Old minolta lenses

[bob simonetti]

Hi,
I have an old Minolta 5000 - 35mm camera. I have a 50mm minolta lens and a 70-210mm zoom 1:4.5-5.6 vivatar lens. these lenses are probably 20 years old or better. I was wondering if any of these lenses would fit on any of the modern DSLR cameras. Any help would be appreciated.

[Jim Bryant]

Old Minolta lenses are ONLY compatible with Sony digital SLR cameras since Sony bought out the entire Minolta DSLR line back in 2006.

So, the basic answer is that they will not work with the new Minolta dSLR's, but yes, you should be able to ATTACH your old Minolta lenses to a new Sony DSLR. How well they work is another matter.

Old lenses don't have the same electronic contacts as the new ones, which means that there is less communication between camera and lens.

When the camera doesn't communicate with the lens as well, several things may happen: 1) autofocus may not work and 2) aperture control from the camera may not work.

The only way to know for sure how well your old lenses will work on a new DSLR is to take them to a local camera shop and - if they will let you - try them out on some floor model DSLR bodies.

This should help you determine if you can get by with the old lenses or if you need to upgrade your lens collection to work with modern digital SLRs.