Should I sell or should I keep it?

IronMaskDuval · Jun 1, 2015

So I was going through my garage yesterday and found a lens that I didn't realize I had. Well, some guy cleaning his garage last year sold me a Bogen tripod and made me take everything for a great deal on the tripod. One man's trash, I guess.

Anyway, I just bought a 4/3 and wanted to see if there were any old lenses in the bag that I could adapt to this thing. Well, I found a Minolta 85mm 1.7 MC Rokkor-X. It's in EX+ to LN- condition, from what I've been getting from KEH. It seems that this thing commands anything from $400 to $500. I went on Amazon today to buy the MC MD to 4/3 adapter.

Thoughts? Should I sell this and buy a Sigma art prime, or should I keep it?

MartinCrabtree · Jun 1, 2015

Keep it and buy the Sigma. What's not to like?

Derrel · Jun 1, 2015

Well...try out the Minolta and see how well it works for you, for what YOU might use it for...it is a very fast, long lens on m4/3...I mean, a 170mm effective f/1.7 lens....hmmmm...with a good, smooth, well-damped mechanical focusing helicoid inside the barrel...it might focus pretty well by hand-and-eye and with your camera's focusing aids...focus peaking and whatnot, you know...it might be fantastic for some of your uses. It's always tricky to advise people on this stuff without a lot of inside,detailed knowledge of how and what and when and where people shoot. Hand-held, tripod-mounted landscapes for example: ANY focusing method can work and work well. Low-light, indoor stuff with slow-moving people seated, ehhh, you can usually hit 50,60,70 percent manually focusing even after a few beers. Fast-paced, daytime erratic movement might not deliver the focus hit rate that makes it worth futzing around with manual focusing. A lens that you can hit the focus button on and have it go, "Dzzt!" in .2 to .3 seconds...that's an entirely different ballgame, so. again, it would depend.

IronMaskDuval · Jun 2, 2015

I can't believe how amazing this lens is. The adapter came in today, and I took the 85 and also the 50 out, and they performed AMAZING! I cannot believe it. I also found out that I actually like manual focus, possibly more than autofocus.

Derrel · Jun 2, 2015

Well...this is an interesting development. Glad to hear about the agreeability of the adapter and the manual focus action! Manual focusing with an actual MF lens is usually smoother, easier, and often more-precise than with today's AF lenses, which usually have very loosey-goosey focusing action in manual.

IronMaskDuval · Jun 2, 2015

I must say that focus peaking is turd. I can see it come in, sort of, handy on cameras without evfs, but it's a hit or miss. Without it on, my eyes work better and take sharp photos. Because of this, I'm returning the em10 and picking up a used em5 to save $120 and get the weather sealing. I didn't do it at first, because I thought focus peaking would give me an edge.