Another Minolta Lens Question

[DiskoJoe]

Well not good news. Went there and she could not find them, and has no idea where they are since she has not used them in many years. Since, I am on a very tight budget at this moment, I am looking on ebay for lens. I have my cousin's wedding coming up and need a longer zoom lens for it, so I am not disturbing the ceremony. DiskoJoe, I see that you have Sigma lens, and I have seen them on ebay, what should I take into consideration with that brand lens. I have learn so much about the Minolta lens from all you. Thank you so much for your help

Sigma is good quality. The older lenses tend to have AF that is worn. So you would have to hone up on your manual focus skills some. I have the 70-210 f2.8 which is much older but still has the APO glass. When you have large jumps in focal length the focus gets stuck sometimes and you have to flip it to manual and get it back to a closer range then the AF will kick back in. I use mine with spot focus a lot and it works adequately and picture quality is very good. I have used it at weddings and it is a must have.

But the lens like mine is not easy to find. I really lucked up on mine and that was a few years ago.

But there are other alternatives. You could go tamron. You can get one new for around $800 which is not too bad.

Found this:
Tamron 70-200mm F/2.8 Di LD IF MACRO LENS FOR Sony+1 Year Warranty | eBay

But if I was you and needed to get fast glass that is cheap and good quality I would head straight for M42 glass. Not sure if you are familiar with M42 lenses but they are just old screw mount manual focus lenses. Something like a Takumar or vivitar.
I saw this. Its a little on the higher side but lens is close to mint.

Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 Close Focusing Auto Telephoto Lens, m42 mount. LEGENDARY! | eBay

You will also need a m42 to sony amount adapter. Its like $2, lol.

M42 Lens To SONY Minolta MA Adapter Ring A700 A350 A850 | eBay

 

[DiskoJoe]

This one looked nice for the price too

Kamero Auto 2.8/135mm M42 Screw Mount Lens | eBay

 

[unpopular]

The M42 lenses will function in stop-down metering. I've done this a lot, and actually only recently went to Af/AE. I somewhat prefer it, but it's not for everyone, and it is slow. You have no auto-anything, including diaphram. With a lens as Joe suggested, you use the Auto switch to quickly switch between a preset aperture and open aperture, but you must do so before every shot. With non-auto M42 lense, you must stop down each time, but many lenses have a preset ring.

If you do go this route, I can suggest some decent lenses for under $200. Stay away from zooms in this vintage, however.

For 135mm, this Porst in m42 is a good option. How much do you have to spend on lenses.

 

[DiskoJoe]

I have two m42 lenses: Yashinan 50mm f1.8 and a mamiya/sekor 55mm f1.4.

I prefer the mamiya the most. It has a better focusing ring and is super sharp. The Yashinan has better color though imo and is cheaper.

 

[unpopular]

I currently have a Super Takumar 200/3.5, Porst 35/2.8 and a CZJ 1Q, T* 50/2.8 Tessar. The Zeiss is my favorite lens.

I had some other lenses, which have been cannabilized into Frankenlenses and ultimately thrown away. Notably the Accura 28 I had was really strange, and made all my photos look like they were shot in 1966.

I'd like to get an Isco someday...

 

[bunny99123]

Well not good news. Went there and she could not find them, and has no idea where they are since she has not used them in many years. Since, I am on a very tight budget at this moment, I am looking on ebay for lens. I have my cousin's wedding coming up and need a longer zoom lens for it, so I am not disturbing the ceremony. DiskoJoe, I see that you have Sigma lens, and I have seen them on ebay, what should I take into consideration with that brand lens. I have learn so much about the Minolta lens from all you. Thank you so much for your help

Sigma is good quality. The older lenses tend to have AF that is worn. So you would have to hone up on your manual focus skills some. I have the 70-210 f2.8 which is much older but still has the APO glass. When you have large jumps in focal length the focus gets stuck sometimes and you have to flip it to manual and get it back to a closer range then the AF will kick back in. I use mine with spot focus a lot and it works adequately and picture quality is very good. I have used it at weddings and it is a must have.

But the lens like mine is not easy to find. I really lucked up on mine and that was a few years ago.

But there are other alternatives. You could go tamron. You can get one new for around $800 which is not too bad.

Found this:
Tamron 70-200mm F/2.8 Di LD IF MACRO LENS FOR Sony+1 Year Warranty | eBay

But if I was you and needed to get fast glass that is cheap and good quality I would head straight for M42 glass. Not sure if you are familiar with M42 lenses but they are just old screw mount manual focus lenses. Something like a Takumar or vivitar.
I saw this. Its a little on the higher side but lens is close to mint.

Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 Close Focusing Auto Telephoto Lens, m42 mount. LEGENDARY! | eBay

You will also need a m42 to sony amount adapter. Its like $2, lol.

M42 Lens To SONY Minolta MA Adapter Ring A700 A350 A850 | eBay

Looked at the vivitar lens and Minolta lens they look very promising! Thank you for the links

 

[bunny99123]

I have $ 200. I was saving to to buy a better lens, but her wedding came up, and I don't want to be that close to the ceremony and be in people's pics or I would wait. I have been getting by with what I have...lens that come with the camera, because I shoot alot of small shoots and use photoshop for any cropping. I pay as I go, because I am on of those people who can not deal with debt...stress too much. I had no clue that there were so many lens available to choose from. All of you have educated me on that issue, and thank you. I have learned so much on this forum! Taught me how much I don't know and need to learn thanks to people like you all..

 

[unpopular]

I also had $200 to spend, and nothing more. I went with a Minolta 50/1.7 and a 28/2.8. If you are very good with manual exposure, I'd go with this lens:

excellent MC FLEKTOGON 2.4/35 Carl Zeiss Jena Lens M42 mount | eBay

Remember though, it's COMPLETELY manual. No AE, no AF, When you press the shutter button, the aperture will not stop down by itself. They are very slow to use if you adjust aperture a lot. I wouldn't recommend a lens like this at a wedding unless you're very familiar with stop down metering. OTOH, you'll be forced to slow down and learn manual exposure inside and out. A lens like this will make you a better photographer.

But for now, I'd stick with the a-mount. This might be another option:

SIGMA 17-35 F2 8-4 ASPH EX (For Minolta) # 1003316 (FREE SHIPPING) | eBay

However, you may want to find a review on it.

 

[DiskoJoe]

What lenses do you have bunny ?