Minolta AF lenses on Sony A7 series cameras

[tb_a]

As I own a rather comprehensive set of old Minolta AF lenses and migrated some time ago from the Sony A850 to the Sony A7R II I've also bought the LA-EA4 adapter to continue with my old lenses on my new body.

However, as you might already know the AF functionality with old screw drive lenses is rather limited with this adapter and doesn't support all the new fancy AF features and reduces the light due to an additional mirror in the adapter.

Luckily a Chinese group of people developed a tweak to modify such LA-EA4 screw drive adapters to get rid of the mirror and use all the existing AF functionality of the camera.

I've ordered this replacement chip from China and received it today. It's called "Monster Adapter LA-EA4r". It turns the LA-EA4 into a LA-EA3 for screw drive lenses.

Conclusion: It's worth every penny and all my old Minolta AF lenses work almost as good like the new and expensive original Sony FE lenses.

Same is available from Sony now as well but only for the A7R IV and the new adapter LA-EA5 (NOT working with older or other models). For my taste far too expensive compared to the monster adapter solution which is available for almost every LA-EA4-compatible camera; particularly as I don't have any plans to migrate to this new camera as long as my A7R II is up and running.

Maybe this information is of some use for other SONY FE shooters as well....

Cheers,

[visualopsins]

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[lumens pixel]

[tb_a]

[lumens pixel]

Quite impressive.

Glad to hear no focus shift. I have red here or on another forum that it was not possible to autofocus at working aperture with the adapters which is not an issue in the absence of focus shift.

Thanks for the information.

[tb_a]

[lumens pixel]

That is unclear to me. Of course there is no need for micro adjustments of AF since focusing occurs on the sensor without any mirror.

However when you prefocus the lens is wide open even though you have selected let us say f5,6. Then you fire the shutter and immediately before sensor recording the diaphragm is closed to f5,6. My point is that there is no refocusing between the prefocus and the shutter fire so if the lens has a different focus setting because of the closed diaphragm there will be no adjustment.

I have noticed that on most of my MD lenses there is a difference in focus when closing the diaphragm and was inquiring whether Minolta changed the conception of the lenses when transitioning to AF.

[tb_a]

OK, obviously I misunderstood you. I was referring to the focus adjustment for the LA-EA4 adapter feature which is available in the A7R II.

No, I definitely never realised this phenomenom you are describing. With no lens that I own.

However, I'm using only original Minolta AF lenses, primarily primes. Maybe 3rd party lenses are working differently.

Do you have any information of a specific lens where this may occur?

Another good option is the usage of the Techart PRO AF adapter, works perfectly well with all my Minolta MC/MD lenses. It also uses the camera's AF system but at working aperture. At low light with smaller apertures this may be problematic in comparison to the open aperture AF functionality of the Sony adapter.

[lumens pixel]

No problem, maybe I was not clear myself.

Sure MD lenses on a Techart solves the problem. But I was wandering if some nice AF lenses that are quite cheap with no equivalent in the MD line would be worth considering.

For example the 28-135, the 100-200 4,5 and the 28, 35 F2,0 or the 85 and 100.

These are not very expensive by today's standards and with no exact MD equivalent even though you could find perfectly fine MD lenses of same focal lengths.

However it would have ruined the experience to look for very sharp lenses subject to focus shift, hence my question.

If someday you have the time to manual focus at working aperture and compare with the AF result it would certainly be of interest.

I could understand that Minolta tried to diminish the focus shift issues turning to AF so the problem might be reduced compared to the MD line.

I noticed that Canon FDs have comparatively much less focus shift than the corresponding Minolta's, reason why perhaps many consider the latter less sharp.

Thanks anyway for your attention.

[tb_a]

I have following Minolta AF lenses in use and I've never noticed the "focus shift" problem, neither on my Sony A850 nor if used adapted on my A7R II.
20/2.8, 24/2.8, 28/2.8, 35/2, 50/1.4, 85/1.4, 80-200/2.8 HS APO, 300/4 HS APO, 500/8, Tele Converter 1.4X APO II.
100-300/4.5-5.6 D APO and 24-105/3.5-4.5 D (small travel package).

[lumens pixel]

[tb_a]

[kiddo]

Hello, I am watching a cheap af apo 200mm 2.8 Minolta, but I'm not sure a dumb af -nex for the A7II would work for this lens . As you can see, I have no experience with these af lenses on Sony neither their adapters. The lens it's got a fungus and dust , that's why is so cheap , dunno how easy is to disassemble and clean .

[stevemark]

The "dumb" MinAF=>Sony E adapter will work. Of course you'll hae to focus manually, and you'll have to set the aperture manually as well (on the adapter, not on the camera). I have the MinAF 2.8/200 APO and occasionally do use it on the A7RII, with a dumb adapter.

That said, dismantling and cleaning the MinAF 2.8/200 might not be that easy - especially if you want to keep its excellent optical performance! Back in its time, the larger "white" Minolta APO lenses (such as the MinAF 2.8/300 APO or the MinAF 4/600mm APO) were serviced exclusively in Japan, by the very person who actually built the new 2.8/300 and 4/600 lenses. Minolta was well aware that servicing theses lenses properly was a tricky work. Why do I know this? The former head of Minolta Switzerland's repair service told me this, back in 2010.

S

[RokkorDoctor]