Am I limiting myself by not allowing for an adapter

[JBW]

Hi, sorry to be a bother but I had a thought. Have I missed out on some good lens possibilities because I did not consider using an adapter to match up a non Sony A mount to my Sony Alpha A 58. Something that would give me say 18 - 300 plus a reasonable close-up capability.
Brian

[inkista]

Have I missed out on some good lens possibilities because I did not consider using an adapter to match up a non Sony A mount to my Sony Alpha A 58. Something that would give me say 18 - 300 plus a reasonable close-up capability.

If those are the lens specs you're looking for, nope, not really. Getting something that goes wide on a crop sensor typically means a digital-era lens, and ditto with superzooms. Adapting lenses tends to work best mostly with manual film-era lenses, because you need some way to control the aperture. When you adapt lenses, finding an adapter that allows for electronic communication is relatively rare. So unless the lens has an aperture ring, you're kind of stuck. Current digital era Canon EF-S, and Nikon G-type lenses lack aperture rings. The lack of communication also means you lose autofocus, wide-open metering, and camera control of the lens aperture (i.e., you probably can't use shutter speed priority or auto modes on the camera). You'll also lose lens information in the EXIF metadata.

There's also the fact that EOS mount lenses would require an adapter with an optical element, if you want to maintain focus to infinity, and that's likely to compromise image quality a little.

If you really want to look into A-mount bargains for a telephoto zoom or macro lens, you might want to consider looking for Minolta AF-mount lenses, since Sony basically just renamed it to their A-mount, so you don't need any adapters to use them. The Dyxum website is a great resource on finding out about these lenses.

[Manfred M]

Probably not Brian - I have several adapters, but in all cases these are adapters that let my physically attach a lens with a different lens mount to my camera. The electronics and focus motor are not connected, so the lenses, even though they are (in some cases) totally electronic, do not communicate with the camera.

As an example, I can put my Nikon lenses on my Panasonic body and they work fine, but everything has to be handled manually. I generally only use them for video work, where I do everything manually anyways, so there is no real issue. For the type of shooting you do, this would be a real pain.

Why are there no electronic connections? The pins would not line up and the data streams and voltages / current requirements likely be incompatible as well. The adapter manufacturer wouldn't want the liability that comes from wrecking either your camera or your lens.

The Panasonic GX7 looks positively wicked with the Sigma 150-500mm lens mounted on it.

My Novoflex adapter lets me use Nikkor G lenses as it has an aperture control built into it.