Sony A-Mount Old Minolta Lenses, Quality?

[TC6969]

I bought an old Minolta 50mm 1.7 and it turned out to be a VERY nice lens, and now it has me on the hunt for some more hidden treasures!

Did Minolta have different levels of quality and performance like SONY does?

How can I tell one lens from the other?

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

They did and had some high end stuff at the time. I used to own that 50mm 1.7, super sharp and bright lens. It's a bit of a minefield, but stick to the stuff from the 80's and you should be good. The 100-200 and 100-300 AF lenses were fab. They g=had some nice primes too.

 

[TC6969]

That's my problem.

How to identify the 80's lenses.

SONY throws things in their descriptions like "Sonnor" or "Zeiss" or "Art" so you can sort of tell what you're getting.

Not so with Minolta.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

This should help

List of Minolta A-mount lenses - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[TC6969]

Thanks.

 

[a77Minolta]

I too really like to 50/1.7

I’m also really fond of the 28-135 and I hear the 28-105 is quite good and less heavy. The 28-135 is a beast.

I also like the 70-210 F4. I just picked up a 28 f2.8 but haven’t played with it

I second the dyxum site for reviews

 

[a77Minolta]

I have the 28-135 and the 35-105. The 35-105 is supposed to be the better of the two, but I think my 28-135 outshines it.

The 70-210/4 is affectionately referred to as 'The Beercan' and is legendary. I have it and the wonderful little 100-200. Also the 75-300.

When I bought my Minolta Maxxum 7000 in 1985 or so I had the 50/1.7, the 35-70/4, and the 100-200/4.5. I have repurchased the 50 and 100-200, but left the 35-70 in favor of the aforementioned 28-135 and 35-105.

Have you any experience with the min 100-400?

 

[pointreyes]

I normally check this site for old glass used on the A7 camera series.

The rated List of Minolta MD/MC Lenses on the Sony a7 - phillipreeve.net

This is a rated list of many manual Minolta MD and MC lenses, based on extensive use and detailed tests with these lenses on the Sony a7.

phillipreeve.net

Lots of information on that site including Canon FD and Olympus OM.
The site even addresses how to handle ultra-wide lenses on the Sony cameras that are affected by the thicker sensor stack (like M-mount lenses).

 

[spudhead]

I bought an old Minolta 50mm 1.7 and it turned out to be a VERY nice lens, and now it has me on the hunt for some more hidden treasures!

Did Minolta have different levels of quality and performance like SONY does?

How can I tell one lens from the other?

So maybe my interests subject wise are different to yours but I have always rated the Minolta primes and still have a few and still use them on both a-mount and e-mount I have the 200 2.8 hs which probably close to the best lens I have ever used it is so sharp, I have the 300 2.8 another awesome lens and will not part with it even though I have the sony ssm 300 2.8 and lastly the 400 4.5 hs a stunning lens and all the lenses produce great colours and great images, its so easy to move on to the awesome lenses available now from Sony and others but it all started for sony when Minolta changed the game