Bellows?

[barry_hovland]

I have the Sony Alpha100; So lets say i want to get good macro capabilities at

a good price. Would it be feasable to buy some old Minolta bellows and attach

a maxxum/MD adapter? and what would be the best kind of bellows/lens size? or

would it just be better to buy the sony 50 2.8 macro? I don't necessarily care

about problems with metering or keeping the camera on manual but i would like

to get some high magnification, also i don't have the money for say the

novoflex bellows.

 

Thanks

[tommyinca]

A bellow trade-off portability/easy of use with magnifications, flexibility and cost. A Sony 50mm f1.8 macro lens give you 1:1 at 50mm. If you use say an older Minolta AB3 (will need a MD to AF macro adapter from ebay), you gain 3 to 4X the magnification with a Minolta 50mm bellow lens or get better working distant with the 100 or 135mm bellow lens. The AB3 allows some lens movement (shift and swing) and can give you a little bit better flexibility in framing. If you need more magnifications than 5:1, there is also the Minolta 12.5 and 25mm macro. The focus rail is also built-in. What you lose is auto aperture and AF for low magnifications. A macro lens also are musch smaller and lighter. BTW: Minolta also made a small compact bellow (Folding bellow) that can be use just as a standard lens.

[nate_macdonald]

There's a very good read on Minolta bellows and enlarging options here:

http://members.aol.com/manualminolta/close.htm

 

I have the 50mm 2.8 macro, it is very sharp, but there are a couple of things of note: First, there's no focus limiter on it, so it can hunt a lot - I actually use manual focus most of the time with this lens.

The other thing is with the 50mm length, you have to get really close to your subject for 1:1.

 

The 100mm macro alleviates both of these issues, and is also very sharp.