Beginner Sony digital body with Minolta lenses

[ricepud]

Hi, I wonder if any can advise me?

I used to have a Minolta film camera. I was told that as Sony had bought Minolta I could use my 3 Minolta lenses on a Sony digital body. I bought the Sony body and the lenses do fit
but I sometimes feel that I have framed a shot correctly but they come out too cropped. Might that be because of the odd mix of lenses and body?

I'd appreciate any other views of this mix. I sometimes wonder if I should sell the lot and start again. It just slightly worries me that I have an "odd combination" and someone once
tried to explain to me that I was losing, something, possibly focal length, ?? with this set up on some of the lenses.

Its a Sony ax 350 DSLR body and the lenses are Minolta AF Zoom 75-300mm, Af 28-80mm and fixed AF 50 mm

Many thanks for any help or advice!

 

[pete.rush]

The sony will work with the Minolta lenses. You do realise that you have a cropped sensor, so your 28-80mm lens will frame like a 42-120mm lens, your 75-300mm will frame like a 112-450mm lens and you 50mm will frame like 75mm lens due to the size of your sensor on the A350. The links below will give you lots of information on your camera, lenses and understanding about cropped sensor.

http://www.dyxum.com/lenses/

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-sensors.htm

 

[JonnyH89]

Can someone correct me if I'm wrong but in response to "sometimes feel that I have framed a shot correctly but they come out too cropped"

Would that be because the optical view finder is seeing a larger field of view than the sensor due to the full frame lenses? So if live view was used, this would disappear as you then see what the sensor sees?

 

[ricepud]

The sony will work with the Minolta lenses. You do realise that you have a cropped sensor, so your 28-80mm lens will frame like a 42-120mm lens, your 75-300mm will frame like a 112-450mm lens and you 50mm will frame like 75mm lens due to the size of your sensor on the A350. The links below will give you lots of information on your camera, lenses and understanding about cropped sensor.

http://www.dyxum.com/lenses/

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-sensors.htm

Thank you very much for this. I cant honestly say that I fully understand either your answer or the information on the links. I think you are agreeing that my cropping problems are due to the mix of lenses? When you say I have a cropped sensor - is that something that is permanently on the camera, or a situation that occurs when using my Minolta lenses with the Sony body. Would it be cured if I was to replace the Minolta lenses with Sony lenses? Are these adjusted frame sizes all bad? The photos come out OK on the whole but I try to make sure I am well inside the view through my viewfinder. If you were me, would you stick with it and just adjust my viewfinding, or would I be better with a new start?

 

[pete.rush]

Your camera has a small sensor. Better explains below in the link. So it won't matter whether you bought sigma, sony or kept your Minolta lenses, the same lens would behave the same on your camera body

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/digital-camera-sensor-size.htm

So in other words, you lose a bit of your wide angle capabilities on your 28-80mm lens (42-120mm) but gain on your 75-300mm (112-450mm) lens at the longer end.

 

[ricepud]

Thank you again. This is beginning to make sense to me and the article you referred me to is very good, though I probably need to read it through a few times as it gets complicated towards the end!
I see that a cropped sensor is not always a bad thing but I am not perhaps getting the most from my most-used lens. The 28-80. I will continue with this set up for now I think, but it is certainly good to understand what is going on with it.

 

[ricepud]

Can someone correct me if I'm wrong but in response to "sometimes feel that I have framed a shot correctly but they come out too cropped"

Would that be because the optical view finder is seeing a larger field of view than the sensor due to the full frame lenses? So if live view was used, this would disappear as you then see what the sensor sees?

Thanks for replying. I have just tried to compare the live view with the optical viewfinder and cant see much difference, but I hate using the live view so even if it is more accurate it would not affect how I use the camera. The battery went flat just as I was experimenting so I will have to try again tomorrow!

 

[JonnyH89]

Thanks for replying. I have just tried to compare the live view with the optical viewfinder and cant see much difference, but I hate using the live view so even if it is more accurate it would not affect how I use the camera. The battery went flat just as I was experimenting so I will have to try again tomorrow!

I'm pretty new to all this too and your question got me thinking. Mainly I thought you were getting a largely different crop in your final image compared to what you had framed in the viewfinder, which i'd imagine would be a nightmare. So I thought that might have been to do with how the viewfinder works and a result of the full frame lens.