Just got myself a LA-EA2 for my EA50

[James Manford]

Now I want some good Alpha glass that are reasonably priced, doesn't have to be Sony can be tamron, sigma etc - any where upto £500 that give very good quality. OR just a SINGLE walk about lens up to a £1000.

Recommend me some please from personal experience, or really good reviews!

[James Manford]

Friends coming round with his CZ Sonar 24-70mm can't wait to test it! Costs over a £1000 though so that is out of the question at this time.

[Neil Chamberlain]

Just wanted to say I'm such a fan of the LA-EA2 and the LA-EA1. I'm using loads of Minolta glass on the EA50. You've got the adventure playground of all those excellent old Minolta lenses on eBay - and they're so cheap.

Here are some unexpected highlights - try the old 35-70mm f4 baby beercan. The colours are wonderful. The venerable 28-135mm f4/4.5 is very sweet and sharp - my number one choice as an interview lens - and you can achieve some very smooth hand held zooms as the handling is so good (all metal construction). The 24-85 delivers some very nice results. Oh and there's the now cheap 50mm f3.5 macro - absolutely distortion free, no light fall off and soooo sharp.

The Konica Minolta 28-75mm f2.8 is a nice surprise too.

Just completed an interview with the G-series 70-200 f2.8 - glorious. And I can confirm that the CZ24-70 2.8 is stunning - but the Sigma 24-70 EX DG MACRO (non-HSM) gives it a run for its money in video land.

The great thing is all these lovely lenses were designed for full frame and with our 'Super 35'-sized sensor on the EA50 we're in the heart of the sweet spot for sharpness and minimal light fall off.

Perhaps this should be another thread on old Minolta glass - but the lenses work so sweetly with the Sony adapters - no aperture connection worries etc.

But I must go on - the 17-35mm f2.8-4 is a real eye opener - I think as I might have said elsewhere on this forum it has absolutely no distortion between 20-30mm (30-45mm in conventional terms).

And moving into the primes the old Minolta 50mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.4 are beautiful for video (hair thin DoF of course). And the getting rarer 28mm f2 and very rare 35mm f2 are tremendous.

Oh - and try and find a 100mm f2 if you can (not to be confused with the 100mm 2.8 macro) - nine blade aperture and heavenly blurry backgrounds.

The old Minolta glass really does deliver a very pleasing look.

The LA-EA2 suddenly puts all that intelligence from the Alpha series SLT a-mount cameras into the EA50 - brilliantly responsive AF when you need it.

But the LA-EA1 still has it's place. There's something very 'quality assured' when you know with the LA-EA1 that there's just a little bit of air between the back element of this lovely glass and your sensor.

I hope it's been mentioned elsewhere on this forum but I find Sony alpha DSLR, SLT and NEX lens and camera reviews indispensable when looking for old glass.

Some of these old zooms are so good that, for video, it's like having a set of primes stuck on the front of your EA50 (and FS100/700 for that matter). And don't ignore some of the Sigmas. We have a 20mm f1.8 (Alpha mount) which, although is a bit 'barrelly', is quite remarkable. We have a retail client who is always changing pricing and offers in their stores but doesn't want the videos to date too quickly. But they want to get the presenter in front of an impressive view of the store. And the 20mm 1.8 just gives that wide angle coverage with a bit more blur to keep the impressive background but lose the detail behind a sharp presenter.

In fact I think I'll start a new thread...

Regs, Neil

[Robert Moran]

I use ancient Nikkors and angineaux lenses on the 50. Absolutely terrific without a doubt.

[Nino Defra]

Originally Posted by Neil Chamberlain

Just wanted to say I'm such a fan of the LA-EA2 and the LA-EA1. I'm using loads of Minolta glass on the EA50. You've got the adventure playground of all those excellent old Minolta lenses on eBay - and they're so cheap.

Here are some unexpected highlights - try the old 35-70mm f4 baby beercan. The colours are wonderful. The venerable 28-135mm f4/4.5 is very sweet and sharp - my number one choice as an interview lens - and you can achieve some very smooth hand held zooms as the handling is so good (all metal construction). The 24-85 delivers some very nice results. Oh and there's the now cheap 50mm f3.5 macro - absolutely distortion free, no light fall off and soooo sharp.

The Konica Minolta 28-75mm f2.8 is a nice surprise too.

Just completed an interview with the G-series 70-200 f2.8 - glorious. And I can confirm that the CZ24-70 2.8 is stunning - but the Sigma 24-70 EX DG MACRO (non-HSM) gives it a run for its money in video land.

The great thing is all these lovely lenses were designed for full frame and with our 'Super 35'-sized sensor on the EA50 we're in the heart of the sweet spot for sharpness and minimal light fall off.

Perhaps this should be another thread on old Minolta glass - but the lenses work so sweetly with the Sony adapters - no aperture connection worries etc.

But I must go on - the 17-35mm f2.8-4 is a real eye opener - I think as I might have said elsewhere on this forum it has absolutely no distortion between 20-30mm (30-45mm in conventional terms).

And moving into the primes the old Minolta 50mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.4 are beautiful for video (hair thin DoF of course). And the getting rarer 28mm f2 and very rare 35mm f2 are tremendous.

Oh - and try and find a 100mm f2 if you can (not to be confused with the 100mm 2.8 macro) - nine blade aperture and heavenly blurry backgrounds.

The old Minolta glass really does deliver a very pleasing look.

The LA-EA2 suddenly puts all that intelligence from the Alpha series SLT a-mount cameras into the EA50 - brilliantly responsive AF when you need it.

But the LA-EA1 still has it's place. There's something very 'quality assured' when you know with the LA-EA1 that there's just a little bit of air between the back element of this lovely glass and your sensor.

I hope it's been mentioned elsewhere on this forum but I find Sony alpha DSLR, SLT and NEX lens and camera reviews indispensable when looking for old glass.

Some of these old zooms are so good that, for video, it's like having a set of primes stuck on the front of your EA50 (and FS100/700 for that matter). And don't ignore some of the Sigmas. We have a 20mm f1.8 (Alpha mount) which, although is a bit 'barrelly', is quite remarkable. We have a retail client who is always changing pricing and offers in their stores but doesn't want the videos to date too quickly. But they want to get the presenter in front of an impressive view of the store. And the 20mm 1.8 just gives that wide angle coverage with a bit more blur to keep the impressive background but lose the detail behind a sharp presenter.

In fact I think I'll start a new thread...

Regs, Neil

hi, tell me how it works with EA50? iris fluid? autofocus? SteadyShot is activated?
thanks