Sony lenses - 70-300?

[FeatherZ]

What lenses can i buy to fit my A200? On a budget really.

[rasputin]

How much of a budget?
I just bought an M42-fitting Optomax 85-205 lens for £3.20 on eBay, and about £4 for the M42 adapter for my Sony A300.

Works fine. This shot at 205 while overcast and rainy:




And this shot inside at 85:


At some point I think I'll upgrade to either a better M42 lens (Carl Zeiss of some description maybe), or a Minolta AF lens (fits straight on Sony Alpha and keeps autofocus).

[richo_i]

FeatherZ said:

What lenses can i buy to fit my A200? On a budget really.

The best thing about the Sony's you have a massive choice of used minolta af lenses that work 100 % if you can push your budget to £150 go get a beer can they rock

[onomatopoeia]

The Minolta 35-70 is nice (and cheap)
The Minolta 70-210 f/4 (aka "beercan") is excellent but prices are rising.
The Sony 70-200 G f/2.8 SSM is fantastic but very expensive.
There's lots and lots of Sigma and Tamron lenses that fit A-mount as well.


Have a look at www.dyxum.com which has a web pages and user comments on just about every A-mount lens ever made, plus a s/h for sale section which usually has things at better prices than ebay.

If you use M42 lenses on an adapter you will have to manual focus (something I can't do very well, I think due to my spectacles).

[rasputin]

onomatopoeia said:

If you use M42 lenses on an adapter you will have to manual focus (something I can't do very well, I think due to my spectacles).

I have the same problem with the stock Sony 17-80mm lens, but the focus ring only turns ~30 degrees from end to end and is very sensitive to touch so easy to knock out of focus.
The M42 Optomax focus ring turns more than 360 degrees and has a very solid/mechanical feel that makes it really easy to use. OK I can't get shots as fast as with AF - but it's the least of my problems right now!

Anyway, at £5 delivered it was a good way for me as a financially challenged newbie to play with a zoom lens .

[The Tea Boy]

rasputin said:

Anyway, at £5 delivered it was a good way for me as a financially challenged newbie to play with a zoom lens .

im with you on this, i have a 300mm fixed zoom and a 110mm carl zeiss lens thats fantastic when you get the hang of it on my A200 thought the M42 adaptor and im really rather looking forward to going to france this weekend and playing with all of my kit in La Rochelle and wherever else we do or dont end up!!

(this is more of a brag that im going on holiday this weekend reply )

Matt

[rasputin]

Starting to get the hang of this manual focus business

[The Tea Boy]

what ISO was that at? looks a bit noisey to me.

Regards
Matt

[rasputin]

ISO 200 at 205mm and IIRC f/3.8.

For a 100% crop I think it looks good. Maybe I'm less demanding

[The Tea Boy]

rasputin said:

ISO 200 at 205mm and IIRC f/3.8.

For a 100% crop I think it looks good. Maybe I'm less demanding

Hah, im just a mere newbie trying to be clever and sucsessfully failing

[Skodaku]

The Tea Boy said:

what ISO was that at? looks a bit noisey to me.

Regards
Matt

'course it looks noisy - it's a Gull. They're all b****y noisy ! Great photograph, though.