Tag Archives: minolta lens

Minolta 50 mm lens Search Results

Because, people ask about the 50mm lenses all the time. Minolta made 4 different 50mm lenses.

  1. Minolta Maxxum 50mm f1.7 is the most common standard Minolta lens. A nice inexpensive lens that doubles as a portrait lens on APS cameras (75mm equivalent).
  2. Minolta Maxxum 50mm f1.4 is similar to the f1.7 but with a larger aperture and some say better image quality. More expensive and much harder to find.
  3. Minolta Maxxum 50mm f2.8 macro. This slow focusing, close up lens is one of the sharpest lenses of all time. Works well as a normal lens if one is wiling to accept the slower focusing speed.
  4. Minolta Maxxum 50mm f3.5. Slightly sharper even than the f2.8 macro! Slightly faster focusing but the macro magnification is less at 2:1. Probably my favorite Minolta lens.

Minolta 700si lenses and sony compatibility?

I have been asked a number of questions about compatibility of old Minolta lenses and Sony dSLRs. It is always surprising to me since I think this compatibility is one the best selling points for the Alpha line.

The answer is yes, in almost all cases. All Minolta auto-focus lenses are compatible without exception. The only places that you might find incompatibility are in the oldest 3rd party lenses. Although they may be Minolta (Sony) A-mount and auto-focus, for some reason they wont AF. I have (or had, can't remember where it is...) a first generation Sigma 28-70 f-something that doesn't work, but honestly this old junky lens isn't even worth trying.

You can buy without fear when it comes to old Minolta lenses. Anything from the original Minolta 50/1.7 to the the Konica-minolta 28-75/2.8 will work fine. The same is almost true of the 3rd party lenses as well - there are only a few very old examples that do not work.

So if you have an old 700si, 7, 7000, 7xi etc etc - any auto focus Minolta SLR, your old lenses will work.