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Minolta AF lenses on m43?

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curious80

Guest
Here is another question related to my recent interest in using adapted lenses on my G1. I have a couple of excellent Minolta A mount AF lenses lying with me. Is there a way to use these on my G1?

I have seen adapters on ebay which claim they allow this. Has anyone used them and if yes then do they work well?

Obviously theses lenses are pretty large unlike rangefinder lenses, but since I have them with me so why not use them :)
 

Tullio

New member
The adapter will allow you to attach the lens to the camera but it will make the camera recognize the lens. In other words, no AF. Not only that, since this is an AF lens, it may not have an aperture ring. That means you can not change the aperture on the fly. You will have to use a Sony/Minolta camera, change the lens aperture from it and then use the lens on your m4/3 camera. A real pain if you ask me.
 
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curious80

Guest
Thanks Tullio for your reply. The lens will off course not AF, that part is understood. However as far as aperture is concerned, there are adapters which claim to have the ability to operate the aperture.

I know some people use Nikon G to m43 adapters which do exactly that (Nikon G lenses don't have aperture rings either). The aperture ring in that case is on the adapter itself. However I haven't so far read about any one using such an adapter for Minolta/Sony AF lenses.
 

Tullio

New member
I have never seen any m4/3 adapter with an aperture ring on it. Some adapters have the Lock/Open ring but that's something different. That opens up the diaphragm even if the aperture is at its largest value (smallest opening) so that you can see through. That does not adjust the aperture of the lens. Once you move the ring into the Lock position, the lens will go back to whatever aperture the diaphragm is set to.
 
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curious80

Guest
I have very briefly used the Nikon G to m43 adapter myself. It does indeed have an aperture ring and can control the aperture on the lens. An expensive version is made by Novoflex, like the one in this ad here:

http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?p=256403

The one which I used was some cheaper ebay version though I only used it for a couple of minutes and didn't get a chance to evaluate how well it works.
 
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wyip

Member
Yeah, Novoflex makes an adapter for Minolta/Sony A-mount to micro four thirds that has an aperture ring, but its kind of expensive. I may eventually pick one up to play with my Sony lenses.
 
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curious80

Guest
Yeah, Novoflex makes an adapter for Minolta/Sony A-mount to micro four thirds that has an aperture ring, but its kind of expensive. I may eventually pick one up to play with my Sony lenses.
Novoflex version is indeed very expensive. There are a couple of much cheaper versions on ebay. However I just don't know if they are well made and work as advertised or not. That's why I was looking for feedback. I might eventually try one of them (the cheapest one is around $33 so not a great financial risk). If you end up trying either the Novoflex version or one of the cheaper ones then please do share your experiences.
 

wyip

Member
I have one of the $30 adapters from ebay on its way to me now. I didn't see a point in shelling out a couple hundred bucks for the Novoflex. I'll post results once I've had a chance to play with it. The two lenses I'm most interested in trying on m4/3rds is my Tamron 60mm f/2 Macro and Zeiss 135mm f/1.8.
 
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curious80

Guest
Great, looking forward to hear about your experience. I am planning to try a Minolta 100f2 and 50mm 2.8 macro.
 

edz

New member
I have one of the $30 adapters from ebay on its way to me now. I didn't see a point in shelling out a couple hundred bucks for the Novoflex. I'll post results once I've had a chance to play with it. The two lenses I'm most interested in trying on m4/3rds is my Tamron 60mm f/2 Macro and Zeiss 135mm f/1.8.

Hi wyip,

Did you get a chance to try out that adapter with your 135/1.8 yet?
 

wyip

Member
The adapter arrived last night!

I opened the little box it came in and it was just the adapter, no caps or anything but I didn't expect much for $30. The m4/3 side fits nice and snug into my E-PL1 but the A-mount side feels really tight like I have to force the lens on and off. I used my Tamron 60mm Macro as the guinea pig and mounting/unmounting the lens on the adapter took a *lot* of force. I'd like to try to adjust the mount somehow before trying it with my CZ135.

There is a ring on the adapter labeled "Lock <--> Open" that controls the aperture. It is step-less and dims the live view as you stop down, like having permanent DOF-preview.

I have a new appreciation for the nice, big manual focus ring Tamron put on the 60mm f/2 Macro :)

I'll take it out tonight to take some shots with the Tamron, and possibly try my CZ135 out. I'll put some pictures when I have them.
 

Tesselator

New member
FWIW, I use a similar (probably identical) adapter for the 20 or so Sony/Minolta AF lenses I've processed and tested so far and it works the treat. I got mine here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Minolta-Sony-AF...32618?pt=Lens_Accessories&hash=item3360fea2aa

I repair, buy, sell, and trade lenses for a living and the M3/4 system with it's high adaptability was just the ticket. So I picked the cheapest adapter vendor with the best rep (after some research) and bought one of everything. :D I've tested all and measured all with a micrometer. In the past 4 months I've processed about 100 lenses with another 100 sitting on the shelf tested, evaluated and ready to be processed further as needed. The HK adapters that are coming into NY at low price points are actually of a similar or identical grade as the more expensive ones. Quite often they're significantly better than their expensive counterparts. The high dollar resellers are tacking on a horrific mark-up is often the only difference.

Just a tip I thought I'd share as an insider to this game.
 
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