For me one of the key features that convinced me to buy the Sony A7iii was that the Minolta lenses I had would all work easily with a Sony LA-EA4 adapter on the Sony A7iii. The AF lenses would auto focus well and the other settings such as exposure would too. All true I found out. The Minolta lenses were all auto focus and seemed to set focus as fast as on my two Minolta 600si film cameras. After a short time since most of the Minolta lenses I found for sale used were well priced I bought a few more. My latest being the 100mm f2.8 with 55mm filter size. This lens has a minimum focus distance of 3.54 meters.
The top featured image is with the 100mm lens. Both of these were using manual focus and set on a tripod. This is a solid metal lens and weighs just over 18oz. It has extremely low distortion and is very sharp. The minute I saw the first few images from this lens I just went, “wow beautiful”. The rendition is superb. This lens was first made in 1986 when the AF Minoltas first came out. There were several changes and then Sony bought Minolta in 2006 and Sony was put on this lens.
Lightroom Classic lists the lens characteristics under Sony.
To my eye this lens gives the best close up flower shots of any lens I have ever used. I paid $220 US including shipping. I bought it with eBay and the source was in Japan. The condition of the lens is like new.
I also bought a 100-400 AF APO tele zoom 4.5-6.7.
This lens is from the same family of APO zooms and is similar to my 70-210 4.5-5.6 tele zoom. The 100-400 also came from Japan through eBay. I paid $240 including shipping. As with the 100mm the condition was like new. It came with case and light shield plus front and back caps. I have done a test using the native Sony G 24mm-105 f4, Minolta 70-210mm f4.5-5.6, and this lens. I focused on some houses on a hill about 3-4 miles away. All three lenses performed about equally with similar magnification, f-stop, ISO, and the same Sony A7iii. Sony makes a 100-400 4.5-5.6. Maybe it is sharper and better than this lens. But then maybe it is about the same. It costs $2,500 dollars and I do not own one so I can test it. This lens weighs 15.17 oz. The Sony new version is 51oz.
I really like these two lenses. I also very much like the fact that they are regular mechanical focus and not focus by wire. Mechanical focus is way easier to use manually than focus by wire. But of course you have to use an adapter and you do get some limitations with that. I have found flashes do not automatically work with the TT flash power automatically. Manual lenses like these are not suitable for video, they make too much noise. But I am very happy with the results and cost of these.
Bob Nuttmann 