If Sony NEX 7, which Minolta MC Lenses to keep?

RokkorBob said:

Hi All,

I'm looking to buy a Sony NEX 7 (new or used) with which to get back into photography and use some of the legacy Minolta SRT and MC ROKKOR I still have stored:

• SRT101 - Black body, refurbished
• 28mm/f2.5
• 58mm/f1.4
• 58mm/f1.2
• 85mm/f1.7 - oil on aperture blades
• 135mm/f2.8
• 200mm/f3.5
• 300mm/f4.5

My Question - Most likely I will need to sell some (maybe all?) of this equipment to help fund this purchase. If so, what to sell?

My previous subject matter interest range was fairly general from candid family shots, urban and natural landscape, abstract, still life. architecture, marine seascape and shipping, etc

Click to expand...

I'd probably keep them all - but if you need to sell some of them, then based on your typical shooting subject matter, and assuming it will be similar, then you might do better keeping the wider, faster lenses and dumping the long primes...as it doesn't sound like nature photography was something more likely to be done by you.

The ones I like the best, and would prioritize myself, would be the 28mm - as that's a good focal length on an APS-C crop camera...the 58mm F1.2 because those are rare lenses and great low light fun, the 85mm F1.7 if you think the oily blades aren't going to get bad and spread to the inside elements - or if you're willing to open it up and give it a cleaning...and the 135mm F2.8 as a long portrait or close up lens. The 58mm F1.4 would be superfluous, unless you think it will perform better than the F1.2...and the 100 & 300s could be sold along with the extra 58mm to see what you could drum up funds-wise.

Also remember - if you want to get those lenses to perform closer to their original focal length spec, rather than with the APS-C crop factor...you could buy a Minolta MD-NEX focal-reducer adapter rather than the standard variety adapter - that would let you use those lenses at their native focal equivalents, and give you the added bonus of an extra stop of light...especially interesting on that F1.2!

Keep them all and test them out.

See what you like and sell the rest.

Great choice with the NEX 7 btw. Only a few months ago it was like 1200$ body only, now you can find a used one in mint condition with low shutter count on ebay for 500-600$.

I was thinking about what lenses I used most back in the day. I was in the Coast Guard at that time and used the 300mm TELE-ROKKOR almost exclusively shooting other ships by bracing it on the ship's rail and sticking to fast films. For the majority of my walkinf around work I used the 28mm, 135mm, and to a lesser extent, 58mm/f1.4.

The rest I have recently aquired from the family so they are yet untried. Given what you zackiedawg recommend I think I'll sell something else off or get a paper route to fund the NEX 7.

Thanks for your help