Old Minolta AF lenses....Soft???

Went into the local camera store to confirm my old (circa 1985/8) lenses fitted the 7D and can confirm they do..Yippee.

Asked the guy if there is any drawback to using these as opposed to the new "digital" lenses and was told that they have a tendency to be "soft".

MMmm??? was he trying his luck to sell me new lenses???

What do you think??

I have....

50/1.5
35-70/4
70-210/4

Adequate or should I invest? or what lens should I buy?? It's for a wide range of subject from portrait to landscape....not orientation...LOL!!

Cheers

... see some pics I did shoot in the following threads.
Mario.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1035&message=15251538

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1035&message=14601358

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1035&message=14353206

Chris, If your lenses are all in good shape and all working well they will be fine! Soft, I think they may be sharper if anything. Just decide of a body I liked the 5D so that's what I got and I was in the same boat as you with a lot of older glass. So what I did was got the 5D with the kit lens. It;s a great camera that you can fall in love with! George

and was pretty sharp up to 200mm (at least on my indoor flash test). Currently doing outdoor test. One drawback of older lenses is on the speed but since I love the sun and shoot mostly at 6.3 and smaller, slower speed is just fine with me (for now when I am on a budget : )).
cheers,
gil

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**************
Images or nothing.
http://art4less.smugmug.com

Chris172,

What you've heard is an old lie perpetuated by clueless camera salespeople. I have heard that lie since I bought my first SLR camera back in 1988 (X-700). The truth is a little more complicated than I'd care to write about but let's just say that, on average, a Minolta lens is every bit as good as any other manufacturer's lens.

The Konica Minolta DSLRs don't use agressive in-camera sharpening and so the images that come out of them don't look as sharp as some other manufacturers. However, with a little post-processing (PP), you can increase the sharpness to match anyone else's offerings. That's really the bottom line in digital SLR photography.

By the way, you have there some of the prized classic AF lenses. Don't let that go to waste or if you do, send it my way.

Cheers!
-Perry

Chris172 said:

Went into the local camera store to confirm my old (circa 1985/8)
lenses fitted the 7D and can confirm they do..Yippee.

Asked the guy if there is any drawback to using these as opposed to
the new "digital" lenses and was told that they have a tendency to
be "soft".

MMmm??? was he trying his luck to sell me new lenses???

What do you think??

I have....

50/1.5
35-70/4
70-210/4

Adequate or should I invest? or what lens should I buy?? It's for
a wide range of subject from portrait to landscape....not
orientation...LOL!!

Cheers

Click to expand...

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Aarif 10-1000mm f1.2 (G) Weight only 540g

Take a look at the number of people trying to find a 70-210 f4 to BUY for their 5D or 7D and you'll quickly realise that this is one of the most sought-after lenses in the Minolta lineup. I managed to get one on eBay with a Dynax 7000 body and a 35-70 f4 too. I bought all of this gear to get the 70-210 f4. My 35-70 f4 has a sticking aperture blade, but if I shoot wide-open and any focal length, it's certainly not soft. Nor is the 70-210 f4 that I obtained. It's optically very good. Stick with your existing lenses and you'll do fine. If you get a 5D, consider buying it with the 18-70 kit lens to cget a cheap wide angle lens.

Try them. Some of the various Minolta lenses over time were better than others.

Well, no, sharper if anything, but may have slower AF and prob not D lenses -- many of the better primes were made in the 80-90s and are super sharp (135mm 2.8, 100mm f2, etc...)

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Markwp

http://www.pbase.com/markwp

I've just jused an old sigma 70-200mm F2.8 lens on my brand new KM 5D Soft ?? No way..!!!

Thanks for all your responses..... just as I thought, a opportunist sales guy.

I'll let you know how they fare when I collect the camera soon.. )