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Tamron 200-400 AF Macro Lens for Minolta / Sony query(sale?)

PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2008 1:19 am
by carazy
Hey peoples,

I have a Tamron 200-400 f5.6 from my old Minolta. It's in excellent condition and I'm thinking of selling it as it doesn't get to see the sun as much as it should.
Google has been my friend to a great extent and from what I've read Sony now use the same mount but I'm wondering if people could clarify if all Sony DSLR's use the same mount. Ie are there older DSLR models which would not be compatible.

I just want to make sure that whoever purchases it is getting the right lens for their camera (I haven't really followed the Sony range for some time). I know the new Tamron 200-500 lens are retailing around the $1500-1600 mark. As yet I haven't decided what to sell it for.

This is more to scope out who I should be advertising to and from there gauge a sale price.
Here's a pic of pretty much what I have. http://www.dyxum.com/images/lenses/175/175_4.jpg

Your feedback price / compatibility will be greatly appreciated.

Re: Tamron 200-400 AF Macro Lens for Minolta / Sony query(sale?)

PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2008 8:19 am
by Analog6
Did the older Tamron lenses come with the mount 'built-in' or did they all have adatpers fitted. I seem to remember reading somewhere, years ago, that you had to say what adapter you wanted when buying Tamron. If the latter is the case a new adapter may be a possibility. I imagine you'd have to contact Tamron to find out.

Re: Tamron 200-400 AF Macro Lens for Minolta / Sony query(sale?)

PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2008 9:06 am
by gstark
carazy wrote:I know the new Tamron 200-500 lens are retailing around the $1500-1600 mark.


Well perhaps, but probably not around these parts. The similar Sigma glass is priced around the Au$1200 mark, new, and delivered ex-HK. You need to to look at what this glass is selling for ex-HK, and consider the following points:

1: it's second hand, therefore it needs to be cheaper.

2: it's (by your own admission) quite old. See point 1 for what this means.

3: It's for a Konica-Minolta/Sony, but it's a Tamron. Were it Minolta glass , then it might have held some value. it's not. It hasn't. Please see point 1 to get the outcome.

As yet I haven't decided what to sell it for.


Probably somewhat less than the number you first thought of. :) My guess would be that the number should have no more than three digits, and the first of those should be less than 6.

Your feedback price / compatibility will be greatly appreciated.


Seeing how you asked. :)

A couple of points. First of all, welcome to DSLRUsers.com. Please acquaint yourself with our FAQ, especially the part that tells you that you should have a meaningful location in your profile. "Australia" does not qualify as meaningful, and neither will your capital city's name. This is all made clear in the FAQ, as is the fact that the "For Sale" section here is available only to suitably qualified members, and that even though I may currently be in New Orleans, any attempt to post a for sale in any section other than the For Sale section will be severely dealt with.

Cheers.

Re: Tamron 200-400 AF Macro Lens for Minolta / Sony query(sale?)

PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2008 2:57 pm
by Glen
Carazy, I don't believe there are any Sony DSLR prior to the present batch, but your comments (I haven't really followed the Sony range for some time) implies they might have had some before. I am sure if you have freshly googled you can enlighten us if there were prior models.

I almost purchased one of these about 2 years ago, as a price guide the price was $300 for one in perfect condition. The reviews had rated this as an average lens.

As Gary said can you correct your location?

Re: Tamron 200-400 AF Macro Lens for Minolta / Sony query(sale?)

PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2008 11:09 pm
by Murray Foote
All Sony DSRLs use the same mount but I seem to recall that they are only compatible with Minolta lenses since the last change in lense mount which I think (but may be wrong) was somewhere in the early to mid 90s. This thread indicates that Minolta AF lenses will work on Sony DSLRs but not manual lenses. You can get adaptors for the manual lenses but it reduces quality and requires stopdown metering. Your lense is an AF lense but since that thread says some recent Sigma lenses are not compatible you would need to test it on a Sony body to be sure.

However, if the lense has an Adaptall-2 mount (and not a fixed mount), it could be used by replacing the mount on at least Nikon cameras (maybe not the D40) and I would think Pentax, don't know about Canon or Sony.

It also depends on how sharp the lense is. Some old Tamron lenses were very good, some were dogs. I had an old 200-500 Tamron at one time, not at all like the current Tamron 200-500 and not very good quality. Yours is probably recent enough to be fairly good quality.

Re: Tamron 200-400 AF Macro Lens for Minolta / Sony query(sale?)

PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 1:59 am
by carazy
Ok. Location sorted out. My apologies about that. 1am posting got me sidetracked from the main faq.

Firstly thanks for the feedback.
Note: I saw the For Sale rules and hence defintely didn't offer my lens. The (sale?)='sale question' as opposed to 'do you want to buy' and was due to character limitations in the topic. Looking back I can see I could have used wording that was less ambiguous.

Analog6 wrote:Did the older Tamron lenses come with the mount 'built-in' or did they all have adatpers fitted

My lens has no adapter. It's a Tamron that was built specifically for the Minolta.

Glen wrote:I am sure if you have freshly googled you can enlighten us if there were prior models.
I almost purchased one of these about 2 years ago, as a price guide the price was $300 for one in perfect condition.

I know it fits on the Sony A series. Typing in "Sony DSLR" or "old sony dslr" "history of sony dslr" didn't really help so I don't know if there are older models.....leading to my posting here. I thought perhaps some members here may have owned or knew of old sony models which I could use as a reference/ search term to check compatibility. I guess I could leave that to the buyer to work out but I know when selling it helps to put in compatible models in the description so that potential buyers who type in eg "lens sony ZK999" could find it.

Even though it's in good condition it is old and from searching I was thinking price would poss be anywhere from $350-500 (which is still a wide range) but if $600 is a longshot option then obviously that's nice to know. The replies have confirmed a few things for me. The last thing I wanted to do was put it up for sale and then have people go "why did you sell it for so cheap".

I'd completely forgotten about this lens stored away and thought it's sale would help in some small way to future equipment purchases.
After 3 Vaio's, a Wega and 2 compact digi's I'm pretty much over the machine that is Sony so I know I won't be getting any A series.

.

Re: Tamron 200-400 AF Macro Lens for Minolta / Sony query(sale?)

PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2008 5:23 pm
by mic291
Hi there

I knew owning a Sony would come in handy for something !!! :D

The Minolta lenses will work fine on the Sony DSLR models. The current series, which are A200 through A700 will fit, and their first DSLR the A100 which is a couple of years old will also be fine.

Mike

Re: Tamron 200-400 AF Macro Lens for Minolta / Sony query(sale?)

PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 12:52 am
by carazy
Thanks all for your feedback.

Much appreciated