sony to nikon

[tottymort]

i have a sony camera,does anyone know if lens coverters work,my mate has nikon lens,and i can buy a sony to nikon converter for £34,would it work?

[OsmosisStudios]

Why?

No seriously, why? Unless that's some very special lens, there's likely not much point.

[tottymort]

there seems to be more choice in second hand nikon fit lenses as well,i am new to photography,and did'nt know if a converter would take anything away from the lens

[inkista]

It will work, but it's got compromises. The glass in the adapter is likely to be low-quality and will compromise your image quality (sharpness, CA, etc.) a little bit. You need that glass to achieve focus to infinity, but it's acting like a little teleconverter, so you're going to also lose a bit of maximum aperture and gain a bit on focal length. It's not ideal.

In addition, because there's no lens/body electronic communication, you won't have autofocus or aperture control from the body--so you really want the lens to have an aperture ring on it (i.e., no G-mount lenses. You really want F-mount Nikkors). Your EXIF will be missing all lens information, and you'll have to use stop-down metering.

All in all, it may not be worth it, unless you're already used to shooting with manual cameras and lenses.

I'd actually recommend looking for old Minolta AF mount lenses--those can be used directly on the Sony Alpha mount, without needing any adapters; you'll also have autofocus and aperture control (I think--I'm not sure. I'm a Canon shooter), and the quality will be higher. The old Minolta 50mm f/1.7 is apparently a helluva good bargain, if you're looking for low-cost alternatives to the current Sony lens lineup.