Home

Please support mflenses.com if you need any graphic related work order it from us, click on above banner to order!
SearchSearch MemberlistMemberlist RegisterRegister ProfileProfile Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages Log inLog in

35mm lenses vs Digital cameras
Post new topic   Reply to topic
Home   Digital SLR Cameras
View previous topic :: View next topic  


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:43 pm    Post subject: 35mm lenses vs Digital cameras Reply with quote
Pardon my ignorance, but ... Are old 35mm lenses ever compatible with digital cameras?


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
welcome Artylady
old 35mm are generally compatible with some exception
with mirror less like Sony Nex or m4:3, almost all lens can fit
browse the Best of Fixed Lens Cameras Gallery to find samples


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Smile That is what this forum is all about - we spend all our time talking about nothing else! What lenses and what camera do you want to know about?


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Poilu, thanks. I'll check out the site.

Peterqd, I want to buy a DSLR. But I have some old 35mm lenses and if I can use them, it might sway my choice of DSLR. I have:
- - Minolta 50mm 1:1.4 which probably came with the Minolta
- - Minolta which says Star-D MC Auto Zoom 1:3.9 f=80-200mm 55
- - Vivitar Auto wide-angle 28mm 1:2.5
- - Vivitar Auto telephoto 200mm 1:3.5

Hate to waste them if I can use them.

Last edited by Artylady on Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:00 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
poilu: is that site about fixed lenses? is that a lens which cannot be removed from a camera?


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Artylady, welcome, and, poilu did make a mistake, the section you need to check out is the "best of lenses" gallery.
There you will find samples from the removable lenses (that you can fit on a digital camera)


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I don' t know enough about lenses to search that site.


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
hi artylady amd welcome. this site is devoted to the use of old 35mm lenses on both film and, increasingly and even mostly, on digital. almost any 35mm lens can be used, with appropriate adapter, on the new breed of micro 4/3 digital cameras like the panasonic g and gh series, the olympus ep and epl series, sony nex series, samsung nx series.

many many can be adapted to most regular canon, sony, pentax and olympus dslrs, which are similar in size and feel to traditional slr's.

i am sorry that i do not know specifically about your lenses because old minolta lenses can be a little tricky depending on the mount. i believe most can be adapted to sony dslr's as they took over minolta. i used many minolta 35mm lenses on my sony a100.

i hope others here can be of more specific help to you.


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Artylady wrote:
Poilu, thanks. I'll check out the site.

Peterqd, I want to buy a DSLR. But I have some old 35mm lenses and if I can use them, it might sway my choice of DSLR. I have:
- - Minolta 50mm 1:1.4 which probably came with the Minolta
- - Minolta which says Star-D MC Auto Zoom 1:3.9 f+80-200mm 55
- - Vivitar Auto wide-angle 28mm 1:2.5
- - Vivitar Auto telephoto 200mm 1:3.5

Hate to waste them if I can use them.


OK, if you want to use Minolta lenses then this narrows the choice a lot. You can't use them on Canon, Pentax or Nikon. You'll need the "mirror-less" kind of camera which has a shorter distance between the face of the sensor and the lens mount face. There's quite a wide choice, for example Olympus 4/3 mount, Panasonic Lumix micro 4/3 mount or Sony NEX E mount.

35mm lenses were obviously designed to be used with 35mm film, with a frame size of 24 x 36mm. Most digital cameras use a smaller sensor than this, which makes the pictures appear as though you're looking through a smaller "window" than film - that is, the angle of view is less. The 4/3 mount cameras have a small sensor where the diagonal measures exactly half that of film, so these have a crop factor of 2. The APS-C sensors on the NEX cameras are a bit larger and have a crop factor of 1.5 or 1.6. If you use a "standard" lens of 50mm on a 2 factor camera, the image will appear to have been taken with a 100mm lens, or with a 1.6 factor sensor it will be an 80mm lens. Or to put it another way, a "standard " lens on an APS-C sensor camera would be around 35mm, and 24mm for the 4/3 cameras.

There are numerous arguments about which is best, and there are other considerations, such as size, weight, ease of use etc. Personally I would always go for the biggest sensor possible, because the more the image is enlarged, the more quality is lost. So my recommendation is to look at the NEX cameras. We have several NEX users who will back me up! Smile

Welcome to the forum, by the way!


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
rbelyell: Thank you. I am thinking of taking the lenses to a camera shop and asking there. I don't know enough to research this myself.

Are you in the Syracuse area? I hear the weather there is beautiful now.


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Peterqd: Thanks for that info. Some of this is jibberish to me, being unfamiliar with other than "point-and-shoot" photography. I have never heard of NEX (of course I haven't!) but will take your recommendation(s) into consideration. I bet it will be months before I know enough to make a confident decision.


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Artylady wrote:
poilu: is that site about fixed lenses? is that a lens which cannot be removed from a camera?

my mistake Embarassed the correct link is 'Best of Lenses' Gallery


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
rbelyell wrote:
i am sorry that i do not know specifically about your lenses because old minolta lenses can be a little tricky depending on the mount. i believe most can be adapted to sony dslr's as they took over minolta. i used many minolta 35mm lenses on my sony a100.

i hope others here can be of more specific help to you.

The Sony A100 has the A mount, which was carried over from the later Minolta auto-focus cameras, sometimes called Dynax 9or Maxxum. Previous to the A mount, every Minolta MF camera had what is called the SR mount, commonly known as Minolta MD. Either type can be used on the NEX range with the right adapter. MD lenses have to be stopped down for metering, but there is a Sony adapter available for the A-mount lenses which preserves auto-focus and open aperture metering, but we don't talk about AF lenses here, do we? Wink

Last edited by peterqd on Tue Sep 27, 2011 12:21 am; edited 2 times in total


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Artylady wrote:
Peterqd: Thanks for that info. Some of this is jibberish to me, being unfamiliar with other than "point-and-shoot" photography. I have never heard of NEX (of course I haven't!) but will take your recommendation(s) into consideration. I bet it will be months before I know enough to make a confident decision.

Yeah, I thought that as I was typing it! Smile

Never mind, just don't rush into buying a digicam just yet. Far better to read up and get to understand all the angles first.


PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
i know i used a minolta 50/1.4, one of her lenses, on my a100. it worked great and was very good low light lens. i also used a couple of old minolta manual focus zooms--a35-105/2.8 and a 75-300/4.5-5.6. both were very good performers.

point being i do not think artylady is limited to m4/3 cameras, but could also use regular sony dslr's with available adapters. these may be better for her as they will look, feel, and operate closest to the slr she was used to before.

coming from the slr world, in my opinion, the nex line may prove quite frustrating as there is no optical viewfinder, and film folk are not used to composing, focusing, or even holding a canera that uses only an lcd. i think this would be the worst first time choice for this kind of user who is totally new to digital.

instead, if memory serves, i think it would be better, easier transition to start out with a more traditional film looking and feeling camera like the sony a100 or a200. also the crop factor would be less annoyingly unfamiliar at 1.5 rather than 2x with m4/3. and i think you could probably get an a100 for less than $100.

Last edited by rbelyell on Tue Sep 27, 2011 12:05 am; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 12:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Oh, so this forum is only to discuss manual focus lenses? I thought auto focus lenses can be used manually... No?
I really need to learn alot. Confused
Thank you all for your help.


PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 12:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Artylady wrote:
Oh, so this forum is only to discuss manual focus lenses? I thought auto focus lenses can be used manually... No?
I really need to learn alot. Confused
Thank you all for your help.

Well this is the MF Lenses forum! Smile

I wasn't being serious. Of course you can talk about AF lenses, there's a special section for them.


PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 12:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I am not totally new to digital, but I have not used my old digital for much more than point and shoot. It is an Olympus C730 (I think it is 3.2 megapixel 10x zoom), is terribly shaky (and can't change lenses) and I about gave up on it. I use a small Olympus pocket size now(FE-340 8 megapixel 5x optical zoom).
Post new topic   Reply to topic
Home   Digital SLR Cameras
Page 1 of 1