Contax AX technology and MF lenses?

[jon_sak]

A while back I tried a contax ax and thought the concept was neat, but

thought the price of a contax kit was just to high. However I was

thinking about the technology used in the contax AX. Could this type

of technology be used to make something like a DSLR that has AF with

MF lenses? For example Seagull "may" produce a DSLR for MF minolta

mount lenses, but what if the contax AF technoogy was also available?

Could these technologies be combined?

 

Before anybody jumps on me about "having my cake and eating it too" I

already have an AF system and I am very happy with it. This is just a

question to those in the industry who can give some insight into "why"

or "Why not"

[clinton_abe]

Jon- Anything is possible, and at least you didn't ask why KM doesn't do it. As for KM doing it, the answer would be- MONEY, or lack there of. Why would they want to spend money they don't have, on something they don't need to have? They're not going to divert money on some such a project. Minolta came out with a new mount because at the time, they felt that the lens mount opening of the manual focus SLR was too small to fit the AF components needed to work(remember, this was back in the old days).

[glen_johnson1]

I'm a fan of Contax MF lenses, and most of their cameras, but not the AX. It was a heavy, bulky, slow beast that drove the Kyocera repair people crazy. Lots of breakdowns.

 

I would think that a shotgun marriage of the creaky AX technology and still-evolving KM DSLR engineering, added to made-in-China production and quality control would be the absolute pits, but that's just me.

[peterblaise]

.

 

Don't forget the now rare Sigma adapter that autofocused manual focus lenses on a Minolta AF 5000/7000/9000 auto focus camera body. With a full frame sensor, an update of that technology that would make a ~1.1x teleconverter effect. On the current 1.53x APS sensor, that would make what, ~1.65x teleconverter effect or cropping factor or focal length multiplier?

 

Only Tamron Adaptall manual focus lenses fit and work on original Minolta manual focus camera bodies AND on current Minolta auto focus film and digital camera bodies WITHOUT an additional teleconverter glass in-between. Oh, and of course the 1957-on Tamron-style T-mount lenses, too. Tamron as been looking out for us for a long time, eh?

 

The challenge in building a new Minolta manual focus lens based digital camera is that no manufacturer has any benefits from follow on sales of NEW Minolta manual focus lenses (except maybe Cosina? More thoughts on Cosina below), so the only sale would be the camera body itself, or in the case of a Sigma-style adapter, the one-time sale of the adapter itself. Not much incentive!

 

There is a proven multi-vendor supply side for the Leica M rangefinder lenses, and to a lesser extent, for Pentax K mount (the manual "school" camera cheapie specials still at most camera stores). However, Pentax already has a digital solution for the K mount lenses, and Epson (and soon Leica will) have digital solutions for Leica M mount lenses.

 

I think the market penetration for Minolta manual focus lenses has passed - the Minolta SR T and Minolta X-700 cameras were the best selling cameras of their day, but that was long ago, even though Tamron and Cosina and perhaps Seagull still make new lenses to fit them. There are others - Samyang I think. However, they are NOT the lens mount of choice even for Seagull, a current or former Minolta subsidiary in China. Even Seagull sells their Minolta X-series copy-cameras as K mount! Oh, the shame of it! :-(

 

By the way, the Minolta AF 7000 was ALSO the world's best seller in it's day - a powerful reason for Minolta and others to move on from the manual focus mount. Even Sony today wants to join Canon and Nikon in the successful and prestigious DSLR arena, and so is negotiating a technology trade with Minolta to accomplish just that! Although Sony has super high-end stuff - see the Qualia line - I see their entry into a Sony-logo'd DSLR to be head-to-head with Canon and Nikon. Go to http://www.keh.com/ and price out used Minolta AF camera bodies and used AF lenses and you will see they are CHEAPER than the manual focus systems. I believe there are more Minolta AF systems you can build used for under ~$100US than any other camera system. That's hard to argue with! Our manual focus gear is actually MORE expensive today!

 

No, in building a new Minolta manual focus style DSLR, Cosina is the only one I can imagine who would stand to gain additional add on sales of Minolta manual focus style lenses since Cosina makes camera bodies AND lenses. But, as in the Epson digital rangefinder built by Cosina, the digital part is Epson's responsibility. Cosina steadfastly stays OUT of the digital realm, preferring film based mechanical cameras. So that rules Cosina out unless someone else took over the digital part of the camera.

 

Tamron is not a likely candidate since their Adaptall manual focus lenses already fit and work on digital cameras, including the various full frame digital cameras. There is no need for Tamron to instigate the marketing of a Minolta manual focus mount digital camera system. Of course, however, their Adaptall lenses would support such a camera.

 

I think we all are reaping the benefits of the world wide best selling success of the Minolta SR T and X-700 cameras, so there are a lot of used Minolta manual focus style lenses on the market at swell prices. However, since we are spoiled by such inexpensive used gear, the NEW market for Minolta manual focus lenses is rather rarefied. How many of us would buy new rather than used today?

 

Then, there's the problem of the greater reflectiveness of the digital sensor versus film, and inappropriately designed or inappropriately coated older lenses excepting the lesser reflective film may not work pleasingly in a camera with a shiny digital sensor behind the lens, even if they fit.

 

I think we are dreaming.

 

Why not get a film scanner - we need one anyway to digitize our film archive? That is a wonderful solution for the past and for the present. Minolta makes wonderful film scanners, and we all should have one!

 

What do you all think?

 

Click!

 

Love and hugs,

Peter Blaise

Peterblaise@yahoo.com

http://www.peterblaisephotography.com/

http://www.geocities.com/peterblaise/minoltamf/