Minolta MD Macro 50mm F3.5 on Sony A700 - Advice please

[alphaomega]

I have the above MD 50mm Macro lens and was thinking of selling it on ebay. I occasionally have a requirement to take macro images and the thought occurred to me that as I do not require infinity focussing maybe one of these glassless converters from MD to Auto could do the trick. Anyone with experience of using one of these Hong Kong jobs connecting an MD lens to the A700 or A350 and will I get good results with this lens? How will focussing work on the Sony A700 with this lens fitted? Thanks in advance for any assistance offered. I understand that I will get a 75mm lens but that would probably be an advantage.

[pakodominguez]

You will get poor quality if you use the adaptor with the glass. Some people take out the galss and use the adaptor as a extension tube -but it only works for close up and no farther than 10 or 15 centimeters. you will probably get better quality using close up filters on a 50 mm AF

The 50 f3.5 Macro is a nice lens. I won't sell it (you won't get that much money for it)

Regards

[sury]

I have both the adapters and have used them on A900/700/100 with good to very good results on both macro and non-macro MD lenses. I have a Vivitar Series 1 90mm/2.5 macro and I have used MD lenses with extension tubes and the adapters. I am away on a business trip and can post some examples on Sunday. Please let me know.

With best regards,
Sury

[alphaomega]

Sury wrote:

I have both the adapters and have used them on A900/700/100 with good to very good results on both macro and non-macro MD lenses. I have a Vivitar Series 1 90mm/2.5 macro and I have used MD lenses with extension tubes and the adapters. I am away on a business trip and can post some examples on Sunday. Please let me know.

Been away so not been able to reply until now. I am grateful for your reply. I would like to know which adapters you are using and source of supply. I would also like a description of what settings you are using on the A700. Clearly MF is used for focusing but are you using Aperture priority and will the A700 auto expose in that setting and select shutter speed? I realise that the MD lens cannot be used at infinity with a glassless adapter, but since several of my lenses can get down to 1/4 image size I would really only use the MD Macro lens for larger than 1/4 enlargement. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[sury]

I bought both of them from eBay. The one with glass is from fotodiox. The glass less one was purchased from http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0234850547

I typically use the adapters (on 100, 700, 900) in Manual Mode. I tend to be lazy and do a hand held session and I also have a x,y macro slider. My process is as follows:
1) Set the aperture to widest (of course manually)
2) Focus
3) Change the aperture to f/16, f/18, etc, and shoot. I use built in flash for indoors and hvl20 for A900.
4) The trick is to make sure you don't move while changing the aperture.
5) On some lenses there is a auto switch which makes it convenient. You set the aperture, slide auto switch which puts lens at widest, focus, slide the switch back and have fun.

It is the same process I use when I am using extension tubes.

I found A mode to be not very reliable and more often than not it was hit or miss. I get pictures over/under exposed without any discernible pattern.

With best regards,
Sury

[alphaomega]

Thanks Sury for your information. I have now ordered one of those glassless adapters from HK.

[sury]

You are welcome. Here are couple of samples with A700 and Vivitar 35-85 Ser1 lens. These are straight from the camera with no PP whatsoever.

With best regards,
Sury