Todays blogpost is about my vintage lens the Minolta 50mm MC Macro Rokkor QF which i got second hand in a photostore for only 70€.
This fullframe macro lens was built from 1967-1981, it has 6 aperture blades and has a min. focus distance of 230mm and weighs about 330 gramms. The Weight is quite ok on the Sony A7II, not too heavy, the weight comes from its builtquality, it´s built like a tank in all metal. To use it on an a7 camera you need an adapter, i´m using a cheap 12€ manual, all metal Minolta MD/MC (see link down in the linklist) to Sony Emount adapter without aperture ring, the lens has allready an aperture ring on.
The focus ring is very smooth and precise focusing with it manually with the focus magnifier and fokus peaking works great on the A7II. The lens gets stabilized on the A7II which works also great, but the lens isn´t the fastest with 3.5 so you will often have to bump up the ISO and use a monopod, tripod for best results. Best sharpness is at F8.
Here is how it looks mounted on an A7II:
Now i´m not the “typical kind” of hardcore macro photographer, and i´m only shooting macro from time to time, so don´t expect scientific charts or ultra detaild macro shots.
So lets look at some photos i shot with this old lens (all processed in lightroom):
very creamy bokeh and great sharpness, these minolta lenses deliver one of the best bokehs ever
Cropped in you can get a lot of detail, this would also work great on crop sensor cameras like the sony a6000 or the a77II
crop
crop
I also got an extension tube for this lens, where you can get even closer to your subject and you can also stack these extension tubes:
My conclusion: This vintage old macro lens is another gem, which you can get very cheap for your A7 series camera or Sony crop camera used on ebay, or second hand in a store. It´s great to see how these old Minolta lenses shine on the new mirrorless bodys. Thats the beauty of the Sony mirrorless system. So i can really recommend to give these Minolta lenses a try!
Video Review:
Here are 2 videos i shot with this lens on the A7II:
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