Minolta A Mount?

jay moussy · Jan 10, 2023

A neigbhor may be giving me a Maxxum {unknown}xi and assorted lenses.
That's A mount, it seems.

Apart from Minoltas of the era, and the Sony compatibility, any other A mount systems around?

BTW, assuming thr xi works, and lenses are good, I am not sure where it would fit in my arsenal.
Maybe some A mount lenses could find new home for cash, or adapt to my M4/3

xkaes · Jan 10, 2023

Minolta and Sony (photographically speaking they are the same thing -- Sony simply bought Minolta, just like Kyocera bought Yashica, etc.) are the only makers of a-mount cameras. Minolta started making a-mount lenses in 1985 -- which were really just Rokkor-X lenses with auto-focusing added. "Sony" continued to make several new additions to the lens line-up. They are all TOP-NOTCH lenses optically -- some with new features. Tokina, Sigma, Tamron, Zeiss, Phoenix, Vivitar, Promaster, Quantaray, Samyang, and many others made/sold a-mount lenses as well. There are literally millions of a-mount lenses "out there" -- and countless a-mount cameras too (from Minolta and Sony) -- from 35mm film to 42MP digital.

All a-mount lenses can be adapted to smaller format cameras -- film or digital -- with an appropriate adapter. Some features may be lost depending on the adapter.

jimjm · Jan 10, 2023

My wife has an older Sony a100 DSLR and a newer SLT-a35, both with the Minolta/Sony AF mount. Lenses are branded Sony and she's been really happy with the system. I also bought her a Tokina 11-16 ATX zoom to fit these bodies a few years ago. She mostly just uses the Sony 18-70 kit zoom or the 50mm macro lens. She doesn't do any post-processing and always shoots on auto, and I'm always impressed by the look of the images she gets from these cameras, the colors are gorgeous.

ant! · Jan 10, 2023

Adapting A mount to other mounts might be difficult, since aperature needs to be controlled from the adapter, not sure if this exists. In Minolta & Sony, aperature was set in camera. Further, while manual focusing is possible, it's not as nice as with manual lenses as they where designed for AF.

Further, I think the xi generation might be the worst suited:
"With the introduction of Minolta Dynax 7xi camera, Minolta has released new xi lenses. Xi lenses use electronic motors for both zooming and focusing and both are controlled by the camera. While xi are working on our digital cameras image quality and overall usability was never embraced by most Minolta users which has made them more of an unsuccessful Minolta experiment than any improvement over original designs." (from https://www.dyxum.com/lenses/lens_glossary.asp )

I guess it depends which lenses are included, even though the camera is an xi doesn't mean the lenses are xi-power zooms.

A midrange Minolta AF should be possible to find for $20-50, so best to use natively. If you want to use them digitally, take a Sony A-mount one. I am not aware of cameras from other brands beside Minolta/Konica Minolta/Sony which use A-mount. From the Minolta area, the cameras with a 7 in the name (7000, 700si, 7, ...) are the enthusiast range, with a 9 the professional, the 5 are midrange, 3 lower end (some generations have some steps in between, like the 600si).
Wikipedia has a generation overview. The 7 and 9 (from the end 90s, early 2000s) are the peak and a bit more expensive (but great cameras if you like AF).

So, it all depends on your lenses. Some you get these days basically for free, some are still expensive. Have a look in https://www.dyxum.com/lenses/index.asp

Paul Howell · Jan 10, 2023

The only possibility is mirrorless digital, so your 3/4 system is an option. The Sony adaptor allows A mount lens on Sony body with AF, the top of the line Sony adaptor has a built in motor to screw drive the AF. I have xi lens along with 5 and 8 pin Minolta lens, the xi with power zoom drain batteries.

aw614 · Jan 10, 2023

The a mount "dumb" adapters work on mirrorless which also have control of the aperture.

jay moussy · Jan 10, 2023

From the kit's picture I saw, there is a Vivitar Series 1 zoom, so it may/should have a TX end, which opens some possibilities of using on another mount family?
I will know more tomorrow.

ant! · Jan 10, 2023

jay moussy said:
From the kit's picture I saw, there is a Vivitar Series 1 zoom, so it may/should have a TX end, which opens some possibilities of using on another mount family?
I will know more tomorrow.

The Vivitar is the second (from top), the 90mm/2.5 macro (google "bokinah". it came as a Vivitar and as a Tokina version). I know it only as a manual lens, so check if it is actual A mount (maybe it did come as such...)

Only the lower seems to look like a Minolta AF lens from the design, the might be third party lenses...

The 3rd from top looks a bit like a Minolta manual focus lens (MD or MC), with the shape and no aperature ring it could be one of the mirror lenses (500 or 250mm). If this is the case, these are traded for quite a bit, and would adapt easier then A mount.

xkaes · Jan 10, 2023

jay moussy said:
From the kit's picture I saw, there is a Vivitar Series 1 zoom, so it may/should have a TX end, which opens some possibilities of using on another mount family?
I will know more tomorrow.

As far as I know all Vivitar Series 1 lenses came in fixed lens mounts -- NOT interchangeable. I'm sure some were available in a-mount.

Someone correct me if I am wrong!

xkaes · Jan 10, 2023

ant! said:
The 3rd from top looks a bit like a Minolta manual focus lens (MD or MC), with the shape and no aperature ring it could be one of the mirror lenses (500 or 250mm). If this is the case, these are traded for quite a bit, and would adapt easier then A mount.

That 3rd from the top looks like it has a focusing ring near the front, so it MIGHT be a Minolta 500mm AF CAT -- the only AF CAT made by anyone.

Sergey Ko · Jan 10, 2023

I was the owner of film Minolta & Sony A900 full frame + a big case of lenses from 17mm to 300mm.
Some of them are excellent. Very interesting is Minolta 100mm Soft focus. You can use them with Sony, Canon mirrorless cameras, but never head about Olympus. Technically it is possible due to longer back register (Minolta\Sony AF is 44,5mm or M4\3 is 19,25) So it possible to make adapter, but the main question is AF & F-stop controller.
The negative side of this lens - the dead system. No more cameras will be produced
I understand, that I am not using this system, except the camera body with special macro adapter to digitise 16mm & Minox 8x11 negatives, so I sold practically all lens.
Here are 3 photos, 200mm, 20mm & 50mm Minolta AF

aw614 · Jan 10, 2023

Sergey Ko said:
I was the owner of film Minolta & Sony A900 full frame + a big case of lenses from 17mm to 300mm.
Some of them are excellent. Very interesting is Minolta 100mm Soft focus. You can use them with Sony, Canon mirrorless cameras, but never head about Olympus. Technically it is possible due to longer back register (Minolta\Sony AF is 44,5mm or M4\3 is 19,25) So it possible to make adapter, but the main question is AF & F-stop controller.
The negative side of this lens - the dead system. No more cameras will be produced
I understand, that I am not using this system, except the camera body with special macro adapter to digitise 16mm & Minox 8x11 negatives, so I sold practically all lens.
Here are 3 photos, 200mm, 20mm & 50mm Minolta AF

[

The adapter for M4/3 makes the lens manual focus and the aperture ring is on the adapter as it couples with the aperture control on the lens. No clicks or f stop markings though

Sergey Ko · Jan 10, 2023

aw614 said:
The adapter for M4/3 makes the lens manual focus and the aperture ring is on the adapter as it couples with the aperture control on the lens. No clicks or f stop markings though

So we can use them
But I think much more interesting to use with mirrorless the hundreds of rangefinder lenses, from cheap & good soviet to Leica. If to talk about manual mode.
I am looking now for adapter Minolta Vectis to Sony E adapter. It was crowdfunding announced.
Because I have great collection of Vectis, missing only one of the first digital Minolta RD3000 for Vectis bayonet

xkaes · Jan 10, 2023

Sergey Ko said:
The negative side of this lens - the dead system. No more cameras will be produced

The system is only "dead" if you don't use it. There are millions of a-mount lenses out there, and countless cameras. Some people called the M42 cameras dead decades ago, but tons of people are still using them.

I never heard of a Minolta 100mm soft-focus lens -- only the 85mm f2.8 Varisoft.

http://www.subclub.org/minman/8517.htm

Sergey Ko · Jan 10, 2023

xkaes said:
The system is only "dead" if you don't use it. There are millions of a-mount lenses out there, and countless cameras. Some people called the M42 cameras dead decades ago, but tons of people are still using them.

I never heard of a Minolta 100mm soft-focus lens -- only the 85mm f2.8 Varisoft.

http://www.subclub.org/minman/8517.htm

I had this:

Minolta AF 100mm F2.8 Soft A-mount lens info

Minolta AF 100mm F2.8 Soft A-mount lens detail page with owners reviews and reference to most useful information about the lens

www.dyxum.com

xkaes · Jan 10, 2023

Why did you get rid of it? Did you just "dump" all your a-mount gear -- since it's "dead"?

Sergey Ko · Jan 10, 2023

xkaes said:
Why did you get rid of it?

I understood that it is a toy. If you do not have some special ideas how to use it. This confirms the fact that I hardly found the example photo. Not deleted only because it is a portrait of me youngest son
The pictures are like from modern instagramer overusing the creative filters

Sergey Ko · Jan 10, 2023

When I said "The dead system" I mean that no new digital cameras. Or AF lens system require normal modern camera. Otherwise the manual Nikon\Olympus\Leica are much better.

Paul Howell · Jan 10, 2023

I agree, to some extent, once I invent the time machine thing I will back in time and tell my younger self to buy Canon EF. Although the A mount has been completely abandoned and Canon is well on the way, all full frame Canon Lens will work on all film EOS bodies. With the A system only a few factory modified Minolta 9 along with 7s and 5 will work with micromotor lenes. But all Sony A mount bodies including the A99II and 77II will work all gear driven lens. Canon made a wider range of L glass lens, there are more 3rd party lens to chose from. In terms of sharpness, I would rate my A mount G lens as good as Canon, Nikon, or Leica SLR lens.

ant! · Jan 10, 2023

While I use mostly Minolta manual focus cameras, still enjoying the maxxum 7. Just got a few days ago the data saver to save the exif data directly from it. Totally not necessary for a film camera, but cool thing.

xkaes · Jan 10, 2023

Sergey Ko said:
When I said "The dead system" I mean that no new digital cameras.

Maybe "ended", "closed", or "discontinued" would be a more appropriate term. Or maybe I should just be satisfied using ancient history M42 lenses on my dead Sony a850.

aw614 · Jan 11, 2023

Sergey Ko said:
So we can use them
But I think much more interesting to use with mirrorless the hundreds of rangefinder lenses, from cheap & good soviet to Leica. If to talk about manual mode.
I am looking now for adapter Minolta Vectis to Sony E adapter. It was crowdfunding announced.
Because I have great collection of Vectis, missing only one of the first digital Minolta RD3000 for Vectis bayonet

Monster adapter has one

LA-VE2 - Minolta Vectis lenses to Sony E-mount cameras auto focus adap

MonsterAdapter LA-VE2 is an electronic lens adapter to mount Minolta Vectis interchangeable lenses to Sony E-mount cameras with Autofocus enabled. It is an upgraded version of the previous MonsterAdapter LA-VE1, which is only MF capable. Key Features Adapting all 8 Minolta Vectis interchangeable...

www.monsteradapter.com

jay moussy · Jan 11, 2023

Update, nothing spectacular:

Maxxum 5 xi in good condition - need to hunt for a battery!
with Promatic FTD 5600 dedicated flash

Minolta 35-80 1.4 AF
Minolta 100-200 4.5 AF
Kalimar 34-135 3.5 AF (looks like a Samyang)
All 5-pin design

and instead of the pictured Vivitar Series1, a Star-D 80-205, not Minolta mount, maybe close to a Konica AR?

ant! · Jan 11, 2023

jay moussy said:
Update, nothing spectacular:

Maxxum 5 xi in good condition - need to hunt for a battery!
with Promatic FTD 5600 dedicated flash

Minolta 35-80 1.4 AF
Minolta 100-200 4.5 AF
Kalimar 34-135 3.5 AF
All 5-pin design

and instead of the pictured Vivitar Series1, a Star-D 80-205, not Minolta mount, maybe close to a Konica AR?

According to https://www.dyxum.com/lenses/ , there are only 35-80/f4-5.6 (not 1.4).

jay moussy · Jan 11, 2023

ant! said:
According to https://www.dyxum.com/lenses/ , there are only 35-80/f4-5.6 (not 1.4).

Yes, of course.
What is up with the built-in lens cap with its button?

Minolta A Mount?

jay moussy

xkaes

jimjm

ant!

Paul Howell

aw614

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Sergey Ko

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Sergey Ko

Minolta AF 100mm F2.8 Soft A-mount lens info

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Sergey Ko

Sergey Ko

Paul Howell

ant!

xkaes

aw614

LA-VE2 - Minolta Vectis lenses to Sony E-mount cameras auto focus adap

jay moussy

ant!

jay moussy

Minolta A Mount?

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