aschweik Loc: NE Ohio

Is there a way to determine what lens was used when viewing photos taken with a film camera? I'm thinking probably not, but I have to ask. lol. I recently bought the following at a garage sale:

Minolta Maxxum 7000
Sigma 28-70 lens
Minolta 50mm lens
Minolta 70-210 lens
Various filters and a filter holder

They only wanted $30 for everything! But had no idea if the camera worked. So I figured for 30 bucks, it's not a big deal if there was a problem with any of the items. So I cleaned it up...no scratches on the lenses since they were covered with protective filters. My daughter had old film from a photography class...it was expired but I just wanted to see if the camera worked. I shot the roll of film using all the lenses to test them out. Just got the photos uploaded today from The Darkroom. Looks like the camera and lenses work great! But I just don't remember what photos I took with what lens. It doesn't really matter...I really just wanted to make sure it all worked (it does...and the expired film, too...). But I was just wondering if there is any way to tell what lens was used for each shot.

Thanks for helping me out. I haven't shot film for a long time and back when I did, I probably didn't care what lens I used, so never thought about it. But now that I'm learning more about photography, the more questions I have! :)

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Nope. You just have to write it down, although the perspective should pride clues.

Try shooting another roll with each lens in sequence, and make an index card showing the lens info as the first shot with each lens. Shoot each lens wide open and at a smaller aperture.

Andy

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Only the final professional film models from Nikon and Canon captured shooting data inside the camera that can be extracted via special tools and then merged into the EXIF data of the scanned images. For captures with this feature, the film camera captures only the focal length and not the lens. I use manual lenses on digital bodies. If I am mixing up the lenses, I try to remember to take a picture of the lenses just before changing so I have a visual queue in the images. But, if your film camera didn't capture the focal length of the images (the likely situation), you can only guess the lens from the images if you didn't keep notes when shooting.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

A lot of my reply is going to depend on which lens I use and a specific back for the camera. The Nikon F5, with a data recording back, and certain lenses will record some exif data. I have an F5, but not the data back. With my other film cameras, it's a matter of using a notebook.
--Bob

JeffR Loc: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

Your lenses may work with some of today's digital Sony cameras. Sony bought Minolta.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

My camera only provides focal length, which for my lenses will not help me differentiate which lens.
There are however file metadata fields in Windows Explorer for lens manufacturer and model.
Not sure if there are cameras that may capture that information or not.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Yes, its called a notebook. Carried in the vest or shirt pocket of every pro film photographer to record shooting information on any shot where he or she may want shooting info later on.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Unless your camera does record which lens was used, you'll have to guess by looking at the images!

alfeng Loc: Out where the West commences ...

WOW!?!

Everyone ELSE must be so far removed from the days when they shot film WITHOUT a Zoom lens that they just don't remember what's what about some of the basics of photography ...

Determination will be easiest if whatever you took pictures of was somewhere nearby to where you currently are AND can simply attach the various lenses to the camera and look through to see how the image in the camera looks compared to the "prints" you have...

Posting pics would probably help ...

Regardless, because there is some overlap in the focal lengths due to the Zoom lenses you acquired, there will be some uncertainty, but since there are only three lenses, once you sort out some aspects of the images, you may-or-should be able to recall which lens was probably used since you didn't have an assistant changing the lenses who then handing the camera to you ...

Based on the background in the images, YOU can readily determine which one was used for which image BECAUSE the background will appear to fall away at different rates ...

With items in the background of the pics taken with a Wide Angle lens appearing to be comparatively smaller than objects the background on the "normal" 50mm lens ...

The overlap of the 28mm-70mm with the 50mm lens complicates this a little ... so YOU will have to try to recall how much fiddling you were doing with the lens's Zoom capability ...

Pics taken with the telephoto Zoom lens will generally have a compressed background and/or shallower depth of field.

If you are asking WHERE in a Zoom's range the picture was taken ... again, retracing your steps is the key ...

BTW. You can use your recently acquired Minolta-mount lenses with ANY mirroless camera body.

BebuLamar

It's kinda possible as you're limited to the 3 lenses. The 28-70 has the 50mm setting so may be it's difficult there. You can estimate the focal length of the lens looking at the pictures.

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

There is a formula for determining what focal length lens was used but, you need to know 3 items to determine the 4th. You need to know the image size, how big the original object was, & how far away you were from the subject. The formula is I/F:G/A. I = image size; F = focal length; G = size of the original object; A = the distance from the subject. If more than 1 of the items can't be determined, you'd have to guesstimate. It goes back to aerial photography when you were taught to determine how big an object on film was based on knowing the focal length of the lens used, the altitude of the plane, and the image size on film.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I think you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between two zooms that do 70mm, or a fixed 70 and a zoom at 70.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

WAY not worth the trouble for me.

alfeng Loc: Out where the West commences ...

Did you REALLY not understand the original question posed by the OP?

Did you intentionally miss the point that it is possible to determine which lens took which picture OR are you trolling?

BTW. If a person has a Prime 70mm (it must be the new Leica lens unless you know of another 70mm lens!?!) then I suspect that it is very possible to tell the difference between the image captured with it and either a vintage 28-70 Zoom lens or vintage 70-210 Zoom lens ...

And, while YOU may not be able to tell the difference in the picture taken with the two Zoom lenses (at the same theoretical focal length), I suspect that a person with a only a moderately discerning eye could tell the difference if s/he was familiar with "both" lenses.

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

I have to agree. I graduated from photo school in 1967. I don't remember ever using the formula after school. It would be very difficult to use unless you had a lot of information.