[BigMackCam]

This might seem an odd thread for PentaxForums, but since it's in the non-Pentax section, I figure "why not?" It might seem doubly odd because Sony's A-mount has quietly died out in recent years, with no new cameras or lenses released for some considerable time, as Sony development and support (along with most customer interest) has shifted entirely to E-mount... but a lot of folks still own and use A-mount DSLR & SLT cameras, a small few perhaps might be shooting the early Minolta DSLRs, and several (I suspect) still have their Minolta AF SLR film cameras.

Alongside my Pentax gear, I actively shoot with an A-mount camera... the somewhat unusual and uncommon Hasselblad HV, based on Sony's SLT-A99. Another of our forum members @ivanvernon shoots some Sony A-mount bodies, and - at the time of posting - has just purchased a Hasselblad HV (we are the only two HV owners I know of ). Both of us own numerous Minolta AF / Sony A-mount lenses, and our swapping of information was at risk of polluting the "Your latest acquisition" thread, so I thought I'd start a dedicated thread for anyone shooting this interesting but sadly obsolete platform to share information on cameras, lenses, accessories and more.

If you own (or have owned) any relevant Minolta AF, Sony A-mount or compatible equipment (not E-mount - just Minolta AF / Sony A-mount), do please let us know what you have or had; liked, disliked, and why; and share any interesting information and experiences

[I'll post my own A-mount gear list shortly, with some thoughts on specific items to follow in additional future posts]

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Last edited by BigMackCam; 10-29-2021 at 12:36 AM.

[Steve Beswick]

I got into A-mount (really “a mount”, but that looks weird) in early 2012, which was a time when fast, autofocus K mount lenses were absurdly expensive, even on the used market. I got into it largely because I discovered that you could buy a Minolta 50mm 1.7 for ~$35 at the time, which triggered me into looking into the system as a whole. My first body was a Konica Minolta 7d. It was stolen after only a month or two of ownership, but it left an indelible mark on me. It had a knob or button for just about anything you could imagine. There was a locking knob left of the viewfinder for exposure compensation, with 1/2 or 1/3 stops depending on which way you turned it. Around the base of that knob was a lever/ring for flash exposure compensation! I have yet to see another camera anywhere with that feature! I ultimately bought another one earlier this year, just because I missed it. Yes, seriously. Also a side note - the Pentax K10d and K20d take the same battery as the KM 5D and 7D.

I also purchased an a230 earlier this year. It’s not an amazing camera, but I appreciate that Sony tried something different with the design, and I like the sensor in it. It was also cheaper than any a100 or a200 I could find at the time.

Somewhere around late 2013 I also bought an a37, which at the time struck me as having exactly 3 major faults: the hard plastic eyecup, the cheaper screen compared to its predecessor, and the stupid not-a-hot-shoe. Unfortunately only 1 of those was easily fixed. Still, it was a camera that I truly enjoyed using, and these days I kind of regret having sold it, even if I wouldn’t buy it again. The 35mm f/1.8 lens was pretty darn good, even though it felt rather flimsy.

[STARHUNTER94]

First lens I ever touched, ever, was a Minolta 70-210 F4 "beer can", and taking a hummingbird photo with that as a kid hooked me onto photography. I actually just took it apart, cleaned and lubricated it and it works still!

Probably going to sell it off as I don't have anything to use it on really in the digital world but it feels like a good solid unit.

[ismaelg]

I posted this here about 10 years ago:

Anecdote with a Minolta Maxxum 5000 - PentaxForums.com

Hello,

As some of you know, I collect old cameras and I dream of opening my own camera museum someday.
I'm an electrical engineer and for years I was a technical trainer for an electronics company. I was always joking in my courses about "All electronics components are made out of smoke. You just don't let it out. If the smoke goes out you won't be able to get it back in"
Well, today I was curious about a Minolta Maxxum 5000 I got a while ago. This is a first generation autofocus camera so not exactly vintage but quite old by today's standards. The camera seemed to have been in storage for years. Some minor corrosion in the battery contacts. Minor disassembly, cleaned it and put fresh batteries.
So far so good.
Turned it on and it did turn on!
So far so good.
Snapped a picture, it worked!
So far so good
There was a roll inside, who knows since when.
Rewounded it and it works!
So far... so good!

Then.... (drumroll please)...... the dreaded smell of burn electronics and...
You guessed it: heavy smoke coming out of the camera!
I did some disassembly but having no schematics or access to parts, closed it again. So this one will go in the "Show but no go" shelf.

It is not in a shelf. It must be shamefully hiding in a box somewhere.

Thanks,
Ismael

[ivanvernon]

OK, great, thanks for finding an appropriate way of allowing the continuance of thoughts, ideas, experiences, etc., about the A-mount cameras and lenses. I look forward to hearing more about your thoughts about the HV/99 and the Maxxum/Sony A-mount lenses. I will go back over the the old thread and copy my earlier post to this side.

Here is my old post:

"Yes, I was afraid someone would snap it up while I waited for my $1,500 offer to be rejected (which it was). I also figure that, particularly in view of the fact that it is a full kit and a rariety, that it will always be possible to get the money back by selling.

The A-mount lenses already in my cabinet include:


AF Sony 18-55mm SAM f 3.5-5.6. (0.25m/0.82 ft.

Sony 18-70mm f 3.5-5.6 (0.38m/1.3 ft MACRO).

Minolta Maxxum Zoom 35-70mm f 4.0 MACRO (with connotations of common ancestry with the Leica 35-70).

AF Zoom Minolta 35-70mm f 3.5-4.5 (0.5m/1.6 ft).

Minolta Maxxum, 50mm f 1.7 (two copies though not exactly the same lens build).

Sony 55-200mm f 4-5.6 (0.95m/3.2 ft).

Minolta AF Zoom 75-300mm f 4.5-5.6 (1.5m/4.9 ft MACRO).

Tamron SP AF 90mm f 2.5, which seems to be highly regarded.

I would be interested in your thoughts about the lenses you have used with the HV, particularly the ones you may have found to be particularly good or bad, and any thoughts about which Maxxums and Sonys are worth acquiring."
---End Quote---

[UncleVanya]

I own the Tamron sp 70-300 USD an LA-EA3 and an A7riii does that count?

[ivanvernon]

I own the Tamron sp 70-300 USD an LA-EA3 and an A7riii does that count?

It is all about A-mount Sony cameras, as well as the Hasselblad HV, which is based upon the Sony alpha 99. I am thinking the A7Riii is an E-mount camera, but still anyone interested in the A-mount Sony cameras, even if they do not own/use one, would enjoy the thread.

[jimr-pdx]

I served my time with an A200..back in the joyous days of Picasa. Let me know if this link fails!

Album Archive - AlphaLenses

MinoltaGlass

[BigMackCam]

Great to see some responses in the thread already! I had a hunch there must be a few members with past or present experience in this system / mount

I got into A-mount almost by accident...

Ever since I was a kid growing up in the '70s and '80s, I was aware of Hasselblad as the "moon camera" (a silver 500EL was used to photograph the moon's surface and subsequently discarded there, a couple of months after my birth in 1969 ). Many years later, as I developed an interest in photography, it was the brand I aspired to own. Plenty of folks have a dream camera - Leica, Rollei, Zeiss etc. Mine was always Hasselblad. As I progressed beyond point-and-shoot compacts into the world of DSLRs, after a brief dalliance with Nikon I bought my first Pentax and have stayed with the brand ever since... but I never stopped dreaming of owning a Hasselblad some day.

In early 2016 I was browsing B&H Photo Video's website and started looking at Hasselblad gear, with no intention to buy - I was merely "fantasy window-shopping" - and came across the Hasselblad HV. B&H were offering it at a massively-reduced price. I'd never heard of this particular model, so did a little research.

I discovered it was the result of a joint venture with Sony... Hasselblad had taken various Sony models - the RX100, NEX-7 and Sony SLT-A99 - and essentially "re-clothed" them in premium body materials to produce a limited number of more-robust, exclusive and, theoretically, desirable cameras that would attract well-heeled, brand-conscious buyers (the footballer David Beckham owned a Hasselblad Lunar, based on the NEX-7 - which I guess betrays the market Hasselblad was aiming at ). The HV was based on Sony's SLT-A99 24MP full-frame "pellicle mirror" camera from 2012, and - paired with the Sony Zeiss 24-70 f/2.8 SSM lens, various accessories, a custom flight case and Lightroom 5 software - it launched in 2014 at an eye-watering price of USD $11,500. Online and print media, as well as savvy photographers, were highly critical of Hasselblad's strategy in selling what were (functionally, at least) re-branded Sony cameras, already several years old, at hugely-inflated prices. The entire exercise was a commercial failure, not to say something of an embarrassment, for Hasselblad.

So, the HV had rather ignominious beginnings. The Sony SLT-A99 was, however, an excellent camera that had received rave reviews and garnered a dedicated following since launch among serious photographers and videographers; so I knew that the HV, despite its critics, would be an equally excellent camera. B&H was offering a very limited number of brand new, complete HV kits at a fraction of the initial launch price, and - after much deliberation - I bought one. I finally had my dream Hasselblad... and, as a bi-product of that, made my entry into Sony A-mount

In the five years since buying it, I've used the camera quite infrequently compared to my APS-C K-mount gear (I'm still a Pentax guy at heart )... but, when I need full-frame, want to use a specific A-mount lens, or simply want to enjoy a different shooting experience, I pick up the HV. By now, I think I can make some qualified observations that are equally relevant to the Sony SLT-A99 (and, in some respects, other Sony SLT cameras)...

• Although the HV is relatively compact for a full frame model, it's still noticeably larger than a modern APS-C body - and with a fast, full-frame, high-quality zoom lens such as the Sony Zeiss 24-70mm f/2.8 SSM, I find it heavy and cumbersome to carry around for an entire day's shooting. As a result, I prefer to use it for no more than a few hours at a time, over shorter distances on foot.
  
• Raw image quality from Sony's 24MP sensor is generally excellent in most situations, but the resulting .ARW files suffer from a lossy compression algorithm that results in noise and loss of detail in heavily-recovered shadows, and artefacts in high-contrast edges (online examples show the impact on star-trails, but I've personally seen it in less-specialist situations too - black numerals on a white clock face, for example). On a more positive note, because of this compression, raw files are typically much smaller than those from cameras that don't use lossy compression, so many more images can be stored on each SD card.
  
• JPEG image quality is excellent, with a nice balance between detail and noise-reduction, wonderfully-rich colours from the camera's built in profiles, and consistent colours through most of the ISO range.
  
• High ISO performance is good, but doesn't quite match DSLRs of the same era (even those using the same sensor) due to the loss of light from the SLT pellicle mirror.
  
• Auto-focus is fast (in good light), accurate and precise without any need for AF fine tuning (though that feature is provided), due to the permanently active phase-detect auto-focus. Unlike some folks, I've never been unhappy with Pentax AF - but the HV / A99 is a revelation by comparison.
  
• The menu system of the HV / A99 is extensive but poorly-designed and less intuitive (in my opinion) than Pentax. Whenever I take a break from shooting the HV, upon my return I find it takes a while to re-familiarise myself with the location of various options and the effects of certain settings. The number of settings, range of options and menu organisation can be frustrating at times.
  
• There are plenty of physical controls - buttons, wheels, joystick - and several can be customised to perform a wide range of functions (though not all that I would like) normally accessed from the menus. This customisation is extremely useful, but it can be time-consuming and something of a challenge to configure them optimally for a variety of use-cases. Serious thought and a good deal of experimentation is required.
  
• The electronic viewfinder is excellent for its time and offers numerous advantages over optical viewfinders such as information overlays, focus peaking, magnified view and WYSIWYG rendering (of a sort)... but it suffers from some key disadvantages too. Specifically, it can be laggy depending on lighting conditions, and freezes the frame when the shutter is pressed, which makes it a poor choice when tracking fast-moving subjects.
  
• The articulating screen works very well and is more versatile than, for example, the Pentax K-1's implementation - but it's flimsy by comparison, and IMHO a potential weak-spot on an otherwise-robust camera (I certainly wouldn't pick the camera up by its articulating screen!). I've also noticed that on many used Sony SLT (and even E-mount) Alpha cameras, the LCD screens show visible wear - discolouration and almost a sort of delamination effect. As such, a good screen protector is recommended (I fitted one to my HV the day I received it, and it has completely prevented any wear or degradation).
  
• Battery life is quite decent for the era and type of camera, with around 500 shots from a fully-charged OEM battery - however, the batteries appear to have some circuitry in them that draws current even when removed from the camera. As such, a battery sat on the shelf for a number weeks will lose much of its charge.
  
• Outside of Adobe products, support for the HV's raw files is spotty at best (this does not apply to the Sony A99). Due to the manufacturer and model-specific EXIF tags, the files aren't recognised by a number of raw converters. The solution is to use AdobeDNGConverter utility to convert the .ARW files to .DNG first, then - where possible - apply the Sony A99 profile when opening the DNG files for processing. Surprisingly, Hasselblad's own Phocus software is completely incompatible with the HV's .ARW files. Equally surprising is that Sony's Image Data Converter software - bundled with the A99 and other SLT cameras - handles the HV's .ARW files without complaint (no need to use AdobeDNGConverter here!). Image Data Converter is no longer available from Sony, but can be downloaded from a number of online software archives.

Overall, I'm a big fan of the Hasselblad HV. It's a beautifully-built camera that - like its close cousin, the Sony SLT-A99 - is capable of superb image quality in most, if not all, situations. It's not always the easiest camera to configure and use, but it's enjoyable to shoot and produces mostly great results. It has scratched my Hasselblad itch, whilst fulfilling my occasional desire for a full-frame sensor and the field-of-view / depth-of-field advantages therein.

I think that's probably more than enough for this already-too-lengthy post In my next one, I'll list the Minolta AF / Sony A-mount lenses I've acquired and my subjective opinions of them...

[BigMackCam]

I own the Tamron sp 70-300 USD an LA-EA3 and an A7riii does that count?

It is all about A-mount Sony cameras, as well as the Hasselblad HV, which is based upon the Sony alpha 99. I am thinking the A7Riii is an E-mount camera, but still anyone interested in the A-mount Sony cameras, even if they do not own/use one, would enjoy the thread.

The Tamron SP 70-300 USD lens would definitely qualify for the thread

As I think you may already know, Brad, I also own a Sony A7 MkII E-mount camera plus LA-EA4 A-to-E-mount AF adapter, and sometimes use my A-mount lenses on this combo. Whilst E-mount devices and adapters aren't covered in this thread, Minolta AF / Sony A-mount lenses are... so your thoughts on any you might use with your LA-EA3 adapter would definitely be of interest

[For other members who may not be familiar with Sony's LA-EA series of A-to-E-mount adapters, they allow the use of Minolta AF and Sony A-mount lenses on E-mount A7 and A9 series cameras. The LA-EA3 is a "straight through" adapter that supports the camera's own contrast detection and on-sensor PDAF auto-focus systems, while the LA-EA4 uses a pellicle mirror arrangement and provides a dedicated PDAF focusing system equivalent to that in the Sony SLT-A99...]

[edom31]

OK, so it is not an HV or an A99... but I got into A-mounts at the onset of the pandemic when I acquired a Maxxum 5. I love that camera.

The maxxum 5 drove me to acquire a digital A-mount... so I picked up a STL A35. After, I also picked up a second film Maxxum body... I forgot the model number, and I think I have not developed the test roll yet.


I love the A35. I feels and works similar to my K-50 (which I love).

Now the most important part - the lenses... The MAFs for short.

The must acquire:
Minolta AF 50/2.8 Macro - I have 2 copies already

Minolta AF 100/2.8 Macro
The f4 Beer can

Nice and cheap:
Minolta AF 50/1.7
The mini Beer can

Collection of the MAFs taken with the A35 - Sony A35 | Flickr

[ivanvernon]

OK, so it is not an HV or an A99... but I got into A-mounts at the onset of the pandemic when I acquired a Maxxum 5. I love that camera.

The maxxum 5 drove me to acquire a digital A-mount... so I picked up a STL A35. After, I also picked up a second film Maxxum body... I forgot the model number, and I think I have not developed the test roll yet.


I love the A35. I feels and works similar to my K-50 (which I love).

Now the most important part - the lenses... The MAFs for short.

The must acquire:
Minolta AF 50/2.8 Macro - I have 2 copies already

Minolta AF 100/2.8 Macro
The f4 Beer can

Nice and cheap:
Minolta AF 50/1.7
The mini Beer can

Collection of the MAFs taken with the A35 - Sony A35 | Flickr

Sounds like good suggestions. I have the 50/1.7 and a number of other Maxxum and Sony zooms. I almost always shoot primes with Pentax, but it appears that Minolta/Sony rely much more upon zoom lenses. My favorite zoom, however, is the Leica 35-70mm f 4.0 macro, purely love that lens!

Wondering about flash for the Hasselblad HV (aka Sony A 99) with its nonstandard hot shoe. I have seen the HVL - F43M recommended or several different Metz units with hot shoe adapter.

[Gary H Perth]

I am still in the early days of my enthusiasm with A mount lenses. I wanted a tele zoom for my A7ii, and anything FE-mount was quite expensive. I picked up a Sony SAL 70-300mm with the EA4 adapter for a much lower price total, and that zoom is impressively sharp. Since then, I found a very cheap Vivitar Series 1 19-35mm, which I am still trying. The one adapter will give me access to hundreds of lenses which are much cheaper in A mount than in E or FE.

I have been considering a locally-available Sigma 12-24mm in A mount - any views anyone?

[edom31]

I am still in the early days of my enthusiasm with A mount lenses. I wanted a tele zoom for my A7ii, and anything FE-mount was quite expensive. I picked up a Sony SAL 70-300mm with the EA4 adapter for a much lower price total, and that zoom is impressively sharp. Since then, I found a very cheap Vivitar Series 1 19-35mm, which I am still trying. The one adapter will give me access to hundreds of lenses which are much cheaper in A mount than in E or FE.

I have been considering a locally-available Sigma 12-24mm in A mount - any views anyone?

I also have that Vivitar 19-35 in A-mount. It is great in film. ok in dslr.

[Gary H Perth]

I also have that Vivitar 19-35 in A-mount. It is great in film. ok in dslr.

I am only interested in the 19mm end of that zoom. I have the Zeiss Sony 24-70mm FE mount as my usual lens on the A7ii. I got the Vivitar for almost nothing, so I thought I would try it. I am sure the Sigma 12-24 will be much better than the Vivitar, on a FF digital sensor, but it's several hundred dollars.