A-Mount and E-mount Lens Index

A-mount and E-mount Lenses



Welcome to the Dyxum Lens Database. This is the index page that integrates all information about lenses that is maintained on dyxum.com. The scope of our database covers any piece of optic that can directly be attached to a A-mount camera.



Before venturing into the database you are advised to read the Lens Glossary which will help you get a general idea by looking at a particular lens's picture, name and even model number. If you would like to contribute to the database by reviewing the lenses you have experience with, you must read and understand the Lens Database Reviewing Guideline to be able share the same common perspective with the other reviewers. Otherwise your review could be misinterpreted and do harm than good.

Dyxum Lens Database A-mount Lenses Fixed Focals | Zooms | Macros | Sample Images | Lens Forum E-mount Lenses Fixed Focals | Zooms | Macros | Sample Images | Lens Forum Common Adapters Others Teleconverter Guide | Teleconverter Samples | Teleconverter Forum | m42 Lens Forum Lens ROM and contact data Information Reviewing Guidelines | Lens Glossary | Report Lens not in DB

Discussion Topics Bokeh (and all about it) Cleaning camera equipment Identifying Fungus | Protection From Fungus Backfocus/Frontfocus Problems Circles of Confusion and Diffraction Minolta-Leica relationship | What is a Beercan lens? | To Beercan or not Min 35-70 f4 "macro hack" | Min 35-105 "macro hack" | Min 28-135 "macro hack" Discussion - "Must-Have" A-mount lenses. Minolta 50mm f1.7 repair guide Blog "Getting more from macro" by wetapunga Best ways to achieve greater than 1:1 Tilt/Shift options with the a-Mount

Choosing Lenses Sony list of KM-made lenses compatible with Sony a-series cameras Quick Guide To Affordable A-Mount Lenses | The Sharpest Lens | Buying a macro On Cropped Sensors: Normal Lenses | Macro Lenses and Magnifiction Lens Poll Results: Wildlife Photography | Street Photography | Landscape Photography | Hyperzooms

Featured Lens Reviews Samyang 24mm f1.4 reviews and comparison Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm F1.4 SAL-85F14CZ Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* DT 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 SAL-1680CZ Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85 F1.4 vs. Minolta 85/1.4 G Sony 135 F2.8 (T4.5) STF SAL-135F28 Cosina 100 F3.5 Macro Peleng 8/3.5 Fisheye Takumar 17mm f4 (1967) Lensbaby 3G review

External Resources Other A-Mount Sites Mhohner's | Pete Ganzel's | Kurt Munger's site Lens Review Sites Photodo | Photozone.de Third Party Lens Makers Sigma | Tamron | Tokina

Compatibility Checklist Lenses that work with all A-Mount DSLRs All Minolta AF, KM and Sony A-mount lenses All Tamron lenses with A-Mount All recent Sigma and Tokina lenses with A-Mount Possible Incompatibility Some old Sigma and Tokina lenses SLT-incompatibility notice from Sigma for their A-mount lenses Click here for a List of Incompatible A-Mount Lenses. Please also check individual lens details in Lens Database if you have doubts. Note: sigma changed an incompatible chip during production without changing lens names or designs. Lens serial numbers must be checked in order to judge compatibility. Occasionally incompatible lenses can be rechipped by Sigma. Tokina offers no solution for incompatible lenses. Lenses that work with adapters m42 Lenses (Pentax Screw Mount): Adapter with no glass elements. MD Lenses (Minolta Manual Focus): Adapter with glass elements. FOV crop between 1.1x and 2x T Mount Lenses (Telescope Mount): Adapter with no glass elements. Tamron Adaptall variants: Adapter with no glass elements. Adapters are very hard to find. Manual focus lenses used through adapters are only supported at M and A exposure modes. Aperture and focus must be manually controlled. Unless your adapter is a special one that can report focal length to the body, AS/SSS may increase shake instead decreasing it, so keep it off. Currently Haoda makes a chipped m42 adapter that reports focal length information and enables focus confirmation. Apart from this, the focus confirmation light in the viewfinder will not work. Adapters with no glass elements do not affect FOV, aperture and image quality. Adapters with glass elements will degrade image quality, and will crop the FOV by a constant multiplier (like a teleconverter). Lenses that do not work Minolta Vectis Lenses Anything else

* Have a suggestion to improve this Page? you can tell it by replying to this topic.



Edited by Micholand - 20 February 2019 at 17:44

I don't think so - their not native A-mount. Furthermore, this was asked before about the M42 lenses and it was decided not to include them.

I, for one, am against including other mount lenses. There are enough resources for these kind of lenses. Take a look at mflenses or the alternative gear forum on Fred Miranda. Hope this helps.

romke,

did you mean adding something like this:

Lenses that work with a reversible Leitax mount change Contax/Zeiss C/Y MM mount, Leica R, Zeiss ZF &ZF.2 and Voigtleander SL_II Manual Focus, Can be done DIY or (at a cost) done by Leitax.

Edited by pegelli - 15 September 2010 at 20:36

Can we get a pointer to the Sigma/SLT issue onto this page?

Seems like the "right" place for that info to be...

EDIT: Doh, need to read. Disregard/delete this post please.

EDIT 2: APO needs to be added to the Glossary.

Edited by R_Ae - 20 July 2011 at 04:06

Hi Krystin,

First - a big welcome to Dyxum; and don't be worried about what seems like a simple question; we were all starters here once (and I started off using this database in my initial foray into the database so you are not alone!).

Right - first thing is that the database is for the A-Mount lenses and no others - these are the Auto focus lenses as developed by Minolta and taken over by Sony for the A-series cameras such as you have. what you have been given is the forerunner to these cameras with the 'old' manual focus MC or MD Minolta or Minolta-Rokkor lenses.

These can be made to work on your camera and this is usually via an adapter. These come in two forms; one is a straight adapter that fits between the body of the camera and your lens than fits on to it. Sometimes (always?) they have a glass element in them so you end up with a slight degradation of quality. the other is to have the mount replaced with a generic 'A' mount; this means you loose the old mount but the lens then goes straight on to your existing body. if it has a chip in it then the camera can 'read' the lens and whilst it will be a manual focus lens you will get a focus confirm light in the viewfinder if the subject is in focus. I would tend to go with this option as it gives the best optical quality ultimately. You can do this yourself though there are plenty of people on here that can help/do it for you.

Quality ultimately comes down to which lenses you have, though all may have some merit. You might want to look at what they are and post their descriptions and get some feedback on worth versus cost; if you have a 50 or 58mm f/1.2 then it's worthless.... but I would happily take it off your hands for you seriously, some may just not be worth it; I had a 135/2.8 converted over here in the UK this year and it's a dream to use and the quality is lovely, so please get some reasoned feedback first.

Will it change your shooting 'style'? well, if they are fixed focal length ('Prime') lenses and you are used to zooms then yes; it almost certainly will, but I found for the better. It makes you look at a scene with a different perspective and think about your image more. performance wise they should be better as well - I could talk about Bokeh and the like but this you will pick up as you use these and see what the results are like.

Does this answer your questions? I hope so and if anyone else spots something I have wrong please correct it!

Once again, welcome aboard and looking forward to seeing some images from you!

Best regards, Neil.

edit - typo!

Hello, Kristyn; wecome to Dyxum!

Kristynlw wrote: After reading some of these posts I have decided I am clearly over my head. :o) Hopefully someone can throw me a raft or at least point me in the correct direction.

Everyone starts somewhere, and nobody starts knowing it all; everyone here, even the most skilled & the most knowledgable, is here (at least in part) so they can learn!

Kristynlw wrote: I have a nice basic Sony A230 and was given and old Minolta SRT MC ii manual focus camera with 4 different lenses. I was told that it may be possible to buy an adaptor. Could you super smart people please, in simple terms, tell me 1. where I could purchase such beast if it exists 2. how I tell if my lenses are compatible with my a230 with an adaptor 3. will this be finacially worth it 4. will I have to do anything different in taking pics once i am using with said adaptor and lens 5. have you rolled your eyes yet at my ignorance :)

1. Your older lenses are... well, let's call them "semi" adaptable. Adapters *DO* exist for Minolta manual-focus lenses to the Alpha-mount; but they (almost) always cut -- at least a bit -- into the image quality of the lenses. And, of course, they remain Manual-Focus lenses; the old MF bodies are notablly superior for focussing with these, because of their bright pentaprism viewfinders and their focus-screens.

One good vendor is James Lao.

(Answer 1.5) - One other option, if you happen to have any really nice lenses, is to get the lensmount replaced: have a technician remove the old lensmount, aned install a new one. This is expensive, but sometimes worth it; of course, then you cannot use these lenses with the old SRT you have. This is a bit of a custom job -- not something the "average repair shop" will do! -- but several of the folks here on Dyxum might be able to do it, or point you to someone who can.

2. The reason a lens isn't "compatible" (or is only "semi" compatible) is when -- as is the case with the old Minolta MF mount vs. the A-mount -- the distance from lensmount to the focal plane (where the sensor (or the film) sits) is too short. When the lens is made for a longer focal distance, the adapter just becomes a tube -- of variying length -- with a lens-mount at each end. But when the lens is made for a mount that needs a shorter distance (and the adapter itself always adds at least a bit of distance!), the adapter needs glass (to shorten the focus); those extra bits of glass are what degrade the image. If such a too-short-focussing lens is used with a glass-free adapter, the lens can no longer focus all the way to infinity; in the case of Minolta-MF to Alpha, the glassless adpaters cannot focus beyond -- I believe -- about 3ish feet away (at best; some may not even focus that far!)

Glass-free tubes like this -- not adapters, just tubes with the same lensmount at each end -- are sometimes used for close-focus work, loosing infinity focus but gaining close-up ability. In this context, they're called "exentsion tubes." Note that glass-less adapters don't degrade image-quality, just ability-to-focus

3. Whether it will be "financially worth it" depends on your lenses (and your willingness to deal with manual focus, etc. -- try using them on the SRT with film, see how you like it). If you'll tell us what each lens says around the front, we can probably help you figure out if any are worth adapting. One other advantage to you -- and again, "worth it" is a relative term -- is that you get a "feel" for different focal lengths without having to buy them. If you discover that you LOVE taking ultra-wide shots (presuming an ultra-wide is one of your old lenses) but don't like "the whole MF thang," then you know you will want to buy an ultrawide for your a230.

4. Well, the lenses are manual lenses -- you'll need to focus yourself, and probably also set your exposure manually. This can be a good thing, however -- quite a few people feel that the only way to learn good photographic skills is to spend some time doing everything manually!

5. No eye-rolling here. As I said above: nobody knows it all, ever. And everyone was a "beginner" at one point or another. My experience is that those most-prone to "eye-rolling syndrome" are those who are most-recently ignorant themselves... ;-)


- Steve S.