Minolta MD on Sony a5000

[Marvin McAbee]

I have many old MD lenses for my old Minoltas and was considering using them on my a5000 Sony.  Just wondering what lenses others have used adapted to their Sony cameras.  When using these older lenses what settings have to be changed in the Sony camera when using these older lenses.  Do you have a favorite older lens that works well adapted to the Sony?  

[Bryan]

I have used old Pentax, Olympus, Canon FD, Tamron (mirror) and Sigma lenses on my Sony cameras, and not so old Canon EOS glass.

 

Generally speaking from about 35mm upwards the older glass performs very well, indeed my bargain basement Zuiko 50mm f1.8 is a real star, while my Pentax 35mm f2 is also very good. Getting down to 28mm my old Pentax lenses offer some advantage over the 16-50 zoom, but not as marked. Below that, in my experience, it is probably better to buy a new budget offering, e.g. Sigma and Rokinon.

 

In film days it was normal for a camera to be tested using the "standard lens", normally a 50 or thereabouts. Maybe 50s are easy to get right, or maybe the companies tried harder with these standards, but I have not come across a bad one, having tried Pentax, Olympus and Canon. Interestingly my Olympus f1.8 is perhaps better than the much more expensive and heavier f1.4

 

I have a Commlite converter that allows me to mount Canon EOS lenses and adjust the aperture, in theory it also allows auto focus, but that's not too hot. It rather defeats the purpose of buying a small camera if you hang heavy glass upon it, so, although I have tested the combination and it works fine, I don't, for example, carry a Canon 24-105 f4 around.

 

Settings wise I generally shoot aperture priority and auto ISO, keeping an eye on the shutter speed. I often find it necessary to dial in a bit more exposure, maybe +0.3 or +0.7 stops. The colour balance also needs watching, but is very easily corrected in Lightroom etc if shooting raw. The 28s are a bit prone to CA, but I have the fix CA switch permanently engaged in LR, so that's not a problem.

 

While on the subject of CA, the Rokinon 12mm f2 is rather keen on it and often needs a manual adjustment to remove it. A defringe setting of 7 normally does the trick.

 

 

 

 

[Marvin McAbee]

Thanks Bryan I have just strarted to tinker with this combination.  I put a 35 f2.8 on it and set the camera to release with no lens and it seems to work fine.  I will try some of my other lenses and see how it works out.  My main system is Nikon so I may look for a Nikon to Sony converter.  The newer Nikon lenses do not have an aperture ring but I saw a converter that gave aperture control of the G lenses.

 

Marvin

 

[John Mitchell]

I have three Minolta MD lenses that I sometimes use on my Sony NEX cameras -- 50mm f/1.7, 45mm f/2 (a pancake lens) and 28mm f/2.8. The 28mm has been the most useful but also the least sharp of the three. The 45mm "pancake" is surprisingly sharp for what was a cheap kit lens. The 50mm is a very good lens, but I don't find that I use it much. These lenses can be fun, and I like the classic Minolta "look" that they produce. Frankly, though, I'm not as talented or as patient as Bryan when it comes to manual focusing, plus I'm now hooked on AF,  OSS,  and zooms. That said, last year I shelled out for a used  Sony 35mm f/1.8, which I really like for low-light photography since it has OSS and is acceptably sharp wide open. Also, it's sharp right across the frame by f/4. I haven't tried the MD lenses yet on the a6000 that I recently bought.

[Johnnie5]

I have had good results with the Olympus OM 28mm f 2.8 and a Vivitar 100-300 f5 close focusing zoom made by Tokina, Pentax mount both from the 1970's.  I have the Olympus 50mm f1.8 which seems to be sharp enough but not my favorite focal length on a crop sensor.  I have tried the Olympus 75-150, 100-200 zooms but they don't seem to be sharp enough.  Turn on focus peaking in your camera which will make manual focusing a snap.  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sony+a6000+focus+peaking

[Chuck Nacke]

From my own experience,

 

I started using F mount (NIKON) bodies in 1976 and have a lot of very old high end NIKKOR glass and except

for my 600 f4 I've found that the new NIKKOR ED glass gives a lot better image on NIKON D800's.  Never thought

I would say this but I've been replacing most of my older F mount lenses with the newer NIKKOR ED glass.  Don't

know how true that is for other manufacturers?

[Bryan]

23 hours ago, Johnnie5 said:

I have had good results with the Olympus OM 28mm f 2.8 and a Vivitar 100-300 f5 close focusing zoom made by Tokina, Pentax mount both from the 1970's.  I have the Olympus 50mm f1.8 which seems to be sharp enough but not my favorite focal length on a crop sensor.  I have tried the Olympus 75-150, 100-200 zooms but they don't seem to be sharp enough.  Turn on focus peaking in your camera which will make manual focusing a snap.  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sony+a6000+focus+peaking

 

I've also tried the Olympus 75-150 f4 and found it to be plenty sharp enough, but it lacks contrast. The Pentax equivalent is a much better choice, indeed a £15 example resides permanently in my camera bag, having displaced a new Sony 55-210. Example here

 

With old gear all kinds of things may have happened to it over the years, while there is always the variability on quality when new, so people having different findings from the same kit is not surprising!

 

Agree about the focus peaking, although it is much better on the a6500 than the NEX, and sometimes it is so overwhelming that I need to switch it off!

 

 

[Bryan]

On 5/27/2018 at 19:38, John Mitchell said:

I have three Minolta MD lenses that I sometimes use on my Sony NEX cameras -- 50mm f/1.7, 45mm f/2 (a pancake lens) and 28mm f/2.8. The 28mm has been the most useful but also the least sharp of the three. The 45mm "pancake" is surprisingly sharp for what was a cheap kit lens. The 50mm is a very good lens, but I don't find that I use it much. These lenses can be fun, and I like the classic Minolta "look" that they produce. Frankly, though, I'm not as talented or as patient as Bryan when it comes to manual focusing, plus I'm now hooked on AF,  OSS,  and zooms. That said, last year I shelled out for a used  Sony 35mm f/1.8, which I really like for low-light photography since it has OSS and is acceptably sharp wide open. Also, it's sharp right across the frame by f/4. I haven't tried the MD lenses yet on the a6000 that I recently bought.

 

Not particularly talented, but patient and a bit of a control freak. I like to be in charge of the situation John 

 

In truth I have lost  images both due to auto focus systems letting me down, and due to my fumbling with manual focus kit. When using Canon I almost always auto prefocused on a spot and held the focus using the back button technique. The viewfinders on the Sony CSCs are so good, combined with focus peaking, that, for most stock shots, you don't need autofocus.

 

I still rely on the Canon autofocus for shots of the grandchildren however, there are some subjects for which it really is the best way!

[John Mitchell]

7 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

Not particularly talented, but patient and a bit of a control freak. I like to be in charge of the situation John 

 

In truth I have lost  images both due to auto focus systems letting me down, and due to my fumbling with manual focus kit. When using Canon I almost always auto prefocused on a spot and held the focus using the back button technique. The viewfinders on the Sony CSCs are so good, combined with focus peaking, that, for most stock shots, you don't need autofocus.

 

I still rely on the Canon autofocus for shots of the grandchildren however, there are some subjects for which it really is the best way!

 

The biggest challenge these days, I find, is figuring out what to focus on, either manually or automatically. Inspiration wanes...

[John Mitchell]

There is some useful information on old Minolta lenses here.