Since Sony acquired the Minolta A system there were many dreaming a sort of comeback of some great Minolta lenses for the A (and now also E) mount system. But it sounds like Konica-Minolta doesn’t feel addicted to Sony at all. Recent patents spotted by Egami prove that they will indeed restart to make lenses but they will be made for the Micro Four Thirds system only!
I still hope Konica-Minolta will design some lenses for the E-mount system too. Why not make a [shoplink 20428 ebay]50mm f/1.2 MD Rokkor-X (here one eBay)[/shoplink] as E-mount lens? 🙂
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agreed…I used to own a PEN & a few lenses. They are fine but NEX does prove to be better value (despite all those expensive E-mount lenses). If the price difference between m4/3 & APS-C cameras were more like the difference between APS-C & FF cameras, I would’ve been more attracted to it.
Maybe I don’t know enough history, but would you rather they name them Sony lenses for m4/3?
He is not lamenting the fact that Konica Minolta lenses would re-appear. On the contrary. What he is lamenting is that they would not be made available for the mount (or mounts) that the readers of this site are interested in.
Hope this is a joke – terrible if true!
Reports after the event show that Minolta literally walked out of the picture leaving Sony ‘holding the baby’ after the initial aquisition (both companies were supposed to carry on making Alpha-mount cameras). But now they come back and kick their former business partner for no good reason
I was a loyal Minolta user for nearly 20 years but if this is true then I am disgusted by their behaviour
Sony need to do a deal with Ricoh/Pentax – that would be a dream partnership in terms of technology for Ricoh/pentax DSLRs and NEX mount for Pentax to get into mirrorless – and Sony would get Pentax users migrating to Emount and their lens range enhanced with some tasty Pentax Pancake prime lenses
This is easily the most evil corporate behaviour of all time. What treachery! What ghastly back stabbers they are! There shall be protests; there shall be an uprising. We shall not sit back and let Minolta abuse the noble and benevolent Sony corporation like this!
I’m no Sony fanboy and personally I think Minolta behaved in a treacherous way towards their *customers* – twice!
First time: They abandoned the MC/MD mount and sold it to another company – I bought my first Minolta mount camera, an XG-M in 1984 at which point they were boasting in their product literature about never having changed their mount since launch and the benefits of lens compatibility. One year later they launched the AF mount which deliberately had a longer registration distance than the MD mount so only optical adaptors could be used to mount an MD lens on an Alpha body with a loss of IQ and a magnification factor. There was in fact no technical reason why the MD mount could not have had an AF screw drive added, as Pentax did to their K mount, other than Minolta deliberately forcing their customers to buy all their lenses again
Second time: They entered into a joint development program with Sony, and then ‘did a runner’ when they realised that they had marketed a camera – the KM7D (which I own, and beautiful in other respects) – that had a ‘class action’ level design fault in the form of the infamous FFBF problem and rumours are that Minolta’s replacement model was even less reliable in field testing. Sony were left to pick-up the pieces from that fiasco. All alpha users are lucky that Sony decided to keep the mount going but Minolta’s behaviour by just ‘walking out’ made it very difficult for Sony to get the market share they needed in the early years of their brand and that problem still haunts them
Minolta made cameras which were wonderful to handle and many beautiful lenses (which is why I stuck with them) but their behaviour on flash mounts and deliberate incompatibility of flashes and cameras between generations shows again how little they really cared for their customers
I care little for Sony, but for Minolta to work ‘for the competition’ shows a lack of integrity IMHO
I will always commend Sony for supporting 7D and 5D users. I had both, both failed, and Sony was more than generous with their replacement policy.
I had some problems getting mine sorted (Sony tried to fob-me off with an A100) but eventutally, after a lot of fuss, they fixed my 7D!
Actually Minolta SLR film cameras were lovely to use but never very reliable. Some capacitors on both my X700’s needed changing (it seems they did on nearly all X700’s) and my XG-M was forever stopping working and needing to be cleaned internally. The XD series, and Leica R series bodies which were based on them, are famous for having electrical problems!
Firstly, I was quite relieved when Sony saved us Minolta owners by taking over what had come to be known as Konica Minolta’s (or, absurdly, simply Konica’s) camera division. However, the recent change in hotshoe shows that Sony bought a customer base, nothing else. As soon as their original contract with KM expired, they fucked existing owners royally.
Konica Minolta was under obligation not to make lenses for SLRs (probably any type of still cameras), but they continued all along to make lenses for other applications, including camcorders.
Now that Sony are no longer bound by such a contract, neither are KM, and it’s only good for consumers if old dogs like Konica and Minolta apply their knowledge in optics to make interesting lenses at competitive prices. After all, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina and Samyang/Rokinon are doing it already, and it will mostly be from them, not Sony, that KM will gain market shares.
The change of hotshoe is probably because at every review the damn reviewers have used the iISO as a “con” rather than a “pro” which it have always felt for me. Not that it really matters, I just need one flash to mount to the camera and I can afford a new ISO mount one. the rest can stay on their iISO hotshoe and be triggered wirelessly.
Sony have done nothing but good for the minolta mount. While they haven’t become “number one”, they have at least show they dare to think differently.
My understanding is that the new flash mount and the old flash mount are electrically compatible and that Sony make (and with some models supply free) an adaptor that lets you use your old Minolta/Sony flashes on the new models (including remote communication and metering between multiple flash units)
Correct me if I’m wrong on this…
The non-standard flash mount was a big marketing problem for Minolta (and now Sony) so changing it to a standard mount, but still allowing full use of the older flashes doesn’t seem like f**king over the customer base to me (after all the alpha customer base is too small for Sony to want to annoy them too much). Minolta did much worse when they didn’t allow their older flashes to work properly on their newer bodies, even though the mount was the same!
It’s also possible to use non-iISO units on iISO hotshoes via adapters, but that has always been a huge problem in the eyes of testers and owners of other brands.
Now, all of a sudden, it’s a great benefit. No, it’s not.
It’s clearly not ideal having to use an adaptor (understatement), but at least it is there and it seems that the Minolta and Sony flashes from the previous generation can be used on the newer cameras so don’t have to be tossed
That’s much more than Minolta would ever have given you… as I’m sure you know, they deliberately made older-generation iISO flashes incompatible with their DSLRs!
Well Konica Minolta still exists they just got out of the consumer imaging market (if I understand it correctly). They may be contractually barred from developing for the Alpha mount (and maybe even the E-mount) there are often “non-compete” clauses and the like.
However the m4/3 system is very open and may be far enough removed to not be a legal issue. Personally, the E-mount system is also open and I’d love for them to develop some more lenses for that but I’m not too surprised they aren’t. Still another lens maker back in the game is a good thing.
Konica Minolta doesn’t have a camera division any longer. They gave it all to Sony in 2006. If they’re going to develop lenses, they’ll be for specialized industrial uses, not cameras.
Not true. They make several lens models for JVC camcorders – and probably for others as well.
http://www.jvc.co.uk/images/800×600/gz-ex3x5b-op.jpg
They handed over the manufacturing and “Partial Transfer of Assets Related to Digital SLR Cameras”, I don’t think they gave Sony everything, as they still make optics for copiers and medical instruments among other things.
They already make camera lenses and lens assemblies for compacts etc.
http://www.konicaminolta.com/opt/products/index.html
The camera division doesn’t exist anymore, but the optical division is alive and well. Nothing stops them from making lenses for non-Sony lens mounts.
Minolta is still around!!?? What have they been doing all these years?
Business equipment, medical equipment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konica_Minolta
I think KM will made some lens for A/E mound also , but will not name as KM but SONY instead…..
Just my POV…..
I thought the whole Minolta photographic division and personnel were sold to Sony? So this would be a new team, or people from the original Konica imaging team. Perhaps there will be Hexars for µ43?
If Sony only purchased the brand rights, Joel Richards’s explanation above makes sense. It will be up to Sony to republish the Rokkors.
Sony acquired the camera division, or a large part of it, but obviously not the optical division.
http://www.konicaminolta.com/opt/products/index.html
I thought Sony bought all of Minolta engineers when they took over.
PLEASE YES PLEASE – By any mean necessary – Adapters Please
We need to protect our investment in our glass
We have been praying for this a LONG TIME
We would love to see as many adapters as possible to move our
Minolta Konica Glass over to other Camera Bodies,
especially ANY alternatives to the SONY bodies.
What is going to Kill SONY is they are forcing users to use
the World worst Flash Light options
If the SONY HVL-F60M flagship and new shoe is best Sony can do
Sony is Doomed – Pro will not put up with it. It’s worth about $65usd
Weird
At best…
Another animalsbybarry, but this one with the flash.
Pro here and pro there… we… (who’s he: the Pope?): how come he speaks for everybody?
Broken records.
Multiple personalities…
If they’re going to make a F1.2 rokkor, remake the 58mm F1.2 Now that’s a special lens, especially on FF!!! The bokeh on the 50mm just doesn’t compare to the 58mm and the good copies of the 58mm are very sharp and contrasty!
I have exactly that lens still from the days of the Vietnam War. In fact, I purchased it in South Vietnam at a military base PX. In those days only $126.00 USD (still remember the price) for the SRT-101 body with 58mm but f1.4. Excellent lens and one I will not sell. I plan to use it with upcoming mirrorless Sony Alpha full frame cameras and already use it with the Sony NEX-6 via adapter. 🙂
This is the same lens as mine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heritagefutures/5819963973/in/pool-camerawiki
Oops, not quite! Just realized mine is sans the ‘Auto’ (xJx)
BTW, it is an MC-ROKKOR-PF lens used in conjunction with an MD -> NEX mount adapter. Not sure what the ‘PF’ nomenclature designates, nor the difference between MC and MD on the mount. But it works. (^J^)
The difference between MC and MD lenses is that the MD lenses have an extra tab on the aperture ring for the cameras that support S and P modes. Technically the mount is called SR mount and MC and MD are variants.. No different than Nikkor’s are F mount but have variants like AI, AIS etc… For adapting the Rokkor’s to a digital, the additional MD tab means nothing, as it only applies to old manual focus bodies.
The 58/1.2 was MC Rokkor PG
PG being the number of elements and groups.
More information on this:
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Rokkor_Lens_Code
All interesting and very valuable information. Thanks much to all contributors and commentators. So essentially then, MC?MD really is no difference from the stanpoint of attaching to NEX in manual mode. I’ve been using it without any problem thus far.
That is one lens I will not give up, especially after paying some decent money to have it refurbished and professionally cleaned about a year ago. Use it on current NEX system as well as upcoming near future NEX/Alpha systems. Being a full frame lens to start with I am covered for standard focal length when the full frame NEX and mirrorless Alphas begin to show face.
I wish I had a wider and brighter lens from the past for low light, party, pub, etc., shooting environments. But, not. For now, I will make do with Sony’s 16mm f2.8 kit lens and the 0.75x magnification adapter. That combo essentially gives me 12mm / 16mm at f2.8. The 10-18mm zoom would be convenient to have but the price and f4.0 hold me back on that lens.
The 50mm and 58mm are both excellent but with slightly different character.
The 58mm does have the slightly better bokeh and gives dreamy images, but it does this with slightly less sharpness – in fact it does this because even the shapr bits of the images have slight halos a bit like the Orton effect.
The 50mm gives almost as nice bokeh, but with sharper details, but is a more conventional lens without quite the same dreamy look.
In my opinion, neither are better than the other – you choose the lens according to the drawing style you prefer and I’m enjoying both on the NEX with one of the turbo adaptors that lets them behave like fullframe lenses again 🙂
On APS-C 58mm 1.2 should be a nice portrait lens (87mm equiv)
Exactly! I currently use it on the NEX6 except I have the f1.4 rather then f1.2.
What’s this turbo adaptor to which you make reference? And, I thought those lenses were already full frame in the first place?
The lenses are fullframe so they produce an image that would have been big enough for an old 35mm slide/negative. But normally with an APS-C sized sensor it only captures about half of the area in the middle, so essentially crops the image and gives the impression of increasing the focal length by 1.5 and the 58mm becomes 87mm. (but the edges are discarded, so in crude terms you also lose about half of the light)
The new turbo adaptors work like a wideconverter, they focus the original fullframe image area down onto the APS-C sensor instead of cropping it, you gain back the light lost and the image is back to covering the area that a 58mm lens would have done on a fullframe or film camera.
(but the adaptor uses lenses so there’s a drop in image quality in the process)
My adaptor is one of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mitakon-Lens-Turbo-Focal-Reducer-for-Sony-NEX-Speed-Booster-Minolta-MD-MC-SR-NEX-/161056024776?pt=US_Lens_Adapters_Mounts_Tubes&hash=item257fafe8c8
Wow! Thanks for the thorough explanation. Are you basically happy with the results / performance of using this adapter? Can I use this then in lieu of a plain vanilla MC/MD -> NEX lens converter adapter? In other words, it is designed to mount MC/MD lenses to the NEX but with the added advantage of speed booster functionality as well, right? If so, I am buying. 🙂
I think I answered my own question, reading a bit further. 🙂
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/2667195592/first-impressions-metabones-speed-booster
If you’ve got both types of adaptor that gives you the choice of using a lens in either manner.
The adaptors will vary in quality and mine was one of the cheaper ones – it’s certainly not good enough for landscape work as the corners and edges aren’t great.
But when I’m using the lens wide open for portraits I don’t care so much about the edges, so I’m very happy with the results.
(oh and the turbo adaptor is shorter than a standard adaptor, so there’s a slight size benefit too)
The MD mount is now owned by the chinese company Seagull/Centon. Minolta sold it to them some time ago and no longer have the right to make lenses in that mount
Rokkors are Minolta’s lenses. Konika itself made Hexanon AR 57 f/1,2 and Hexanon 60 f/1,2 Limited.
Konica Minolta is still making lenses for DV purpose or enlarging lenses for photocopier. No doubt, she has the ability of making good lenses but not for the photo taking purpose. May be KM is not happy with the shameful history of acquisition by Sony.
KM should make an Alpha mount camera. The patent is long up. Anyone could do this. Revive iISO while they’re at it.
Yesyesyesyes, make a digital back for the Dynax/Maxxum 7 and 9.
Konica Minolta office sign is what I see everyday when I’m travelling to and from my work.. so hell yeah they’re still around with the same old logo
the one in san bernardino, across from panera bread?
The original press releases.
http://www.konicaminolta.com/about/releases/2006/0119_03_01.html
http://www.konicaminolta.com/about/releases/2006/0119_02_01.html
Oh come on, why “weird”? “Konica Minolta” has no connection to Sony, except for having sold the best part of their camera business to them years ago. And no obligation, either – except maybe for non-compete agreements the public doesn’t know any details about. And it is rather improbable that “Konica Minolta” still has the skills Minolta used to have when they designed lenses like their 50mm f/1.2 Rokkor…
Well, they don’t. All KM got after the deal with Sony were some engineers responsible for small size optics – like lenses for video cameras (they kept on making some for JVC). All of the “big boys” moved to Sony or were fired.
So it makes perfect sense now for KM to start with m4/3 lenses – it’s much closer to the formats that their engineers got an experience with. I guess that if project will be successful they might actually try to hire some new engineers and make lenses for APS-C or even Full Frame sensors, but most certainly – we’re far away from that.
I did not know that the Vectis series were micro 4/3 cameras. Actually, they were APS-C cameras. Minolta bet big on the new film format and lost. So I don’t quite know why you’re implying some sort of expertise in micro 4/3 (on the part of KM). On the other hand, I would not be surprised if they had some sort of non compete agreement with Sony when they sold them the KM camera division (for the most part).
NOW YOU MUST CALL IT KONIKAMINOLTARUMORS ahha sony fail
At admin.. 58 mc pg f1.2 and 50 mc pg f1.4 are far better options than the 50 f.12.
I think it depends whether you want less softness wide open (50/1.2) or, depending on personal tastes, perhaps slightly nicer bokeh (58/1.2). I’ve seen many images made with the 58/1.2 and I had a chance to quickly try the 50/1.2 myself on my NEX, and in the end I’d probably prefer the 50/1.2, even though the 58/1.2 is such a legend in every Minolta forum. (The by far best 50mm lens I ever had, and I did try some, is a “plain MD” 50mm f/1.4, by the way, which also goes against popular belief.)
@ Hubertus.. I am not using adaptor. the mount of my 58 f1.2 and 50 MC PG are a-mount now..I had to send the 50 1.4 to a guy who cut the but of the lens to change the mount. I get infinity.great results. I’ve tried the 50 f.12 but as far as I know the 50 MC PG is the best above f2.8..it’s sharper, the contrast is better, the bokeh is also great..the 58 f1.2 is great at f2.8.
I think 58mm is more interesting than 50mm, especially on apse if your shoot portrait..u get a 87mm which perfect! I’d like to share my flickr, most of the portrait were shot with a200 or a77 with those 2 rokkor. I’d be interesting to see your results on Nex with your 50 f1.2. Do you have any other Rokkor? I heard the 85 1.7 is also great..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sylvainbdg/sets/72157627876223679/
Good stuff you’re showing there!
Sorry, I haven’t kept any of the few pics I shot with the 50/1.2, as they were only of (limited) technical interest at the time. I do have a couple of decent Minolta SR lenses which I sometimes use on a NEX-C3: MC Rokkor 24/2.8, MC Rokkor 28/2.0, MD 35/1.8, and the MD Rokkor 85/2. And then, of course, the 50mm and 100mm Macro lenses. Unfortunately there’s no automatic diaphragm on the NEX, which is one of the reason I still use my Olympus DSLR for most of my stuff.
KM can probably see the mess Sony have made of A mount. If KM start making lenses for other mounts some of use will dump Sony very quickly. Really I want to see KM take A mount back from Sony, a real company that understood what photographers wanted.
Made by photographers for photographers. I would try micro 4/3 is KM make lenses for them.
Sony had so much potential but messed it up in style bad support, bugs not fixed, lack of firmware, forcing users to change hot shoe and not offering them OVF cameras.
> Really I want to see KM take A mount back from Sony, a real company that
> understood what photographers wanted. Made by photographers for photographers.
You must have had a camera from a different Minolta than me 🙂 When I bought the Minolta Dynax 7xi, it had lots of cool functions that the other cameras didn’t, much like Sony now. Are you saying that the program cards (http://www.sds.com/mug/card.html) is all that different from Sonys love for functions? Minolta did use OVF, but was one of the first to jump on autofocus and loose the split screen, which made manual focus harder. I’m sure some people was unhappy about that. EVF with focus peeking brings back easy manual focus. And was motor zoom something the pro photographers was craving? Minolta’s cameras wasn’t bug free either. My 7xi drained the battery if I left the battery in after completing a film, but I don’t remember if it was if I left the full film in the camera or with no film in the camera. At least an indicator on the display was blinking, and I couldn’t turn it completely off until I had fixed what offended it. The battery wasn’t rechargeable either. Anyway, I feel Sony is pretty much the same kind of company as Minolta was when you talk about cameras: some good, some bad, and loving new tech.
Agreed, the similarities between Minolta and Sony are striking. Much like Sony, Minolta also had a scatter-gun approach to releasing camera models and technology.
If you look back at Sony over the years some serious mistakes come to light that KM would never have done. Sony ripped out MLU from many OVF models, cut basic functionality on the A5xx range, they totally messed up the A200-350 updates cutting them down to the point where they were comical offerings.
A sad 5 series range that had no customisation, and nothing but more fps over cheaper models (A500-550)
A700 had NR on raw for over a year before Sony fixed it, then they left that model to die over years with no replacement.
About the only time they get it mostly right was the A580, then they discontinue the product for a bunch of SLT models. A99 has a crazy price few will pay in Europe so that’s pushed users to other makers who offer more bang per buck.
Now we have the crazy hot shoe change as a slap in the face for longer term users.
Really, whilst Sony can do good stuff, they’ve made some terrible errors.
Even recently we have the awful cheap and nasty A58 evidently replacing the only half decent SLT model Sony had, the A57
A65/77 are ok, but lag behind rivals with a poor sensor.
Sony are really not doing that well. Sony’s current range consists of one hugely overpriced FF model, two dated 2 year old crop models, and one plastic cut down piece of junk entry model.
Hardly inspiring for users is it?
To me, EVF and liveview without loosing anything is such a huge improvement over OVF and halfbaked liveview that Canon and Nikon are left in the dark ages 🙂 The sensor in my old a300 wasn’t good, but the sensor in a77 is very good with high resolution and good dynamic range. Canon and Nikon are better in dark conditions, but that isn’t my main requirement. By making untraditional choices, Sony (and I believe Minolta) pushes some photographers away and makes others love their products. I agree that some crippling choices has been very bad, and I still feel a digital camera should have tethering. I don’t know if Minolta would have made the same bad decisions (or all the good ones), but I do know that I felt precise manual focus was next to impossible in the period between the split screen and the EVF with focus peeking and focus zooming. I only have two flashes, and one is so old that it doesn’t work correctly on the new cameras, so to me the change of shoe isn’t a huge problem. I liked the old shoe, but reviewers seem to like the new one better. Some upgrade to the shoe was necessary to make it multipurpose, and on the positive side I think Sony might still be the only SLR-like camera that can get balanced audio into the camera? The main weakness for Sony seems to be advanced auto focus (though I haven’t tried a99) and it makes me a bit worried about the move towards mirrorless SLR-like cameras. If they can make on-sensor AF good enough (I doubt they can make it as good as Canon’s or Nikon’s semi-pro and pro AF systems) it might be a good move. If they put ND-filters and maybe a pola-filter into the body instead of the mirror, it will make them more different from Canon/Nikon 🙂 At least Sony isn’t boring… either you bite your nails or you drool (or maybe both at the same time) 🙂
Guess you missed the news about the Canon 70d then?
Fast live view AF just the ticket.
OVF and fast live view best of both worlds. EVF’s are poor in harsh light and simply not up to par at with a decent OVF. I was using my Maxxum 7 35mm body today, it destroys any Sony EVF for clarity and detail.
No, I didn’t miss the Canon 70D. It uses on-sensor PDAF, which Canon say isn’t as good as their main focus system. My A77 uses the normal PDAF with liveview. And no, I don’t think OVF and liveview on the screen is the best of both. I think EVF is better than OVF, especially on APS-C. You get extra information like focus peeking, histogram, and preview of exposure and whitebalance before you shoot, and much more in the EVF. If required, the light can be boosted, for instance when doing macro with a reversed lense. I do not miss the OVF, neither the one I had on Dynax 7xi or the crop one on a300, or the one on Canon 5D Mk3 which we use at work. But as I said before, innovations are likely to be disliked by some and loved by some. For me, EVF is one of the big bonuses with using Sony-cameras 🙂
KM filed a patent for a 43/1.4 a year or two back as well. I think they’re simply exploring their options but haven’t decided one way or the other whether to re-enter the fold now that their non competition clause with Sony has expired.
It would be nice to have them back, if only to give me a ‘Plan B’ should Sony do something that completely pisses me off. Unfortunately, I don’t really care much for small-sensor cameras.
It’s odd that Sony don’t go back to some Minolta manual lenses to work out what made them “great” and simply copy it. A modern AF 58mm f1.2 would be a very nice starting place, not the sharpest lens made, but bokeh heaven!
As I understand it some of those Minolta lenses used materials like leaded glass that wouldn’t be allowed in new lenses, so the optical designs can’t be adopted and would need to be reworked
Actually the 58/1.2 which many people here are calling to be remanufactured contains radioactive thorium in its lens elements… certainly can’t see that one making a comeback!
I totally agree with the other Peter 😀 I am a minolta Fan and would definitely buy a m4/3 camera in case minolta went back to business and produces some lenses. it would be even better if they will produce A mount and bring life to the line… many lenses are missing (28, 35 and 100 F2; 200 f2.8; 50 and 58 f1.2 …) sure their price would be more accessible to most people and bring satisfaction to many many… Glad to hear that and hope to see some lenses in the near future. thanks admin for sharing this info!
I too would think about micro 4/3 with Minolta back in the optics game. Or any other model they might make lenses for. I think a lot of longer term Minolta users are not overly impressed with what Sony have done so far. They have been quite hit and miss and have let their users down in terms of support/fixing issues.
Like most people I look at what is on offer from other makers too, I have no ties to any company or Sony either, yet I have Sony stuff, but I’m not sure I like the direction from Sony (if they have any direction that is)
The Dimage 7 & 5 series EVF Minolta’s had global shutters with flash sync to 1/2000th. The EVF had great tilt function. The layout and menu were virtually identical to the Alpha models. Would love to see Mino reboot the Dimage APS and Alpha FF line of cameras. BuBye Sony video head traitors.
Bring back multi spot lock and 1/12000th top SS. Heck, I’d even love to see the Mino Autocord relaunch as fixed twin lens medium format digital… even 20mp would be awesome.
Sooo. People are mad that KM is “turning it’s back” on Sony by not making lenses for E mount, instead making them for m43? What money is Sony making by a consumer buying a 3rd party lens? While you may make the argument that it helps boost the system by its lens offerings, lets not forget Sony also owns part of Olympus who makes m43 cameras. A camera purchase without a lens purchase is not a money maker for any manufacturer.
Also, while I loved my Minolta cameras, I do believe if KM stuck around to “help” the cause, they would have been more of a liability to Sony than a partner.
>Why not make a 50mm f/1.2 MD Rokkor-X (here one eBay) as E-mount lens? 🙂
Sony’s arrogance, who might have other ideas about how A and E lineup should have look like.
Second, that production line for 50/1.2 doesn’t exist now so there is no difference if they start produce completely another lens.
on the hotshoe thing, they should of put both on the camera somehow, and if you have problems with evf in bright light, its as much a eyecup issue as it is a evf issue.
One never knows – Minolta still makes glass for JVC-video camera’s.