lenses because they're all driven directly off the actual imaging sensor. <br /><br /> I've written more on this very topic on another photo.net thread, which you might want to look at: <br /> <a href="../digital-camera-shopping-forum/00RukG" target="new1"> http://photo.net/digital-camera-shopping-forum/00RukG</a><br /><br /> I've been using Nikon and Pentax lenses adapted on both FourThirds SLRs (Panasonic L1 and Olympus E-1), and now I use them on the G1. The G1 presents a better option for using these lenses, by far. <br /><br /> Godfrey</p>

<p>A simple MD/MC Minolta to Maxxum/Alpha lens mount adapter is available here.<br>

<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=160308117642">http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=160308117642</a></p>

<p>It's not simple, Gerry. It has a corrective optical element to compensate for the mount register difference. There's no way to know how well that is corrected and how much image degradation it will result in. </p>

<p>Godfrey</p>

<p>.</p>

<p>That one is reported to be ~1.1x teleconverter, PLUS the 1.52x effective "teleconverter" crop of the APS-C sensor, and NO automatic lens operation, and you get ... 1.1 x 1.52 = 1.672x crop ... so:</p>

<p>- 50mm f/1.7 times 1.672 = <b>83mm f/1.76</b> (I think)_</p>

<p>- 28mm f/2.8 times 1.672 = ~<b>46mm f/2.9</b></p>

<p>- 60-200mm f/4-5.6 times 1.672 = ~<b>100-334mm f/4.1-5.8</b></p>

<p>Not bad, specification wise, but reduce old lenses by the teleconverter glass, probably un-coated, reflecting off the sensor, and, well, you get what yuo pay for. Manual lenses, on a Sony A100/300/350/700/900 at least offer automatic exposure (the A200 does not).</p>

<p>Try it - have fun, and share some pictures!</p>

<p>.</p>

<p>.</p>

<p>Also, there's an adapter WITH ELECTRONICS to fool all Alpha cameras, including the A200:</p>

<p><a href="http://eadpt.cn/eadpen.htm">http://eadpt.cn/eadpen.htm</a><br>

http://img01.taobao.com/bao/uploaded/i1/20071226/a70/T1v1FXXjt2lAxAxmc__110421.jpg<br>

<img src="http://img01.taobao.com/bao/uploaded/i1/20071226/a70/T1v1FXXjt2lAxAxmc__110421.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="374" /><br>

MD->α/MAF Focus Confirm Adapter--LMD-1 - Single Len's Data Version<br>

CODE: MD-L1 (default len's data:50/F1.4)<br>

440RMB approx. $63 USD </p>

<p>.</p>

<p>WOW.. Just to let you know Janet i am not "Pushing" anything, except the correct answer as to the only Digital camera system that you can use for the lenses. That was her origonal question incase some peol following this thread have forgotten. Please scrill up and read it to refresh your memory. The rest is just information. The main point being Cost. Wich would be the only reason to want to use thos lenses. Saving money. Il ttry to make it simple. Olympus E-system camera Will let you use your lenses and only Cannon has some DSLR models Cheaper.</p>

<p>FOR everyone reading, like i said if money is no object, the new Sony A900 and Zeiss lenses is the system to get, Nothing is better in my opinion.<br>

And for others reading this thread for information, i am not even going to talk to you about how bad a SINGLE LENS CORRECTIVE DIOPTER is for any camera. Search this site it has been explained so many times before.</p>