Zaydewise Loc: Nashville TN

I have a Minolta 1.4 50 mm lens that I was thinking about using on my D800. Anyone have any experience with using an adapter to convert this lens for use on another type of camera.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

MD mount or MA mount?
Either can be adapted and used fully manual, but you will most likely lose infinity focus with it when using the adapters.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

When you use old manual lenses on your newer digital cameras you should know the registration distance of both the lens and your camera body, also known as Flange Focal Distance, this is a determining factor in if an old lens will work on your modern camera. Registration distance is the distance from the back of the lens or mounting flange to the sensor plane. I love old lenses, I shoot Canon but can not use the old Canon manual lenses on my Canon DSLR because the registration distance of the old Canon lenses is shorter than it is for their modern bodies which would mean that the lens would have to mount inside my DSLR to properly achieve focus. As MT shooter said, you can use those lenses if you can find an adapter but you will not be able to achieve infinity focus because when focusing the back of the lens will not be able to recess close enough to the sensor plane to achieve infinity focus. Your Nikon Camera has a Flange Focal Distance of 46.5mm and your Minolta lens has a Flange Focal Distance of 44.5, so it is not going to work very well, I doubt that you can even find an adapter as manufacturers have no incentive to produce something that does not work.

It looks like Nikon is a tough body to find old lenses for unless they were originally produced for Nikon cameras or for some of the larger format cameras. My Canon can use quite a few different lenses and adapters are readily available, but I can't use Minolta or Konica. Here are a couple of resources for you.

http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~westin/misc/mounts-by-register.html

http://allphotolenses.com/articles/item/c_6.html

RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

Well hello blurryeyed

Thanks for posting those site I bookmark them for future reference. You mentioned the issues with fd lens not registering properly have you tried edmika adaptors he makes, he seems to haved work this out with the old L pro fd prime lenses. Whats your take on this matter?

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

I use my older non Nikon lenses with adapters on my Olympus Pen E-P3.... That includes both the 50 & the 58mm F1.4 Rokkors. Not worth trying to adapt them to my Nikon DSLR's

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

No, I have not and I don't know about edmika adaptors, I generally only purchase manual lenses for $100 or less, some of those old L lenses are quite expensive and I have never looked into them. I know that there is a relatively inexpensive adaptor for Canon FD to EOS, $50 to $75 but it has its own lens to aid in registration, I did not see the point in purchasing expensive old glass only to use cheap new glass to make it work when there are other great lenses out there. Pentax lenses were some of the best that you could buy back in the day... unless you wanted to step into Zeiss etc. I found it easier to shop other lenses, currently I have adaptors for Pentax K mount, M42 mount, Nikon, and Olympus... They are nothing more than a milled spacing ring that mounts to the Canon Body and accepts the appropriate lens mount, no glass, just proper registration for spacing. I did once adapt a Minolta 58 1.4 for my canon, it was a pretty nice lens, there are two Minolta lenses that used a heavy spacing ring in their mount, the 58/1.4 and the 58/1.2, they can be sanded or milled for proper registration on a EOS but those are the only two Minolta lenses that I know of that can be made to work on EOS. I particularly like the old M42's because they were universal, one adapter fits any and all M42 lenses.