Help needed from Sony owners

[heatherbelle]

I posted a while back asking for advise on a new DSLR camera.

Now narrowed down my choices to a Canon 450D, or a new Sony. I previously owned a Minolta.

The lenses on my old Minolta camera are minolta lenses and they are as follow 35-800m, zoom 80-200m and zoom 28-135m, (I think this is a wide angles zoom)

Will these lenses work with the Sony A300, or will I need to start again with my lenses? In which case I may switch to the Canon.

I

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I posted a while back asking for advise on a new DSLR camera.

Now narrowed down my choices to a Canon 450D, or a new Sony. I previously owned a Minolta.

The lenses on my old Minolta camera are minolta lenses and they are as follow 35-800m, zoom 80-200m and zoom 28-135m, (I think this is a wide angles zoom)

Will these lenses work with the Sony A300, or will I need to start again with my lenses? In which case I may switch to the Canon.

I

Are you lenses MD (manual focus) or auto focus? If Auto then they will have the same mount and will work on the Sony. The manual require an adapter. Since buying my Sony I have picked up a couple of Minolta AF lenses that work perfectly on my Sony. And, since Sony places the stabilization into the camera they automatically are stabilized as well. Canon and Nikon is in the lenses and you need to purchase those types in order to take advantage of stabilization.

I had a Minolta system, but it was manual and I have not gotten an adapter since none of my lenses were special enough that I cared to keep them and manually focus. Well, actually I liked my old 50mm 1.7 but picked up a used AF one for $100 and a converter probably would have cost at least that.

 

[heatherbelle]

I think they are all auto. The wide angle one, has a bit in the middle that you twiddle with. It's that long since I used it, I can't remember what the middle bit does. All I know is that it cost DH a bomb, when he bought it in Japan.

 

[Code]

What is printed around the front glass element for each lens?

 

[heatherbelle]

minolta zoom 200m 80-200mm 1:45(22) - 56 46mm
minolta af zoom 28-135mm 1:4(22) - 4.5 72mm
minolta 200m 35-80mm 1:4(22) - 56 46mm this one came with the camera, which is a dynax 5000i SLR.

 

[Code]

They will work. (unless the 80-200 is the "xi" model then it will be manual focus only)

The 28-135mm is still a great lens, just pretty bulky mounted on a smaller DSLR. Keep in mind that 28mm on the A300 will be 1.5x more zoom than on a film camera (28mm x 1.5 = 42mm equivalent) so on film it is a wide angle to short telephoto range, but on digital it is more of a standard to medium telephoto range. Still worth around $250, and that value may actually increase in the next few weeks as Sony announces its full-frame DSLR.

The 35-80mm and 80-200mm were entry-level quality when they came out, and entry-level quality for film translates to even worse quality for digital in this case. Probably not worth using even if you go the Sony route, though the 80-200 could serve as a stop-gap if you couldn't afford a better telephoto right away.

 

[MICKEY88]

They will work. (unless the 80-200 is the "xi" model then it will be manual focus only)

.

are you sure about that...

it's my understanding that all Minolta Af lenses will autofocus..on the Sony Alpha cameras

the xi lenses should auto focus, they just won't auto zoom

 

[Code]

are you sure about that...

it's my understanding that all Minolta Af lenses will autofocus..on the Sony Alpha cameras

the xi lenses should auto focus, they just won't auto zoom

You're right, sorry.. misunderstood something I read on Dyxum