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Hello. This question is directed at those photographers who know a lot about cameras in general. My mom found a camera lense while she was cleaning out her old stuff today. She thinks it was a gift from someone. I have a Canon T70 Camera (Yeah its kinda old, but works great) I would ask this question but this lense she found is awesome! It is a Minolta 50mm f3.5 and it looks like it zooms into Life Size! It also has an extender tube with it! It is in great shape but the only problem is that i cant hook it up to my Canon. Are there any adapters or something made for this purpose? Any help would be greatly appreciated because i would now have the ability to focus down to small salamanders and such that are very common around here and take some close up's of snakes, toads, frogs, turtles, insects, etc. Please any info would be greatly appreciated.

PS-It has a removable thing hooked up to it it attaches to the back lke an extension but bottlenecks down into a small maybe 1" opening with some threading around it. What is this? Thanks Again!
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-Doug Daly

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0.1.0 Leucistic Texas Rat Snake (Elaphe Obsoleta lindheimerii)

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I have a Canon T70 Camera ....this lense she found is....a Minolta 50mm f3.5 and it looks like it zooms into Life Size! It also has an extender tube with it!
Are there any adapters or something made for this purpose?

First off, you have to consider what type of Minolta lens it is. They have both Maxxum series autofocus lenses and MD series manual focus lenses. You can probably get an adapter for either lens to the Canon FD mount, although you may lose some automatic control of apertures, etc.

With the 50mm and an extension tube (if that is what it is) you should be able to achieve high magnifications, but only by being REALLY close to the subject (a few cm, at best).

Another thing you might consider is selling one piece of this equipment and using the money to buy a matching piece of the other brand. If the Minolta lens is a Maxxum (autofocus), it is worth more money than the T-70. In that case, I might be tempted to get rid of the T-70 and buy an inexpensive used Maxxum autofocus body (you can get a 400si used for under $70). This will lead you into a good system of cameras that you can expand on later (Minolta has a new entry level digital SLR coming out in a few months).

If the minolta lens is manual focus, you could either get a manual focus body (again for less that $75) or get rid of the Minolta lens and extender and get a Canon manual focus lens and extender. However I would always rather get a newer model camera and put an older lens on it than vice versa and staying with the minolta system would be cheaper than getting new lenses for the Canon.

If you are looking to exchange/sell a piece, try KEH.com. They are very reputable and the equipment they sell is always in better condition than they advertise (if they say it is good, it means it is near perfect).

For selling, KEH will buy, but you could might more money on Ebay.

Either way, get a good book and learn about photography and how to use an SLR. Good photographers take good photos, not good cameras.

PS-It has a removable thing hooked up to it it attaches to the back lke an extension but bottlenecks down into a small maybe 1" opening with some threading around it. What is this?

I would have to see a picture of what you are talking about. Do you mean the camera has a "removeable thing" or the lens does? Could it be a microscope adapter of some sort.
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Chris Harrison