[shoplink 38055 ebay]
[/shoplink]
SAR reader John sent me these pictures and the following text:
This is my [shoplink 38055 ebay]Minolta Vectis V-Mount APS film camera[/shoplink] lens to Sony E-Mount adapter, you got exif, aperture control and manual focus with this adapter. Those lenses are fully electronically, including electronic focus ring and electronic aperture.
The picture attached shows [shoplink 38056 ebay]V17mm f3.5[/shoplink] and [shoplink 38057 ebay]V400mm f8 reflex[/shoplink] attached on A7.
I made this for fun, currently it’s not for sale.
I spoke a bit of John and if there is some interest in such an adapter he may could make some of them for our readers. So let me know if you are interested to get some of those!
[shoplink 38055 ebay]Minolta Vectis cameras and lenses on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 38055 ebay]
[/shoplink]
39 Responses
Wow. I’ve been waiting for this so long. And yes, I definitely want one, please.
Wow… I still have my vectis lenses…. Roughly how much did it take to create this? Very cool. Do you have photo samples?
I’m interested!
Not the greatest lens line up but, if they could adapt it on cheap they should make them for APSC e-mount.
Didn’t even know that existed.
List of V-mount interchangeable lenses:
Prime lenses
V 17 mm f/3.5 RD (#2764)
V 50 mm f/3.5 Macro (1:2) (#2305)
V 400 mm f/8 Reflex (#2307)
Zooms
V 22-80 mm f/4-5.6 (#2301)
V 25-150 mm f/4.5-6.3 (#2309)
V 28-56 mm f/4-5.6 (#2303)
V 56-170 mm f/4.5-5.6 (#2304)
V 80-240 mm f/4.5-5.6 Apo (#2302)
Lacks some basic information. I suppose the image circle of these lenses just about covers the APS format? Though they are weather proofed (even has rubber gasket at the mount) the ones that I have encountered have had a very plastic and flimsy feel. Maybe decent optically but I doubt they are something extraordinary.
The nicest thing I can say about the Vectis lenses (and bodies) is that they are at least cheap and fairly small. I’d love to see someone prove that they also are good bang for the buck. Samples por favor!
no, film APS-C has larger area than 1.5 crop
That’s not what I asked. I wanted to know what the image circles on these lenses were. There are crop, and even half frame lenses that covers the FF format.
What I read about is that this camera have 3 shooting frames, Panoramic, APS-C and APS-H, so I doubt they cover FF but they get really close.
I would guess that no lens designed for a 30.2 x 16.7mm format will have great corner performance on a 36 x 24mm sensor. They might perform just fine on crop-sensor E-mount cameras though.
Great work! Even though may not cover FF image circle, would be nice making these old Vectis lenses to work on APS-C bodies such as Nex and A5000/5100/6000. Surely want one for my Vectis lenses.
Very nice! At this time, I don’t have an E-Mount camera, but if I had, I would be very interested indeed, even if there was no AF.
These are the lenses in question: Henk Tammes Photography, Wikipedia
APS was a 16:9, 1.3x crop format with a 30.2 x 16.7 mm negative size and a signifcantly larger image circle than APS-C, so it would even make sense to use them on an A7 (and manually crop as necessary).
While the lenses seem to be regarded as decent performers, they are all, unfortunately, rather slow. Then again, they’re very compact – just what some might wish to have for their mirrorless camera. And they’re extremely cheap to get – which would probably change as soon as there was a working E-Mount adapter commercially available…
With such a large image circle, those lenses might just have enough to cover a FF sensor, not without some extra vignetting of course.
Great! I have two sets of RD3000 and over 10 pcs of Vectis lenses, so will love to buy one of such adapter to use these lenses on my A6000.
but… if “I made this for fun, currently it’s not for sale.”, which means maybe no one can use the V mount lenses… why post the ebay links?
I’m starting to wonder if this was some sort of a trick in an attempt to sell off some old Vectis glass…
It’s pretty common that a number of the mounts out there will allow you to at least cross-mount lenses to bodies so they’ll look like they’re attached as in the photo but without the lens actually being usable.
So we’ve got pictures of physical mounting, and we’ve got a comment about the lenses being fully electronic – but without any indicating that the adapter is actually adapting the electronics and supporting those features/capabilities.
Ordinarily I’d just give the person the benefit of the doubt of an early project – but not a single link is to any technical information on this adapter, it’s all to eBay sales of old Vectis equipment! If this were legitimate, why are all of the links to eBay selling things OTHER than this fabled adapter?
But even a physical adapter without electronic contacts does not exist today for V mount to E mount.
If this adapter is true, I would not object if John keeps the information to himself because it must have been hard work reverse engineering the lens communication protocols. I just hope he would be kind enough to make some for sale at a reasonable price so existing Vectis lenses owners can bring new life to their collection.
Great work! I’m very interested in such an adapter to use it with the Vectis 400, 17 and 80-250 on my a7R and a6000.
Could you post some instructions somewhere? This is pretty amazing!
I wonder if John tells us about internals and his way to make it.
Yeah. I’d like to see the details on the E-mount pinout/protocol.
I suspect it’s same as Vectris protocol 🙂
From what I can find so far, E-mount has two additional pins not present on V-mount – so at least something has to be different.
Power zoom pins? 🙂
In terms of number of electronic contacts, the V mount is more like Minolta A mount. If adapters like LA-EA3 can be made to adapt A mount lenses to E mount, a V mount to E mount adapter is surely feasible. Only that there are so few Vectis lenses in the market. It is not financially justified for Sony to develop and manufacture such an adapter. We need individuals with technical knowhow and also passion to make this happen.
Of course it’s not justified for Sony to manufacture it… but it’s difficult for hobbyists to reserve engineer
Finally !!!
Is there any specification out three on the electrical specification of the vectis lenses?
Let me join the line – I’d love to use my Vectis lenses on E-mount! 🙂
It’s a very good news for NEX (APS-C) users.
Especially since Sony is clearly focussed on making big Full frame lenses now.
Many Vectis lenses such as 50 Macro don’t have equivalent in E mount:
Prime lenses
V 17 mm f/3.5 RD (#2764)
V 50 mm f/3.5 Macro (1:2) (#2305)
V 400 mm f/8 Reflex (#2307)
Zooms
V 22-80 mm f/4-5.6 (#2301)
V 25-150 mm f/4.5-6.3 (#2309)
V 28-56 mm f/4-5.6 (#2303)
V 56-170 mm f/4.5-5.6 (#2304)
V 80-240 mm f/4.5-5.6 Apo (#2302)
And to think that Vectis Lenses are made for APS-H and SLR, Sony could easily make a focal reducer, to enhance the lens speed while shortening the flange distance, making it more compact.
Although it would be better if it can also have Autofocus
As I own 2 Vectis lenses, suchh an adapter would be very welcome.
I want such an adapter
Vectis: potentially interesting avenue what with those focal lengths. 22-80 and 25-150 sound interesting and there’s next to nothing about their optical properties, in part no doubt because they’re tricky to adapt to digital. I would be interested in an adapter that allowed electric manual focus and aperture control.
I would like to express my interest in this adapter. I would buy one immediately. I own several V mount lenses and am running out of APS film. Please share my interest with the originator.
I would be definitely interested in buying such an adapter, if John makes some more.
Hello I’m interested in buying such an adapter.
Now I’ve got my Minolta 7 D en Sony alpha 77 and 99 and Sony A7 (E mount) with Minolta and / or Sony Zeis lenses, but I still have two Minolta S1 camera’s with one set of Minolta V lenses.
V 50 mm f/3.5 Macro
V 400 mm f/8 Reflex
V 22-80 mm f/4-5.6
V 25-150 mm f/4.5-6.3
V 28-56 mm f/4-5.6
V 56-170 mm f/4.5-5.6
V 80-240 mm f/4.5-5.6 Apo
a converter tot A or E mount would be nice.
Roel van Gompel
Netherlands
Hi, I want to buy one of these adapters to use my Vectis lenses on my Nex-5, A3000 and A5000.
Hi I am curious. If any of you get and adapter ?
Is there any new update? I really wanna buy the adaptor