Camera Labs

I'm looking for portrait lens. Sony original costs around £110 to £140, but Minolta is available for about £30 on ebay + £30 for MD to MA adopter.
I've heard MF is better for portraits.

So which one to buy, is it worth to pay more for sony lens?

Thanks

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Sony α580 | 18-55mm | 50mm F1.8 | 70-200 F2.8 |

anyone?

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Sony α580 | 18-55mm | 50mm F1.8 | 70-200 F2.8 |

Obviously not many here with knowledge of that specific lens.
But on one thing I can comment: I personally wouldn't want MF esp. with a large aperture lens - unless I have a micro-prism and/or split-prism viewfinder screen. On my D300 screen I wcouldn't hope to get half of the shots right with MF and a 50/1.4 or 50/1.8

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Thanks. I found Minolta 50mm F1.7 sony fit with AF. So which would be better in this case? Original or Minolta?

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Sony α580 | 18-55mm | 50mm F1.8 | 70-200 F2.8 |

hi hunker
I have no experience with the 50 1.7 MD lens.
However, I have bought a couple of cheap M42 and tamron adaptall lenses which I have tried to use with my a580 (using adapters of course) but with unhappy results.

I have a minolta 50 1.7 AF, which I bought through ebay, and I'm extremely satisfied with it. To me, changing from f3.5 in the kit-lens to a f1.8 was the next best thing after buying the slr

To continue with what Thomas said, you'll be using a 1.8 for low light situations, and for a shallow depth of field, and in both cases, i find that the extra help by the camera via AF is extremely helpful. And you always have the MF function available if you want to.

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Sony α580 dSLR
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Sony 18-55 kit lens, Minolta AF 50mm 1.7, Minolta 28-105mm xi zoom, Minolta 35-70mm 3.5-4.5, Minolta 75-300mm 4.5-5.6
Kata 3n1-22

My short photostream: ivandegi

Thanks ivandegi. You gave me answer i was looking for.
You are totally right about having AF, you can choose, but if you got only MF then have to live with it. And after all, it's just about 20 quid more then MD mount.

Thanks again!

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Sony α580 | 18-55mm | 50mm F1.8 | 70-200 F2.8 |

ive got both! get the AF its well worth the extra pennys. think i picked mine up off ebay for about £90 used, got some amazing shots with it, especially of my baby nephew when hes playing with toys ect. i found with the m42 its just a pain with getting the exposure right and manual focus. by the time you have messed about youve lost the pefect shot.

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Sigma 18-200mm f3.5-6.3
Minolta AF 50mm f1.7
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan_parker/