List of Minolta A-mount lenses explained

Minolta and its successor Konica Minolta released the following lenses for Minolta A-mount cameras between 1985 and 2006.

History

While most auto-focus lens designs were new developments, some optical constructions were derived from Minolta SR-mount lenses. In the United States, the Maxxum system launched in 1985 with twelve lenses:^[1]

24mm
28mm
50mm
50mm
50mm Macro
135mm
300mm APO
28–85mm
28–135mm
35–70mm
35–105mm
70–210mm

When the second camera, the 9000, was launched later in 1985, two more lenses were added: the 75–300 mm and 600 mm APO.^[2] By 1986, Minolta had expanded the lineup by releasing 16 mm fisheye, 20 mm, 28 mm, 100 mm Macro, 200 mm, and 100–200 mm lenses.^[3]

Restyled ("i" series)

Initially, the lenses were equipped with narrow ribbed manual focus rings in hard plastic near the front; most lenses had a diagonally-ribbed rubber grip, which was used as the zoom ring on zoom lenses. Starting in 1988 with the release of the "i" series cameras, new lenses were released with an updated grip style featuring broader, rounded diagonal shapes and a rubber coated focus ring. These new lenses included 35–80 mm (with built-in lens cap), 80–200 mm, 35–105 mm, 70–210 mm, and 100–300 mm .^[4]

Some of the original lenses were updated and re-released with the same cosmetics and are known as "New" or "Restyled" versions; minor optical updates such as coatings and aperture shape were sometimes included.^[5] Lens labeling varies slightly; lenses with the original style are marked "AF Lens" on the side of the lens with the focal length(s), while restyled lenses are marked "AF" in a rounded typeface with focal length(s), but without "Lens".^[6]

8-pin ("xi" series) and distance encoding

When the "xi" series cameras were introduced with the 7xi in 1991, new and updated lenses were released with three additional contacts (eight total) to support an in-lens motor for body-controlled power zoom, which was used by the "fuzzy logic" system in that camera body.^[7] ^[8] The power zoom function was touted to "automatically [provide] a suggested composition" in dealer marketing materials.^[9] Five lenses were released with power zoom features, which are equipped with a single control ring that combines both manual focusing and zoom functions,^[10] and are marked as "Zoom xi" lenses:^[11]

28–80mm
28–105mm
35–200mm
80–200mm
100–300mm

Later, with the introduction of the Maxxum/Alpha 7 and its support for distance-encoded HS(D) flashes in 2001, Minolta began fitting all lenses with the three additional contacts, repurposed to support the Advance Distance Integration (ADI) functionality, which reports the focus distance back to the camera body.^[12]

Branding updates

Lenses were branded as "Konica Minolta" starting in August 2003 following the merger of the two companies.^[13]

When Sony took over the system in 2006,^[14] 12 lenses were rebranded as Sony A-mount lenses and launched alongside 6 new designs and 2 teleconverters.^[15] Of the dozen rebranded lenses, most are optically, mechanically and electrically identical to their Minolta predecessors and differ only in their outer appearance, however, three have seen subtle changes in the optics and electro-mechanics. The 20 lenses relaunched in 2006 included:^[15]

16mm 2.8 (legacy)
20mm 2.8 (legacy)
28mm 2.8 (legacy)
35mm 1.4 G (new)
50mm 1.4 (legacy)
50mm 2.8 Macro (legacy)
85mm 1.4 Zeiss (new)
100mm 2.8 Macro (legacy)
135mm 1.8 Zeiss (new)
135mm 2.8 STF (legacy)
300mm 2.8 G (new)
500mm 8 Reflex (legacy)
11–18mm 4.5–5.6 (legacy)
16–80mm 3.5–4.5 Zeiss (new)
18–70mm 3.5–5.6 (legacy)
18–200mm 3.5–6.3 (legacy)
70–200mm 2.8 G (new)
75–300mm 4.5–5.6 (legacy)
1.4× Teleconverter
2.0× Teleconverter

All Minolta and Konica Minolta A-mount lenses are compatible with Sony A-mount cameras.

Regional variations

In North America, Minolta marketed the camera and lenses with the Maxxum branding. Until the mid 1990s, A-mount lenses for the North American market were engraved as Maxxum AF; the rest of the world were branded as AF lenses, including the regions using the Dynax and α branding for the cameras. The initial production runs of Maxxum AF lenses introduced with the camera system in 1985 originally used a "crossed XX" font, which was soon dropped by Minolta after Exxon brought a trademark lawsuit that year; under the settlement, Minolta agreed to change its logo.^[16]

Although some buyers associated either the Maxxum AF or the AF designation with a higher quality, both types of lenses were built to exactly the same specifications and quality standards in the factory, and were only used to improve trackability and distinguish gray market imports (lenses originally purchased from international sources and resold in North America by private importers rather than official imports from Minolta). They differed only in their cosmetics (name plate engraving) and part number designations (????-1?? for AF, ????-6?? for Maxxum AF). A similar scheme previously had been used by Minolta in the 1960s and 1970s to distinguish their Rokkor and Rokkor-X branding variants for SR-mount lenses.