Minolta lenses manual focus

It has a consistent macro setting, a four-time zoom ratio, and excellent focusing abilities from 4. This Minolta lens has a wide focusing ring for superior comfort and control and a focus button that can be used to aid operations. The lens is tailor-made for the Maxxum Autofocus SLR camera and produces world-class images when used with it.

The lens has a robust metal body and is made of top-quality optical glass. The Minolta AF mm lens has an autofocus mode which is easy to use and gives sharp, well-defined images. However, macro mode lacks an autofocus feature but still has a manual focus that is smooth and easy to operate. The end results are clear and bright in both cases.

The wide range on this lens means it can easily be used for shooting landscape photography as well as shooting standard portraits. This lens is great for producing excellent artistic images with a shallow depth of field. This prime macro lens gives photographers maximum control over focus to produce a custom and super shallow depth of field.

It might be that the copy I tested had an issue with the floating elements design which caused the midzone dip.

There is also an optically different version with 49mm filter thread. From the reports I read, the younger MD version with 49mm filter thread is a better performer.

There are several Minolta 2. There are two optically different but similar versions of the lens, you can tell them apart by the diameter of the filter thread, this version has a 55mm diameter and the younger one has a 49mm filter thread. I think this is a very good portrait lens which is also a capable landscape lens.

If I was shooting more portraits I would consider buying it. It is an enjoyable lens but it is also very big and not that good from a technical point of view. Minolta built several different 2. Among the MD versions there are two different optical designs. My copy has 4 elements and weights about g. There is a younger version which is about g lighter which uses 5 elements, from what I have read they are very close optically so both are decent buys.

The macro mode at 70mm is handy as well. There are three versions of this lens and according to artaphot. I can recommend this last generation which is the only one with the macro mode. No adapter needed. Because of the flange-focal-distance of Minolta SR lenses all adapters for DSLR cameras either contain an optical element which will reduce image quality a lot or you lose infinity focus.

Your camera has no control over them. I usually recommend Sony Alpha 7 cameras for the use with older manual lenses because they are the only ones with a full frame sensor and in my experience most older lenses work best on the larger sensor. But they still work very well on smaller format sensors as well, here are some of my older pictures all taken with a Sony Nex.

I use an expensive Novoflex adapter link to my review of the Canon FD version but the cheaper ones usually work well enough but you have a higher chance of getting a faulty one. For more information about adapters check out our extensive Guide to Adapters. Rokkor Files Minolta lens History. Red Baileys Minolta Lens History. Thanks a lot for all your work and sweet posts.

Your photo are amazing and you make camera and lens shine! I think it is possible to find out the versions you have by going back in your posts. However, it would be very nice and helpful if you could specify it here. I generally agree with your rating, However, my 2. Also, I wonder if you tried others copies of the MD 3. I have two copies of the last version of this lens and both tend to have better results at the long end 70mm on my A7 i also tried the first version and it was slightly less sharp on APS-C.

Also, I find its bokeh very smooth wide open but this may be personal. About the versions: I am pretty sure that there is only one version of the MC 1. I have added some images which should clarify which lens I am using. I will reshoot my 2. Thanks for adding pictures of your lens. You are right, there is just one MC 50 1. I was thinking to the MD versions of this lens. I will try to provide you pictures from MD , MC 2. Concerning the adaptor, I have both a metabones and a no name from ebay.

Awefull at 3. Sharpness is on par or better than my MD 4 but color rendering and bokeh are better more contrast and saturation. Did you ever try this lens? I had the Minolta 3. Added it to the wanted list ;-. Sharpness is important to me, but not so much distortion or CA. How about the Contax 2. It is very small and has a great reputation. It is the first time I produce such a comparison so any advices criticst are very welcome I already know that this test is helpless to evaluate corners.

Protocol: All shot were done within 1 h. I set iso to and the aperture. I used a tripod fotopro c5i and an IR remote but tripod was slightly moved when I changed lens. I forgot but picture are base on RAW export from lightroom 5. You are welcome :— lined trough means that someone already offered to borrow me his copy thanks for the report, it is fixed. I am curious about the Minolta 20mm f2. I know the 20 is AF. IT is small and corners are quite decent BUT there is a very big drop in midzone sharpness.

The FD 2. For a lens this lightweight and this cheap, it is astounding! I too had both the lenses. I tested both the lenses at F2 tripod. I felt that the subject on the image looked little bigger on F2 when compared to F1. I am not happy with the color produced by both the lenses.

Skin tone looks bit yellowish. Do you have the same problem? No issues with skin tones for me. The coating on some Minolta older lenses degrades to yellow tinting on some lenses. You can even see in eBay descriptions some that are listed as having a yellow tint due to coating aging.

As far as I know, the coatings on the Minolta lenses is quite robust. The yellow tint mentioned in those eBay listings is due to the use of a lens containing an element or two made from thoriated glass. Interestingly, most of the tint can be bleached out by exposing the lens to sunlight.

I have a few lens there that you do not have listed, with sample photos. One of the better lens I have got some great shots with is the Minolta MD f4 Zoom-Macro, very much in style like the that you have listed here. So I agree with you on some things, but there are a lot of variables to consider. I just purchased an A7 and have owned the Minolta f4 for years and have always appreciated its images. My question is what adapter do you use with this lens since it does not have a manual physical aperture setting on the lens itself.

Any insights to the proper adapter for the Minolta lenses of this nature would be appreciated. There are two versions of the lens, optically they are the same but you need different adapters to use them. Thank your for your info. I purchased the LA-EA4 adaptor and thus far it has been great. I have a lot of samples in my Flickr Stream if you are interested. I was a little disappointed with this list of Minolta Manual focus lenses.

Well, Eazypix lists Minolta lenses and I had to start somewhere. The more common lenses are available and affordable and I like to use them for my actual photography. Yes, your reasoning makes sense. Why test the lenses, which are expensive, when finally the conclusion will just confirm that this is very good lenses? It is not only ridiculous, it is also useless. No test will change anything about this reality. I think, that your website should continue testing only lenses, which have good potential but remain accessible to everyone.

I can understand your reasoning but it is not like expensive lenses are without issues so there is a value in reviewing them. In the blog I cover whichever lenses I am curious about. Some of them are expensive others are cheap and I would find it less interesting to just cover the very affordable ones.

Anyway, the optical quality is important, but it is not decisive in the final result. Each lens requires a specific approach. This reasoning is strictly personal.

Dyxum website Dyxum home. New posts. Members Profile. Post Reply. With the Minolta mm soft focus lens and the Minolta mm zoom xi lens is it possible to use these manually? Maybe I am missing something but when I put the Sony A into manual shooting turning the ring on the just changes the soft focus setting and with the there is no ring to turn to adjust focus!!!

Insofar as the camera body is concerned I am switching the focus knob at front of camera to the M setting and setting the dial on top to M. Any help is appreciated. Finally the small stop down lever was left out on late lenses of this series.

Althogh showcased in late , it took until early that the first MC-X lenses became available. A big innovation was the change to a standard focal length of 50mm. Again Minolta raised the bar with new lens designs, like the circular fish-eye 7.

The weird mm Other highly regarded lenses were the 24mm Like its sister lens, the MC II 55mm It featured a regular m and ft scale and was the first lens to get a plastic aperture ring in its last edition. When Minolta introduced the XD with its shutter priority exposure mode, the camera needed to know the minimum F stop of the lens - the MD tab was born.

The new series was named MD Rokkor, and thus the front engraving changed:. The serial number was no longer present on the front ring, it was now located on the lens barrel closed to the bayonet mount, on the bottom side. Further, the smallest aperture was changed from 16 to 22 on most lenses. The focal length marking opposite to DOF scale was dropped and Minolta started to color the smallest F-stop green.

The aperture itself was changed from a metal ring to a plastic ring. The first was replaced by the 20mm The MD II series was in the beginning just a very small cosmetical upgrade concerning the front ring. Since the MD I series of was just a mechanical and slight cosmetical upgrade to the MC-X series, Minolta started in with the modernisation of its lens line.

Most of the lenses adopted from MD I were later replaced by smaller and lighter constructions, often optically revised, too. Lenses with a 55mm filter thread got in many cases a 49mm thread and the ring containing the DOF scale, next to the aperture ring, once flat, became tapered.

New lens designs that came with MD II were the 45mm almost-pancake budget standard lens, the 50mm The likewise new mm At the end of the era, the Rokkor-X lost its orange color:. To lock the smallest aperture, a little pusher was added to the aperture ring. Further most lenses from ultra wide to short tele were made to the same diameter.