Minolta Dynax lens to Canon EOS 700D?

[Alcor]

This is something of a newbie type question. I have been given an "old" 35mm Dynax 4 camera. From appearances it looks in excellent nearly new condition. I'm wondering if it is possible to adapt its standard lens, a 28-100 f3.5-f5.6 macro zoom, for use on my canon 700d. In maybe answering my own question I've googled around and come across a Fotodiox adapter on Amazon which claims it will adapt Sony Alpha A, Konica, Minolta Maxuum to amongst others the Rebel t3i,4i,5i. From what I can gather the Dynax 4 was known as the Maxuum 4 in America and has an "A mount".
The question therefore is will this adapter work? Perhaps the more appropriate question is, in optical terms - is it worth doing? The Dynax 4 in its time I think was deemed to be pretty a decent camera but is the lens worth using today? Compared to the lenses I have it seems very "compact", going from one format to another will there be any vignetting? I'd be grateful for any advice or comments on this subject matter. Many thanks.

 

[Retune]

Don't even think about it. For not much more that the price of the adapter you can buy a secondhand Canon lens with a similar range. With the adapter, you only have stop-down metering and no AF. And since the flange focal distances of the two mounts are too close to build a simple glassless adapter, it has to include a correction lens to get infinity focus, which can degrade image quality.

 

[Alcor]

Don't even think about it. For not much more that the price of the adapter you can buy a secondhand Canon lens with a similar range. With the adapter, you only have stop-down metering and no AF. And since the flange focal distances of the two mounts are too close to build a simple glassless adapter, it has to include a correction lens to get infinity focus, which can degrade image quality.

Many thanks for the advice. I was thinking that for not a lot of a cash it might, out of curiosity, be fun just to play around with it. However if it presents more problems than its worth then no I accept its not worth spending the money on.

 

[Retune]

I think a lot of people do have fun mixing and matching system like this, but for me the lens would have to be something especially interesting (or expensive) to be worth the bother. Lenses from some other systems can be more easily adapted to Canon EOS without the need for a correction lens in the adapter, like M42, Pentax K or Nikon F. These have longer flange focal distances than Canon EOS (EF mount) and the difference is big enough to make it practical to construct a simple adapter (which can't be thicker than the size of the difference without throwing off infinity focus):

Flange focal distance - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

But you'll still lose AF and open aperture metering.

Of course, you now have a perfectly good film camera that it might be fun to shoot with!

 

[ancient_mariner]

TBH I wouldn't bother with that lens - it was from Minolta's consumer range, and not good. Not trying to rain on your parade, but it's a shame to spend as much or more on an adaptor than the lens is worth and then get disappointing results.

 

[Alcor]

Of course, you now have a perfectly good film camera that it might be fun to shoot with!

Yup! Its been such a long time since I used a 35mm camera so it could be interesting. Thanks.