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#1
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Legacy Lens Compatibilty Question
I want to make the move into a Digital SLR.
I've inherited a 35mm Minolta X-370 SLR camera body and two lenses from a relative. I was wondering if the two lenses were worth keeping and if they could be put on one of todays Digital SLR's. I don't know much about the lenses, the two I have read this Lens 1: FIVE STAR MC AUTO ZOOM No. K8606826 1:3.5-4.8 35-75mm 550 (the last zero has a kine through it) Lens 2: FIVE STAR MC AUTO MACRO ZOOM No. K8645967 1:4.5 75-200mm 520 (the last zero has a kine through it) Lens 3... it's about a foot long super telescope of some kind. I don't plan on using it. If these lenses will work on a new Digital SLR, it may play on my purchasing decision. I imagine this is a long shot, lens tech btw old 35mm and a new SLR is probably drastically different. Thoughts.. opinions? pb |
#2
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The camera is well worth keeping. With this set of lenses, though, the
owner probably never knew what a good camera it really is. A 50-mm f/1.8 Minolta Rokkor lens -- probably under $25 used -- will give great pictures with it. The lenses are "Minolta MD mount" will not be fully functional on anything other than a Minolta manual-focus film SLR; that is, they will not autofocus or autoexpose on any other kind of camera. Some adapters do exist to put these lenses on other cameras, but they become completely manual (you even have to close down the F-stop manually before taking each picture). "Five Star" is not a major brand of lens. These sound like cheap imports. An O with a slash through it is the symbol for diameter, so what they're telling you is that these lenses take 55mm- or 52mm-diameter filters. The long telephoto lens may be a "T-mount" lens with an adapter to fit it to Minolta MD. In that case you simply unscrew that adapter and put on one for your new camera. But the long and short of it is, even if you can mount these lenses on a digital SLR, you will have a difficult and slow time taking pictures with them. Getting back to lens mount adapters: Some adapters include a glass element that slightly changes the focal length so there will be room for the lens to form an image. This piece of glass degrades the image quality slightly. I like to avoid these altogether. Some other adapters work without an additional piece of glass, so you are actually getting the image formed by the lens. This is worth doing if you have special lenses and don't mind the loss of autofocus and auto exposure. For example, in this manner I am going to use my Olympus slide duplicator and my Nikon telephoto lenses with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel. Here's an adapter to put Minolta MD lenses on a Minolta Maxxum autofocus SLR: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...1906 906&rd=1 The maker, Kalt, is reputable, but of course this is not a fancy high-tech gadget. It is the kind with a glass element. Several other kinds of lenses can fit on Canon EOS bodies but I have not found a Minolta MD lens to Canon adapter. In your situation, none of the lenses seems to be valuable enough to justify investing in adapters and tolerating the inconvenience of using them. -- Clear skies, Michael A. Covington Author, Astrophotography for the Amateur www.covingtoninnovations.com/astromenu.html "Paul B" wrote in message news I want to make the move into a Digital SLR. I've inherited a 35mm Minolta X-370 SLR camera body and two lenses from a relative. I was wondering if the two lenses were worth keeping and if they could be put on one of todays Digital SLR's. I don't know much about the lenses, the two I have read this Lens 1: FIVE STAR MC AUTO ZOOM No. K8606826 1:3.5-4.8 35-75mm 550 (the last zero has a kine through it) Lens 2: FIVE STAR MC AUTO MACRO ZOOM No. K8645967 1:4.5 75-200mm 520 (the last zero has a kine through it) Lens 3... it's about a foot long super telescope of some kind. I don't plan on using it. If these lenses will work on a new Digital SLR, it may play on my purchasing decision. I imagine this is a long shot, lens tech btw old 35mm and a new SLR is probably drastically different. Thoughts.. opinions? pb |
#3
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The camera is well worth keeping. With this set of lenses, though, the
owner probably never knew what a good camera it really is. A 50-mm f/1.8 Minolta Rokkor lens -- probably under $25 used -- will give great pictures with it. The lenses are "Minolta MD mount" will not be fully functional on anything other than a Minolta manual-focus film SLR; that is, they will not autofocus or autoexpose on any other kind of camera. Some adapters do exist to put these lenses on other cameras, but they become completely manual (you even have to close down the F-stop manually before taking each picture). "Five Star" is not a major brand of lens. These sound like cheap imports. An O with a slash through it is the symbol for diameter, so what they're telling you is that these lenses take 55mm- or 52mm-diameter filters. The long telephoto lens may be a "T-mount" lens with an adapter to fit it to Minolta MD. In that case you simply unscrew that adapter and put on one for your new camera. But the long and short of it is, even if you can mount these lenses on a digital SLR, you will have a difficult and slow time taking pictures with them. Getting back to lens mount adapters: Some adapters include a glass element that slightly changes the focal length so there will be room for the lens to form an image. This piece of glass degrades the image quality slightly. I like to avoid these altogether. Some other adapters work without an additional piece of glass, so you are actually getting the image formed by the lens. This is worth doing if you have special lenses and don't mind the loss of autofocus and auto exposure. For example, in this manner I am going to use my Olympus slide duplicator and my Nikon telephoto lenses with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel. Here's an adapter to put Minolta MD lenses on a Minolta Maxxum autofocus SLR: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...1906 906&rd=1 The maker, Kalt, is reputable, but of course this is not a fancy high-tech gadget. It is the kind with a glass element. Several other kinds of lenses can fit on Canon EOS bodies but I have not found a Minolta MD lens to Canon adapter. In your situation, none of the lenses seems to be valuable enough to justify investing in adapters and tolerating the inconvenience of using them. -- Clear skies, Michael A. Covington Author, Astrophotography for the Amateur www.covingtoninnovations.com/astromenu.html "Paul B" wrote in message news I want to make the move into a Digital SLR. I've inherited a 35mm Minolta X-370 SLR camera body and two lenses from a relative. I was wondering if the two lenses were worth keeping and if they could be put on one of todays Digital SLR's. I don't know much about the lenses, the two I have read this Lens 1: FIVE STAR MC AUTO ZOOM No. K8606826 1:3.5-4.8 35-75mm 550 (the last zero has a kine through it) Lens 2: FIVE STAR MC AUTO MACRO ZOOM No. K8645967 1:4.5 75-200mm 520 (the last zero has a kine through it) Lens 3... it's about a foot long super telescope of some kind. I don't plan on using it. If these lenses will work on a new Digital SLR, it may play on my purchasing decision. I imagine this is a long shot, lens tech btw old 35mm and a new SLR is probably drastically different. Thoughts.. opinions? pb |
#4
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Searching the web shows the lens appears to be worth about $40 to $50 !!.
http://www.ritzcam.com/catalog/frame...ategory_id=680 Not really worth considering a digital SLR with them as a criteria !. You can start with a clean sheet. The 550 and 520 are simply the filter thread diameter in mm's. The zero withqa kine signifies diameter. "Paul B" wrote in message news I want to make the move into a Digital SLR. I've inherited a 35mm Minolta X-370 SLR camera body and two lenses from a relative. I was wondering if the two lenses were worth keeping and if they could be put on one of todays Digital SLR's. I don't know much about the lenses, the two I have read this Lens 1: FIVE STAR MC AUTO ZOOM No. K8606826 1:3.5-4.8 35-75mm 550 (the last zero has a kine through it) Lens 2: FIVE STAR MC AUTO MACRO ZOOM No. K8645967 1:4.5 75-200mm 520 (the last zero has a kine through it) Lens 3... it's about a foot long super telescope of some kind. I don't plan on using it. If these lenses will work on a new Digital SLR, it may play on my purchasing decision. I imagine this is a long shot, lens tech btw old 35mm and a new SLR is probably drastically different. Thoughts.. opinions? pb |
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