Thread: Minolta - Rest in Peace

Minolta Cameras .
I have an 'expensive' Minolta Film SLR camera that is now an extinct relek after Minolta closed shop on making cameras and lenses back in April 2006 .
Sony bought out the rights to their technology and took out responsibility for warranty claims etc from March 2007 .
My Minolta is a top of the range film SLR with all pro accessories and some great 'high end' Tamron zoom lenses .
Sony is advertising that there new range of digital SLR's are compatible with Minolta mount 35mm SLR lenses .
Can anyone confirm that my old lenses work with the new Sony digital SLR's !
Thank's

Sure!


I have a Minolta 35-70, a 28mm and a 16mm fisheye that I bought around the time I owned a Minolta 7000 (<1990). I also have a Sigma 70-210 and 75-300 that work as well.

Back in 1991, I had to trade in my original (1989) Sigma 75-300 when I bought a 8000i body. Sigma and Minolta were going through a court case over the IP of the ROM chips inside the lenses and my zoom refused to work with the 8000i. I just traded it for a new version of the same model and it's worked fine since. So if your Tamron is newer that 1991, you shouldn't have any problems.

I would still recommend taking one or two with you to a camera store to try them out, especially if you are looking at a cropped sensor body (not the A850/A900). The angle of view is reduced a great deal when compared to a film body.


Lately the only trouble I've had is going the other direction. I still like to shoot with film occasionally with my 9000. When I bought my a900, I bought a Zeiss 16-35mm wide angle to go with which is an SSM (ultra-sonic) lens. It works with my KM7D and the Sony but isn't compatible with the 9000's autofocus.



Old 28-70mmf2.8G on the left. CZ1635SAL on the right. Notice the lack of crank and extra contacts on the CZ.