Digital SLR using Minolta SRT-101 Lenses?

Despite my own serious doubts, I have to ask...

 

Is there a Digital SLR body that can make use of my Minolta SRT-101 lenses? I

have a 28mm and a 135mm that are in excellent condition.

sony alpha D-SLR uses minolta lens, but I am not sure about SRT lens. All minolta AF should work fine, older lens may have limitations.

The answer is appreantly "Yes, but not in such a way as to be useful."

 

See the link below.

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Edw1&tag=

The short answer is, yes, You can use them on an Olympus 4/3 DSLR but only with a nearly $200 adapter, and you will have to sacrifice full-aperture metering, and focusing will be difficult, unless you buy a model that can use a Katz-Eye replacement focusing screen (E-300 and E-1 are the only ones currently supported). And the screen is another $100. In practice, the functionality is quite reasonable, but the cost makes the idea unattactive.

 

Actually, Olympus DSLRs work this way using adapters for most brands of older manual focus lenses, but I wouldn't use the Minolta lenses, just because the cost of that adapter makes them prohibitive. Most other brands can be supported with cheap, under $40 adapters made in China, but since the demand is so low for the older Minolta lenses on Oly cameras, there is only a single source for the Minolta to 4/3 adapter (Cameraquest), and hence the exhorbitant price.

 

I actually use Leica R, Nikon F, Olympus OM, and Pentax M42 lenses on my Olympus E-1 and E-300 with excellent results. Your Minolta lenses would work just as well, but it's cheaper to buy a Nikon or Pentax lens, and their less costly adapters to 4/3, rather than just the over-priced Minolta to 4/3 adapter.

 

In reality, the 135mm lens would be a quite useful 270mm equivalent fast tele on the Olympus system (but comparable Nikon or Pentax lenses can be bought 2nd hand for well under $50). Your 28mm would basically lose it's wide angle of view, and become a 56mm equivalent normal lens, hence not so attractive. You would need to buy a dedicated lens for the Olympus system to have a true wide angle, due to the Olympus system's 2X multiplier factor.

 

So, in essence, it's do-able, but it is not at all cost effective to do it, unless you had some really exotic fast normal to tele lenses.

It's not worth it just to use a 135mm as a long tele, as there are cheaper, better ways to go for that (Such as Oly's nice 40-150mm zoom, or the aforementioned Nikon and Pentax manual focus lenses).

The Chinese Seagull Camera Co. owns the rights to the MD lens mount now and there is just a possibility that, if the cost of the imaging chips and associated gubbins drops sufficiently, they may produce a dSLR with the MD mount. Wishful thinking maybe by those of us with old Rokkor lenses, but it is a possibility.

What are gubbins, and how do they relate to the production of DSLRs?