imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

As many know, I am a wildlife shooter using Canon mostly. I highly admire the A77 II. The big attraction for me is all of it's great features and price ! But, the big question mark is the lenses - not so much the optical quality, but the focusing abilities.

Minolta, like Nikon, AF was started with mechanical body focus drives and like Nikon, somewhere along the line switched to in lens focus motors. My question is, when did this take place and what are some of the current (and past) wildlife applicable lenses that have in lens focus motors and do their speed and accuracy even come close to Canon ??

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

my experience is with the a-850. I have the Minolta maxxum 200mm apo hs G and the 70-200mm apo hs G. the auto focus is quick with both of them.

Impressionist

My old Maxxum lens are quicker on my a77II then the Sony kit len. I have taken to using a 28-105xi lens as my walk around. Am acquiring a MD to A Mount Adapter and will see how manual focus works out.

ralphc4176 Loc: Conyers, GA

The best way I can answer your question is to write that I have at least one Sony A-mount camera for which I have bought at least one Minolta A-mount lens. Considering the difference in price between a new Sony A-mount lens and a used Minolta A-mount lens in excellent to like new condition, I would probably choose Minolta. The Minolta lens(es) I have for my Sony A-mount camera work perfectly.

CHOLLY Loc: THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE!

I'm sure others will correct me... but I believe the only SSM Minolta lens was the 70-200mm. The rest are all screw driven.

Now here's the thing; Sony must have changed the gearing or gear ratios in the A77II, because autofocus on ALL my old Minolta AF lenses is SUBSTANTIALLY faster on it than on any of my other Sony or Minolta cameras.

Some of that is no doubt due to the new AF module in the A77II, but I think that concerns primarily response time. The actual MOVEMENT of the lens mechanism itself seems MUCH faster with the A77II than any of my other A mount cameras.

Is it as fast as a comparable SSM lens? I don't think so. Both my 70-300mm G and my friends 70-400mm GII focus faster than ANY of the Minolta AF lens that have graced the front of my camera. Especially my old 100-400mm APO, which is downright glacial in comparison to any of the newer SSM models.

But in terms of a direct speed comparison with the competition... I'd say the Sony/Minolta combo is comparable to both Canon and Nikon equivalents. (That statement is based on non-scientific observations with fellow members of my camera club.)

The A77II is actually FASTER than all but the most expensive Canikons, ESPECIALLY with the G lenses up front.

So you should have no worries if you make that purchase sir. ;)

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Thanks to all for the comments so far!

I think the lenses I will be looking at are the Sigma 100-300 f4, the 400 4.5 G lens, and of course the 70-400. I am assuming the Sigma and 400 4.5 are screw drives ?

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

I guess I should also consider a 300 f4 G, Sigma, or Tokina ATX ......

Plan on using the Clear Image Zoom to get to 600mm. Smaller, lighter weight, cheaper is better.

pbcbob Loc: Delray Beach, FL

Thanks for the input. If you go to dyxum.com and then click on Lenses, you can get specifications and reviews of every A mount lens ever manufactured.

Bob

chapjohn Loc: Tigard, Oregon

I have a few Minolta AF lenses and do not notice any slowness in auto-focus speed. I also have Sony A-mount lenses and a coupld Sigma and Tamron lenses that I use on my A77M2. I am sure that Sony G lenses offer more and that is reflected in the price of those lenses.

bonjac Loc: Santa Ynez, CA 93460

You may already be aware of this but the web site www.dyxum.com is dedicated to Minolta/SONY with a lot information on lenses and several forums that you may find useful. Jack

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

So, I guess only "SSM" lenses have the in lens motors ? ! And the A77 II has somehow souped up it's body drive motor to make ALL lenses focus faster ? ! ....

pbcbob Loc: Delray Beach, FL

SSM is a supersonic Sony motor (very fast) as opposed to SAM, Smooth Autofocus Motor which is slower and noisier. SAL is a Sony Alpha Lens which can be either.

CHOLLY Loc: THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE!

My A77II is substantially faster with each Minolta lens than either my A77 or A350, both of which are faster than my Maxxum 7000.

With the A77II, any of the older Minolta AF lenses is very fast... fast enough for almost every photographic situation. The SSM lenses are faster, and the new SSM motors in the GII lenses are faster still.

Don't know how fast the 3rd party lenses you mentioned are, but if they are screw drive then unless they are geared low they too should benefit from the A77II ' s speed burst. ;)

Bonkles Loc: St Albans, UK

Thank you for this reference. I have spent hours reading through the comments about Sony lenses.