Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Pics shot with Nikon D50 at medium size jpeg format with 90mm Sigma macro - shot in Aperture priority but with no other settings changed on camera. I've just been playing around with the camera since I got it a couple weeks ago so I haven't even begun to scratch the surface with things like white balance, exposure control, changing metering settings, etc.

Corn Snake [captive]

Florida Kingsnake [captive]

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Matt Campbell

Big animals, little animals, plants - right down to the sea itself. We need them, not just for their own sake, but because all this has to be here for everybody forever. Only one thing is certain: if we are to preserve our environment and save this priceless wildlife we need much, much more knowledge.
Harry Butler from 'In the Wild With Harry Butler' 1977

I assume you bought this lens used as Sigma no longer makes the 90mm macro (only a 105).

I used this as my primary herp photographing lens on my film camera (in Minolta mount) for quite a few years. I was very happy with it. It is sharp and easy to use. It was a little slow focusing, but never a problem.

Did you get the 1:1 adapter with it? I was surprised at how sharp that little diopter attachment was.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

>>I assume you bought this lens used as Sigma no longer makes the 90mm macro (only a 105).

Correct. I purchased it used from KEH [www.keh.com].

>>Did you get the 1:1 adapter with it? I was surprised at how sharp that little diopter attachment was.

No, unfortunately - just the lens with caps. I plan on getting my hands on some extension tubes in the near future though. Right now I'm just playing around. I've forgotten so much about SLR advanced features over the last few years. Once I started shooting digital I just shelved my film gear [all old Minolta stuff]. Since I've gone Nikon and my old Minolta gear is essentially useless to me these days, I think I'm just going to sell all my stuff to KEH.
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Matt Campbell

Big animals, little animals, plants - right down to the sea itself. We need them, not just for their own sake, but because all this has to be here for everybody forever. Only one thing is certain: if we are to preserve our environment and save this priceless wildlife we need much, much more knowledge.
Harry Butler from 'In the Wild With Harry Butler' 1977

I started shooting digital I just shelved my film gear [all old Minolta stuff]. Since I've gone Nikon and my old Minolta gear is essentially useless to me these days

That is good timing. Right now good older minolta lenses are selling for a premium on Ebay. For example, the highly rated 70-200 f/4 from the 1980s was selling on Ebay for $75-$100 around a year ago but recently has been selling for $200-$400+ dollars. (I'm glad I stocked up on decent Minolta mount glass last year!).

The price rise appears to be because a lot of people bought the new entry level Minolta DSLR (5D) over the christmas holidays and they are trying to stock up on good glass.

Also, if you can wait a while, Sony is going to bring out their first DSLR this summer and it will use the Minolta autofocus lens mount and flash mount. When that happens, it is likely that Minolta glass will be in short supply and be very popular again on Ebay.

What Minolta lenses do you have? You can make more money selling on Ebay for lenses if they are in decent condition.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Chris,
My Minolta gear is all manual focus - useless with the 5D and 7D. I thought about selling on Ebay, but I think going through KEH I should get pretty fair money for it and what's more I can simply apply what they'd give me towards more equipment from them. Too bad Minolta had to use two totally different lense mounts between Maxxum and manual focus bodies. Still, even if you could use some adapter of some sort, you'd still run into problems with metering and in-focus indicators, etc. The limitations in using old lenses with DSLRs seem to be more trouble than they're worth, especially when most newer lenses are much better built and designed.
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Matt Campbell

Big animals, little animals, plants - right down to the sea itself. We need them, not just for their own sake, but because all this has to be here for everybody forever. Only one thing is certain: if we are to preserve our environment and save this priceless wildlife we need much, much more knowledge.
Harry Butler from 'In the Wild With Harry Butler' 1977