Help for friend, which dSLR(s) will use old Minolta lenses?

[Pea-n-Me]

Need some info for a friend.

Friend and her husband (no kids) are not of the high tech crowd in any way. They reluctantly got a computer a few years back, but still use dial up. It sounds like they don't use it much. To print pics, they take their memory card right to the camera store and do them there. Any basic editing is done there using the store software.

She reluctantly bought a point and shoot digital camera a year or so ago and basically hates it. Is having trouble navigating menus and such. Thinks it can't take a night picture, etc. Saw some pics she took yesterday (daytime landscape and portraits) and they actually looked pretty good. She says she keeps it on the Landscape setting all the time.

Anyway, in the course of her vent, she mentioned she missed using her "old camera and lenses". Turns out that she previously used a film SLR (though wasn't aware it was called that) with Minolta lenses, of which she still has three. She said she took a photography class way back when and knew how to use the camera in its most basic way. She misses the type of photos she got with it.

She works with a camera store (Ritz and another I'm not familiar with), and after presumably assessing her "user profile" (history, types of shots she takes, frequency of use), and they advised her to keep using that old camera with film.

She asked me yesterday if I knew of any digital camera that would enable her old Minolta lenses. I said I thought Sony dSLRs would. Put it this way - she's extremely interested. The costs involved seemed ok with her (we all know that feeling of at some point, out of frustration, being willing to spend whatever it takes to get the types of pics we want), and she was interested even in understanding newer lenses as well (though wanted to keep using her own initially even though they'd only manually focus, to my knowledge).

I spent a long time talking to her about the basics of digital photography, what a dSLR is, some of the features available, etc. She says she is not a book learner, would want someone to show her how to use the camera and she'll be good (though I suspect there might be some difficulty there ). She'd probably be pretty happy on Auto if it would help her get better pictures. I could help her somewhat (am not familiar with Sony but could probably figure some of it out) as would her camera store friends. She wants to look into this, and seemed quite excited!

So, any thoughts on what model would be a good choice for her to look at? Do Ritz Camera stores carry many Sony models? (I suggested going online to research first but she's a go to the store only type gal, in part because she works long hours and in part because her internet capability and knowledge of use are limited.) She would need to use an adaptor for her old lenses, correct? Do you think this is a realistic option for her? Any other thoughts? Are there other brands Minolta lenses will work on?

PS thoughts from any brand users are welcome for general info as well.

 

[tazdev3225]

Sony DSLR's use Minolta lenses. They have to be AF, not MD or MC. I have an Alpha 300 and bought a Minolta lens on Ebay for my camera. I know there are people far more knowledgeable than I am here on the boards that can give better advice. I do love my Sony cameras though.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Minolta made a few DSLR's before they died, but they are obsolete now. Sony bought out their photography division and adopted the Minolta lens mount as their own. So you can basically think of Sony as the new Minolta.

With that said, I would encourage her to look at all of the available options - Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Pentax (and whatever else I might have forgotten). Already having some lenses will be an advantage for Sony. On the other hand, she may find that the Sony DSLRs don't suit her as well as another brand. They are all pretty good, but they all have little idiosyncrasies that suit some people better than others.

 

[MICKEY88]

(though wanted to keep using her own initially even though they'd only manually focus, to my knowledge).



.

if her lenses will only manually focus, it sounds like she has a really old minolta slr, prior to the maxxum series cameras which were the auto focus bodies..prior to 1985..

those lenses will not work on the sony dslrs

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Thanks for the ideas and information.

Will have to find out more about the lenses.