7D + Minolta adapter

H

HutchB

New member
I have a full set of Minolta MD lenses and just ordered a 7D (it's in the mail). I've spent all night on the web researching the Minolta to Canon adapters. There are two, one with cheap glass and the other without glass.

Now the adapters w/ glass claim full operation of the lens. I've also read tons of reviews that the cheap glass kills the whole point of using the lens in the first place. Softens the picture, etc...

With the NO glass adapter it claims MACRO ONLY. Is that true? You can only use it for Macro shots? What would be the point of the adapter at all?

Putting all that aside I spent another hour or so on Vimeo & Youtube watching videos in HD shot with Minolta MD on 7D. I thought the quality on the majority of them were excellent. Plenty of long and mid range focus shots. Nothing looked soft as if cheap glass were involved. Great color, sharp.

Is there a third mysterious adapter out there for Minolta that performs like the M42 and Nikon adapters? Are all the individual "warnings" about glass vs. no glass adapters just exaggerations?

What should I go with. I shoot only video by the way, NO stills. Thanks plenty!!!!
 
If you like the look of the Minolta to EOS videos then I say go for it. The video resolution of ALL these DSLRs are not hampered by these different adapters because the DSLRs can't resolve but so much detail in video mode. It's only for stills picture taking (which is much sharper than video) where you will see the negative effect. SO, I wouldn't worry about it at all.
 
Are you suggesting I go with the GLASS adapters or the NO GLASS? That's really my main dilemma. Thanks!
 
without glass you can not get infinity focus, unfortunately.
so if you do decide to try and work with the Minolta lenses, you will need to invest in a fairly nice glass adapter.
 
The problem is that there's no comparative reviews or even much first hand postings about the relative quality of these (minolta, canon fd) glass adapters. I doubt the ebay adapters are made by people with real optical know-how, not like optitek, abacus or schneider or century, etc. The glass in them are only single element weak magnifiers.

I have a large minolta collection as well, but I am using my Nikons with Rebel T2i. That's not your option, but I would personally forget about using Minolta MD glass on Canons unless someone comes up with a better solution than this guy:

http://digitalrokkor.altervista.org/minoltalens.html
 
dadoboy: It drives me crazy that there aren't any in-depth reviews because I look at some hd vimeo clips that claim to have been shot with Minoltas and they look amazing. But they seem to be unable to answer my requests for further info on their adapters. Are they lying about glass? I don't know.

I actually have a whole set of Nikons and Vivitars ready to go as well, so I'm safe. It's just that back when I shot stills I really enjoyed using certain Minoltas. I really hope I get to use them with the 7D one day.
 
HutchB: Long story short, it's not a good idea.

It's not just a matter of losing infinity focus. All of the focus marks will be off. And shorter lenses become macro lenses. The shorter the lens, the less focus range you will have. This is what happens when you try to adapt any lens with a flange focal distance shorter than the target mount, using a glassless adapter. For instance, I tried to adapt a Canon FD 35mm f/2.0 to the 5D Mark II. I could only focus some inches in front of the lens, with a total focus range of a few inches. Telephoto lenses are much more usable.

An adapter with glass will turn your image very soft and low-contrast at wider apertures. Generally, apertures of f/4.0 or f/5.6 or narrower, depending on the adapter, would be fine. Here's an example: http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/canon_fd_eos_adapters.html

Here's another example: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=188317

Please note that glass can only degrade light. But a diopter (the glass in the adapter) is different from a filter. A diopter is a lens, and as such it bends light instead of passing it. Low quality optics are likely to introduce aberrations.
 
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