Buying my first film camera

[Don Simon]

And in/despite what a few of the others have said Minolta's are awesome cameras and ALL of their lenses are interchangeable regardless of the camera body including the Sony Alpha. The only things to remember is that the older lenses (the non auto focus ones) will require you to shoot in manual mode more often than not. And when used on the Alpha you will get a slight vignetting effect on the edges of your pictures since the lenses were not designed specifically for digital cameras.

I'm confused

Are you sure you can use manual-focus Minolta lenses (in other words the previous generation which had a totally different lens mount) on the Maxxum/Alpha ones? I was under the impression that the spacing differences meant that infinity focus would be impossible without an optical adapter. When I was looking into it, Minolta user websites were mentioning Olympus as the only current system that allows full use of Minolta MD lenses without an optical adapter.

As for the vignetting... why does it matter that the lenses were not specifically designed for digital cameras? The lenses are intended for coverage of a 35x24mm negative which is larger than the Alpha's sensor... so in fact any vignetting should be reduced rather than increased.

 

[mysteryscribe]

I shoot minolta exclusively now... I have the 7000 models for autofocus which your lens will work on. The ones I have work perfectly and they have the old style flash shoe... However the newer minolta maxxums have the club foot which I think is on the sony so you might want to go newer so your flashes will work. Damn fine cameras for the bucks

I also have the xg series cameras for the manual focus stuff and in the studio.

 

[ksmattfish]

What features should i look for in a film camera?

Most SLRs will have all the basic features you need. There are a few entry level SLRs that are missing features that you might find useful. I don't recall much about Minolta from my camera selling days, except that I always really liked the X-700. Make sure whatever you buy can take a cable release, can be set for manual exposure, and allows you to set the ISO. Occasionally camera manufacturers (Nikon for one) have left these features off of their entry level SLRs to save a dime.

 

[ksmattfish]

The lenses are intended for coverage of a 35x24mm negative which is larger than the Alpha's sensor... so in fact any vignetting should be reduced rather than increased.

I think he's talking about using Alpha lenses on a 35mm camera.

 

[Don Simon]

That may have been what he meant... not what he said though

ALL of their lenses are interchangeable regardless of the camera body including the Sony Alpha. The only things to remember is that the older lenses (the non auto focus ones) will require you to shoot in manual mode more often than not. And when used on the Alpha you will get a slight vignetting effect on the edges of your pictures since the lenses were not designed specifically for digital cameras.

 

[jstuedle]

I was sure I remembered when the Minolta AF's came out, a very good friend was fit to be tied that his MF glass would not fit the new AF body. Our local dealer chain offered him about .02 on the $1.00 for a MF body and 2 lenses he had only purchased 4 months before from the same dealer. Oh well, my daddy always told me the three bad things about getting old were 1) memory loss, and 2,3) he was danged if he could remember the other three.

 

[mysteryscribe]

You are right the auto focus lenses and the Manual focus are different. I have both. You need a very expensive adapter to use the manual focus lenses on auto focus cameras. But the autofocus you have for the alfa will fit any maxxum.

Funny though the 42mm screw mount adapter is almost nothing and the older m42 lens will work on both with it.

 

[mysteryscribe]

I was sure I remembered when the Minolta AF's came out, a very good friend was fit to be tied that his MF glass would not fit the new AF body. Our local dealer chain offered him about .02 on the $1.00 for a MF body and 2 lenses he had only purchased 4 months before from the same dealer. Oh well, my daddy always told me the three bad things about getting old were 1) memory loss, and 2,3) he was danged if he could remember the other three.

I expect one of them was how the plumbing works as it ages...

 

[DoSayWhat]

Mysteryscribe beat me to the lenses.*

But I should have been clearer in my first post. Yes, you need an adapter to use a manual lens on an af body. But you can use any manual lens on any manual body and any af lens on any af body.

As for the vignetting, I don't know why it happens but it does. I also do not know if the reverse is true or not since I don't use lenses designed specifically for digital on my camera.

 

[Don Simon]

Now I'm curious... are you using manual lenses on an AF body with the adapter? Or if using AF lenses on an AF body, are they ultra-wide lenses? Are you using particularly deep filters or lens hood?

If none of the above I can't see any reason why you should have noticeable vignetting... it sounds like something is going wrong there.

 

[DoSayWhat]

No, I'm not using a manual lens on my camera with an adapter or anything like that. I only own one manual lens and that is for the Minolta SR-2 that I got from my grandfather.

What I am saying is that any maxxum series lens should be able to be used on any maxxum camera including the Sony Alpha. And any manual focus lens using the the old SR mount to the SRM mount should be able to be used on any manual body.

As for the vignetting issue. One of my best friends owns the Sony Alpha and when he borrows one of my lenses he always gets vignettes on his pictures. Why, I don't know but he does. And I'm assuming the same is true for other digital cameras as well.

 

[Don Simon]

Sorry if I wasn't clear; I know about the lens compatibility. I was asking in order to try and find out why you were experiencing vignetting.

Based on what you said there, I can only assume that the vignetting is a problem with that particular lens - and not because you're using a lens designed for film on a digital camera. This is certainly not normally the case with full-frame lenses on digital SLRs. When I borrowed a Minolta 5D (the A100's predecessor) I only used my 'film' lenses and there was no vignetting; ditto old Pentax lenses on Pentax dSLRs, Nikon lenses on Nikon dSLRs, etc.

 

[DoSayWhat]

I guess I'm a little denser today than usual, sorry about that. But you misunderstood part of my last post.

I shoot with an Maxxum 70 and unless something happens I have no intention of going digital until either film becomes too expensive or they stop making it. I currently own five lenses; three from Minolta and two Sigma's. The few times I had any vignetting is when I had forgotten to take the lens hood off. And that it is my friend that has the Alpha. He has borrowed all five lenses from me at one time or another and each time his pictures come out with a slight vignette to them. So I'm assuming it's not a lens problem.

 

[Don Simon]

Ah... I think we finally understand each other I was going by the comments in your first posts about vignetting when using non-digital lenses on digital SLRs. With no offence intended to your friend, either his camera is faulty or he's doing something wrong

 

[DoSayWhat]

No offense taken. I constantly give him crap about it all the time. Especially since it has been six months now and he still has trouble setting the white balance.