Old Minolta MD 135mm F/2.0 conterted for the A900

[InTheSky]

I think nobody has tried to answer my previous post to find the lens.

If you are interest of the result this old lens can do on you A900, just take a look :

http://www.pbase.com/nadeauf/greatminoltalens

Regards,

Frank

[David Kilpatrick]

It will be an amazing manual lens - but they are so rare I doubt you would get one come up for sale in any country without waiting a year or two.

David

[Greg Beetham]

What does he mean "The back lens has bee removed"..? I can't make much sense out of that one.
Greg

ps. I have a MD135 f2 but I'd rather keep it safe here than let someone do experiments on it....remove the back lens indeed...kaf kaf

[David Kilpatrick]

He just means you can unscrew and remove the old MD mount, without destroying anything, and fix in its place a standard M42 type mount converter for Alpha (with focus confirm, and ideally obtained with a chip for 135mm to ensure SSS works well). This must be drilled with four holes precisely placed, and maybe countersunk, to replace the MD mount part. Apparently the focus collimation is good enough for infinity setting.

David

[Javelin]

would that work with all MD lenses? I know Franks done a few already.

[pakodominguez]

would that work with all MD lenses? I know Franks done a few already.

we better wait a couple of years, when FF chips become affordable, and ask Sony to collaborate with Seagull and bring a MD/MC FF DSRL

It isn't that foolish as idea, since Manual Minolta is/was really popular in Asia and Latin America, and it's still regarded as good optics.

[InTheSky]

He just means you can unscrew and remove the old MD mount, without destroying anything, and fix in its place a standard M42 type mount converter for Alpha (with focus confirm, and ideally obtained with a chip for 135mm to ensure SSS works well). This must be drilled with four holes precisely placed, and maybe countersunk, to replace the MD mount part. Apparently the focus collimation is good enough for infinity setting.

David

Yes, for this lens is it not so difficult, but in fact, the direct M42 adapter is a little bit to close from the sensor, this weekend I nee to had about 1mm of spacer.

The lens actually focus far than infinity a little bit, making difficult to focus at infinity (for the time this happen ). It is the same situation with the 50mm F/1.2 (who both share the exact same back design excepted for the screw position).

I found the lens impressive for it's sharpness contrast and color. A lot of CA wide open if you face direct to much light. But It is not so disturbing to eliminate.

I have paid 500 $ US for the lens, that is expensive , but after reading a lot about the lens, I notice that probably this is the price for a person who really want the lens.

This gem is not bigger than a 85mm F/1.4 on Minolta when you have it in your hand. For the age of the lens, there is no dust or small element inside, probably showing a very well designed build.

My next goal is to do a concert shooting in low light with only manual lenses (135mm 2.0, 58mm 1.. Unfortunately I have not found for the moment the way to convert the 135mm 2.8, 28mm F/2.0 and the 16mm F/2.8 MD (Sharing the same back designed).

Regards,

Frank

[InTheSky]

would that work with all MD lenses? I know Franks done a few already.

we better wait a couple of years, when FF chips become affordable, and ask Sony to collaborate with Seagull and bring a MD/MC FF DSRL

It isn't that foolish as idea, since Manual Minolta is/was really popular in Asia and Latin America, and it's still regarded as good optics.

Hum ... I think it is better to convert the lens than wait Until there, you are not taking picture with those lenses. Being a organic freak in food (because of hard disease I have with digestion) I'm seeing the converting of old MD lenses like recycling .

I think the 4/3 technology is more there now to still the place for using old MD lenses where the challenge for the distance from the sensor is easy, but the cropping factor of 2x is not really good, but the lens work perfectly on the camera.

[InTheSky]

It will be an amazing manual lens - but they are so rare I doubt you would get one come up for sale in any country without waiting a year or two.

David

Talking about rare stuff , have you ever heard about the Sigma autofocus adapter for Maxxum 5-7-9000 MD to AF ?

I have one in my hand since two year now, and just discover that I can make a second life to it my using the AF confirm focus chip (But now I know that there is no Focal transmission to the camera).

This adapter is a 1.6x tele converter but with this ingenious system that move a lens mechanically to make the small adjustment of focus and the impressive thing, is that it is also transferring the APERTURE control to the old MD lenses.

On a APS-C camera this sound not interesting, but on a Full frame camera, any MD lens in front the the A900 will become mostly as if I were using a FF lens on my A700.

I have not try yet to modify it, but when I will have time I will return to you with the result.

Regards,

Frank

[David Kilpatrick]

It sounds as if Minolta used the same angle (segment) of deflection to achieve the same aperture variation, from MD to AF. This is not surprising. In the 1960s, they used a constant angle of change for f-stops, which enabled the 1965-6 100mm f/2 lens to be converted for operation on the XD-7 with fully automatic P/S as well as A/M shooting (I did this conversion, adding a lug and a reference stop to the aperture ring).

So, parts of the AF system including back focus distance and aperture actuation date back to 1958 - pretty incredible really! And their first SLR.

David