Minolta Dynax/Maxxum 4 problem

xkaes said:

Great description, but you left out "price". The 5 goes for much less than the 7, 40, 50, 60, 70, etc. Don't ask me why -- but that's why I ended up with so many of them.

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It does vary .
Dynax 7 typically sells for £125 over here .
The Dynax 5 and 40 ( m50) sell between £15-£35 with or without lens . Its worth getting it with the kit lens as its not too bad .
The Dynax 60 (m70) often sell for about £30-£40 , but at the moment all I can see is some idiot listing one for over £200 !
They are sometimes listed at £40-£50 though .

I've quite a few 5's myself .
I bought a new , still sealed boxed one up in a camera shop around 2006 for £29 complete with lens .
I later picked up another (used) one for £15 including lens .
I think I bought another because I wanted the lens that was on it . I wanted an all black one , so I picked one up from Japan . Its sold as the alpha sweet II over there and it was the dearest one I bought at £50 delivered . Looks good though .

I picked up my Maxxum 70 cheap , probably because its sold as a Dynax 60 here and most people probably didn't know what it was . I got it for Less than £30 .
The Dynax 60 I paid about the same , they are creeping up though .

I think I paid £10 for a Dynax 40 .

The Dynax 7's can work put well if you look .
My first one cost me £125 . The next one (as I wanted a second body ) I got cheap as the rear LCD was bleeding , I think I paid around £50 for it .
Another was listed as faulty for £20 , but had a good screen , so I bought it for parts . Turned out it was just the battery terminals that needed cleaning , so I got a bargain there!

I've since picked up another one to use for parts , which mean I've got three good ones with an average cost of £75 each .

The Dynax 7 is my favourite camera , but for the price , you can't go wrong with the Dynax 5 .

Paul Howell said:

I have 5, it is my backup when traveling to the 800SI or Minolta 9 or 7. Too bad Minolta never made a 40 to 45mm pancake lens in A mount.

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A 40-45mm Minolta or Sony A mount lens would make me vary happy .
I have the Canon EF 40mm pancake lens I use on an EOS 500n , a great compact set up that fits in my jacket pocket , better than a point and shoot .

I had forgotten that Sony A mount will work on the 4, I have a couple of Sony A lens that I use on digital bodies and on the 7. Minolta only made the 50 1.7 and 1.4 in A mount, need to look to see what Sony made.

Paul Howell said:

I had forgotten that Sony A mount will work on the 4, I have a couple of Sony A lens that I use on digital bodies and on the 7. Minolta only made the 50 1.7 and 1.4 in A mount, need to look to see what Sony made.

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Sony only did 50mm in an f/1.8 and several f/1.4 versions . A Sony and a couple of Sony Carl Zeiss ones .
No 40mm or 45mm lenses were made .

As long as the Sony lenses are full frame and not the "DT" APS-C crop sensor ones , you'll have full coverage .
Some DT lenses give satisfactory results like the 35mm f/1.8 and 50mm f/1.8 .
The full frame 85mm f/2.8 is a nice compact full frame lens that works well with film .
These three lenses were part of the budget easy choice range , and they are decent lenses . They have a SAM AF drive , so only cameras made after the Dynax 7 ( and modified Dynax 9's ) can focus with them and SSM lenses .

There's quite a few A mount lenses to choose from .

Paul Howell said:

I had forgotten that Sony A mount will work on the 4, I have a couple of Sony A lens that I use on digital bodies and on the 7. Minolta only made the 50 1.7 and 1.4 in A mount, need to look to see what Sony made.

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I hope you're not looking for an f1.2 or a 45mm. Many of Sony's A-mount lenses are basically rebadged MAXXUM lenses, which you can get a lot cheaper if labeled MAXXUM. And there are a TON of non-Minolta MAXXUM lenses out there too. My favorite is a Tamron 24-200mm.

But be aware of one point. SOME a-mount lenses are made for APS (half-frame) Minolta and Sony digital cameras. Many of these are marked "DT", but it's important to check. They need to be "FULL-FRAME" for the MAXXUM film cameras.

I'm currently using the Sony Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM Vario-Sonnar T* and Sony AF 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM II as well as Sony and Minolta "G" lenses on an ADI and SSM upgraded Minolta Dynax 9 .
It's the most I've ever spent on a 35mm camera , I picked it up last year for around £550 .
When the upgrade was last available from Runtime in Bremen ( Germany) it cost over £300 and you sent in your camera , which if you were to buy one at that time , that would have cost over £300 for a used one .
I missed out on sending mine in , so I reckon I still saved £50+ buying this one .

I've not developed the film yet , but I'm looking forward to seeing the results , especially as both lenses were both designed specifically for digital use .

"Sony only did 50mm in an f/1.8 and several f/1.4 versions . A Sony and a couple of Sony Carl Zeiss ones .
No 40mm or 45mm lenses were made ."

That is what I found, Sony A 50mms are the later Konica Minolta designs, too bad a pancake lens would be an ideal match for the Minolta 5 or even a 3.

Minolta and Sony never really went small with their a-mount lenses -- even the DT APS models. The smallest I've run across is a MAXXUM 35-80mm f4/5.6 zoom -- very compact -- and it doesn't even have a manual-focusing ring -- so no need for a distance scale either!!! As small as any 50mm a-mount lens that I've seen -- but it is a slow, variable aperture, zoom lens. A very nice match to the Maxxum 5, 4, 3, etc. Minolta also made a couple of 35-70mm zooms that were very small as well.

And on a similar note, Sony (& Minolta during its Maxxum years) never went creative with their lenses either -- like they did before Maxxum. For example, not too much "weird" stuff, like a 40-80mm f2.8 zoom, no VFC, no Shift, no pancakes, no micro bellows lenses, etc.

I have a couple of 35 to 70s, the first generation 5 pin 3.5 is small, from I gather started as a Leica design, petty sharp even wide open. Only grip is that is not interanl focus so the lens shade is too shallow at the long end. Just checked, I have a 28 to 105 XI on my 5, I need to swap it for a 35 to 70.

And there are several 28-80/85/90/100/105mm zooms that are good with the Maxxum 5. Although they are not small, they are very light -- because they have smaller apertures and lots of plastic. Sigma/Promaster comes to mind.

The only Sigma I have in A mount is the 50 1.4, not the arts lens. I might look for a Sigma 35 to 80 3.5 to 4.5 APO, I have this lens in Sigma SA mount, very sharp, one of my best lens for color.

I have 1st-generation 20, 24, 50/1.7 and various zooms. I don't much like zooms but I've heard the 35-70/4 is very good so I will probably get one soon. They are cheap and plentiful.

I've also heard the Sigma 90/2.8 is good and it is compact so I want to try that too.

In terms of best best A mounts for the money are the first generations 35 to 70 and 80 to 210 F 4, I've read different accounts of it's evolution. Some say it started as another Leica design, others that it a Minolta MD design that made it way to Leica then back to Minolta as a A lens. Just a stop slower than a 80 to 210 2.8 G lens, not as sharp wide or at the extreme wide or long ends, but in the middle a pretty good performer and not as heavy. I also have the 100 to 200 4.5 another underrated lens.

Minolta, in their ROKKOR years, made a 80-200mm (later evolving into the 70-210mm) and a 35-70mm (which similarly evolved).

Leica liked them so much they used them for the Leitz Vario-Elmar R 80-200 f4.5 and the Leitz Vario-Elmar R 35-70 f3.5.

It's difficult to think that Minolta would make significant optical changes for their Maxxum versions. Why fix it if it ain't broke?

Here are some more details:

http://www.subclub.org/minman/8020045.htm

http://www.subclub.org/minman/287035.htm

There are some hard-to-find 1st gen prime lenses too like the 50 macro and the 135/2.8 that I would like to try. Not much info on them online.

I have the 135 2.8, it is one of favorites to use with a cropped sensor.