Minolta Vectis V - Sony E "MONSTER Adapter" Review

youpii wrote: Thanks for sharing. Is there a V2 planned with AF ?

Not likely !

It took a bit of persuading to get him to have the first batch made , as he is a private individual , rather than a business .

The fist one he made was for his own use and although he managed to get full aperture control and power supplied for manual focus , his attempts at any auto focus were inconsistent to a failure , so he gave up .

When the camera is switched off the lens retracts back to the infinity position , the same as both A-mount lens on an A mount body and the V mount lenses on a Vectis body .

So the communication is there , but just not functional for A/F .

As John was happy with just being able to use the lenses again , even with just manual focus , he gave up trying to get A/F to work as it wasn't worth his time and effort .
Plus there was no guarantee he would succeed .

I don't know if he ever had a second batch made , but everyone I put in contact with him after the initial batch was sold has heard nothing back , and my attempts to contact him since has failed .

So it looks like only the seven made will be the only seven to exist .

One of the after market adapter makers like Techart could most likely make a fully functioning one , but as the demand would likely be so low it would not be worth the time and resources .

The APS range of film cameras by Minolta , Canon , Nikon and Fuji was doomed to fail as it offered nothing over 35mm film , just a smaller frame size .
So not many people would have bought into this system , and with such a small range of lenses , there isn't much of a market to go after .
Only a few people that already have these lenses AND a Sony E mount camera would be interested , and seven of us already have one !

At least Nikon and Canon used a lens mount that was compatible with the existing 35mm SLR cameras so you didn't need to replace all your lenses .

Thanks for sharing.
Is there a V2 planned with AF ?

hokafai wrote: neilt3 wrote: Thank you for the update . And thank you for posting some test shots . It's a few months away before I will be buying an a7ii , so it's good to see some shots with it . Particularly ones from the 22-80mm . The vignetting in this shot has me a bit confused though . The odd shape looked as though it was caused by a baffle on the rear of the lens , but having had a look at one of mine , this can not be the case . I think your adapter is of the second batch made , and Greg's and mine are of the first batch , but looking at your shots , they are still identical . It's a bit of a disappointment , as it doesn't look like the lenses can be modified to remove the cause of the vignetting . I will have to wait and see until I get an E-mount full frame , but they are very distinct , though cropping would still be acceptable . Not sure how that will effect the resulting equivalent focal length . Thank again . Looking at the 2 photos that are taken by using 22-80mm set at 22mm, it is very strange that the lens seems rotate a bit more than the other lens when attaching to the monster adaptor. But despite this vignetting problem, and considering v lenses are originally designed for APS-H format (focal length x 1.27), actually I quite accept the performance of 22-80mm after cropped in photoshop or directly taking photos by using APS-C mode in A7RII. You said you are concerning about the equivalent focal length after cropped. So, once I have time, I will take photos to compare the view angle of V22-80mm. Check whether it is equivalent to 24-100mm in 35mm format after cropped (NOT using APS-C mode in A7RII). It is quite an interesting project. haha.

Thanks , it will be interesting to see what the full frame equivalent focal length will be after the image has been cropped , compared to the field of view a full frame lens gives .

hokafai wrote: Neil, thank you for your help. I already get the adapter from John. But as Hong Kong's weather is not good, I don't have chance to take outdoor photos by using my Vectis V lenses. For reference, all Vectis V lenses on full frame body such as Sony A7R2 will have vignetting clearly visible except V 50mm f3.5 macro. Vignetting on 50mm macro is acceptable for me. Can see the photos I tested indoor here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hokafai/sets/72157663794177342

Thank you for the update .
And thank you for posting some test shots .
It's a few months away before I will be buying an a7ii , so it's good to see some shots with it . Particularly ones from the 22-80mm .
The vignetting in this shot has me a bit confused though .
The odd shape looked as though it was caused by a baffle on the rear of the lens , but having had a look at one of mine , this can not be the case .
I think your adapter is of the second batch made , and Greg's and mine are of the first batch , but looking at your shots , they are still identical .

It's a bit of a disappointment , as it doesn't look like the lenses can be modified to remove the cause of the vignetting .
I will have to wait and see until I get an E-mount full frame , but they are very distinct , though cropping would still be acceptable .
Not sure how that will effect the resulting equivalent focal length .

Thank again .



Edited by neilt3 - 26 January 2016 at 21:18

Most welcome. I hope you enjoy your new adapter and Vectis lenses. I guess we could post our V lens photos in the other mount lenses forum, that could be interesting.

Greg

Thank you Neil and Greg

Faithyeung wrote: Thanks Greg, My stupid thought is whether I can turn the manual focus ring by force even without the adapter. Or if I can just remove the gear from the internal motor, then I can the lens manually. Any experience to share?

Non of the Vectis lenses are focussed directly , so turn the focus ring as much as you want and nothing happens without power .

When you turn the focus ring , it turns a cog in a pick up unit .
That then sends an electrical signal to the motor that drives the focussing .

It's all focus by wire , the same as Sony E mount lenses .
Without manual focus being switched on , nothing happens .

Is the camera you want to use the 400mm reflex on apsc or full frame ?
Heavy vignetting occurred on full frame with a sharp cut off .
I have modified one of mine so that I think it will avoid that .
However I've yet to try it on a full frame camera .