Disappointing results with Fotasy MD-NEX adapter

[© Tom Cooper]

Quick backstory:

 

Starting back in the early 1980's, I started collecting decent glass to use with Minolta SLRs.  This was in the days before autofocus.  When Minolta went autofocus with the Maxxum, my lens collection got left behind.  I held on to it, thinking someday, something may come together and it will become usable again.

 

Fastforward several decades.  I just picked up a new Sony NEX-6.  Really happy with it so far, even if I'm not happy with my results.  The neat thing is, because of the form factor, it is possible to build an adapter for Minolta MD mount lenses.  The lens is a fully manual lens this way, but that's about all they ever were on the SLRs, so I started shopping.

 

I picked up a Fotasy MD-NEX adapter for $18.  This is little more than a tube with a Sony E-Mount on one end, a Minolta MD socket on the other, and a tripod mount.  No internal optics, no linkages, about the only thing they could screw up was if the lenses didn't fit and the length.

 

It arrived, and the tripod mount was loose and wobbly.  Hmm.  Not worth the hastle of returning it, I can fix that.  Also, the lenses mounted a little snug, but no big deal.

 

My first use was for a few tabletop photos and it worked like a charm.  I used a Minolta 50mm f/1.7 to shoot closeups of some coins, and everything was better than I'd hoped.

 

So a couple weekends ago, the Mrs. and I went out on snowshoes for an hour, and I decided to select one lens only - a Vivitar 28mm f2.5.  When I got home and saw the photos, I was distressed.  They were all out of focus.  That is, all except a shot of some leaves on the snow, about 10 feet (1.3 meters) from the camera.  The NEX-6 has modes to assist with focusing with a manual lens, and I wrote off the poor results to my poor use of the modes and methods.

 

Last weekend, I gave it another shot with the same lens.  For the most part, everything was shot with the lens' focus all the way out to infinity.  Even so, I noticed times that the camera was not indicating that the horizon was in focus.  Odd.

 

When I saw the images on the comuter, I concluded that the lens (well over 30 years old) must be defective.  I could not have gotten it wrong 200 times in a row. :(

 

A few other things made me start to suspect something else, however.  So yesterday, I went outside and stood near a long wall with distant objects in the background, and one by one started mounting all of my manual lenses.  None of them would focus on infinity, and the shorter the focal length, the worse the results.  That 28mm lens was only focusing out to 18 feet (6 meters)!

 

Don't buy this thing.  It is junk.

 

Tom

[skida]

Like you, I have acquired a Sony digital camera with a Nex mount (the Alpha3000), with the intention of using it with manual focus glass. I am a regular on the MFlenses forum and asked advice as there are a lot of knowledgeable people using Nex cameras. I bought my first adapter (M42) the other week and all seems to be working ok. The supplier is based in the UK and was highly recommended. You can get cheaper on ebay, but Jack the Hat is a photographer and seems to know what he is about. http://www.jackthehat.co.uk/

[© Tom Cooper]

I should follow up on my previous post just to add this:

I disassembled the front face plate, removed some metal filings, and re-assembled it.  The adapter works fine now and will focus to infinity.  Eventually I will repair the tripod mount.

My conclusion is that the design is sound but the manufacturing is not well controlled.

Tom

[© Tom Cooper not going to Views]

Mine isn't like this.  But it is a piece of junk.  I've done a good deal of machining on it to make it reliable (i.e. so that screw holes that were not drilled deep enough the first time don't strip out).  Unfortunately, there is not a good alternative.  All of the other adapters are junk as well. :(

 

Tom

[Wildlight Images]

junk, very poor quality ...peeling paint, rusty screws, bent parts, stripped threads, variations between samples are huge...... Infinity focus cannot be reached while on others you can go a a half-turn beyond infinity focused in your viewfinder!