Minolta Lens Compatibility With Sony Alpha 100

[Phil Ring]

The Sony advertising literature for the Alpha 100 DSLR states that it is compatible with the lens fitted to any Minolta SLR.
However when I visited my local Photographer's shop I found that when I tried to fit my Tamron 28 - 200mm zoom lens to the Sony model , it would not screw on due to 2 buttons in the way. Although it was a surprise to the shop was eventually told the problem was my lens, being Manual and not Electronic.
Is there a way to adapt it to fit ? or does anyone in the Club know of any reasonably priced DSLR that could mate with this excellent zoom lens.

[Dr. Harout]

The Sony advertising literature for the Alpha 100 DSLR states that it is compatible with the lens fitted to any Minolta SLR.
However when I visited my local Photographer's shop I found that when I tried to fit my Tamron 28 - 200mm zoom lens to the Sony model , it would not screw on due to 2 buttons in the way. Although it was a surprise to the shop was eventually told the problem was my lens, being Manual and not Electronic.
Is there a way to adapt it to fit ? or does anyone in the Club know of any reasonably priced DSLR that could mate with this excellent zoom lens.

You cannot use directly manual focus lenses on Sony Alpha/ Minolta AF cameras. You need an adapter to do so. But the downside with an adapter for using manual focus Minolta (fit) lenses is having an extra piece of glass which affects the quality. That is due to the difference in registry distance, and whenever that distance is in the negative side, then you need an optical corrector within the adapter. To make my words clearer, Minolta manual cameras had a register distance (distance from the plane of the mount till the film/sensor) of 43.5 mm and Alpha/Minolta AF have 44.5mm. If you use a lens fit for XXX camera having a register distance of, say, 50mm then using an adapter on the Alpha should have an extra 5.5 mm thickness but without an optical piece inside.

And welcome to the forum.

[David Kilpatrick]

Hi Phil, welcome. There is no DSLR made to fit the old manual Minolta lenses. I did not realise that a 28-200mm manual Tamron existed, it must be a very early model, and it would probably not work well on digital even if it could be fitted.

David

[01af]

The Sony advertising literature for the Alpha 100 DSLR states that it is compatible with the lens fitted to any Minolta SLR.

Not true. Are you sure the literature didn't say 'any Minolta AF SLR' rather than 'any Minolta SLR'?

Minolta SLR cameras were using three different bayonet mounts, and these are not compatible with each other. The SR bayonet, introduced in 1958, was used by the manual-focus 35-mm-format Minolta SLR cameras; it often is falsely referred to as the MD bayonet. The A bayonet, introduced in 1985, was, and still is, used by the auto-focus 35-mm-format Minolta SLR cameras, the APS-C-format Konica-Minolta DSLR cameras, and---now being called Alpha bayonet---the current Sony Alpha DSLR cameras. The V bayonet was used by the APS-format Minolta Vectis SLR cameras; it was introduced in the mid-'90s and passed away only a few years later as at the dawn of the digital age nobody wanted APS film cameras.

On your Sony Alpha DSLR, you can use any lens made to fit Minolta A bayonet ... or Sony Alpha bayonet which is just the same. You cannot use lenses to fit Minolta SR or V bayonets.

-- Olaf

[Mark K]

Not all Minolta AF lenses are compatible with A100. My 24-85/3.5-4.5 does not. I can shoot using it on KM 7D or 5D but on Alpha 100 and Alpha 700, it creates a loudible noise which can only be stopped by removing camera battery. I sent it back to Sony CS two weeks back, and I was informed they need to do major "operations" to make it fit and these are very costly. After all I have 24-105 and 24-50 which work perfectly on Alpha bodies so I dropped the idea.
I was also informed by the receptionist of Sony CS that there are some other lenses which do not fit alpha camera bodies

[Vidgamer]

Not all Minolta AF lenses are compatible with A100. My 24-85/3.5-4.5 does not. I can shoot using it on KM 7D or 5D but on Alpha 100 and Alpha 700, it creates a loudible noise which can only be stopped by removing camera battery.....

Odd. It's certainly not all 24-85's.. I tested one out on an A100 in a store. Perhaps your lens is a special case?

[themeron]

Try this:



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/ ... inolta.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

hugs

[Mark K]

Not all Minolta AF lenses are compatible with A100. My 24-85/3.5-4.5 does not. I can shoot using it on KM 7D or 5D but on Alpha 100 and Alpha 700, it creates a loudible noise which can only be stopped by removing camera battery.....

Odd. It's certainly not all 24-85's.. I tested one out on an A100 in a store. Perhaps your lens is a special case?

I sent it to Sony CS and they replied unless I pay a significant amount of money, the lens won't work. Well they also recommended not to do so because of its optical performance in digital cameras. I am happy to keep my 24-105 and will buy an SSM version of 24-70 when the price of A900 is right for me