reusing old slr telephoto lens with olympus 740

On Jul 24, 5:49 am, Alex Monro <nospamdeleteabusen....DeleteThis@argaty.org.uk>
wrote:
> nospam.....DeleteThis@gmail.com wrote:
> > Are there adapters that would allow me to use my old Minolta telephoto
> > lenses on my Olympus 740? I'm totally willing to give up auto focus
> > or auto anything. I do see how this could be a chore since the
> > original slr telephoto assumed that there was film right behind it not
> > another set of lens, but it does seem like it would be possible to
> > make such a thing work with an adapter that has yet another lens in it
> > to make the compensations.
>
> The Olympus C-740 is a fixed lens ultrazoom camera, so there's no way
> you could remove the lens to fit your old Minolta lenses. I believe
> that there were originally wide, tele & macro conversion lenses that
> screw on to the filter adapter, but since the camera design is 4 years
> old, they may be hard to find now.
>
> You might be able to use Minolta SLR lenses on the Sony Alpha DSLR.

tks Alex,
what triggered all this thinking on this subject is that we are bird
watchers and it would be nice to occasionally couple this 740 to a
telescope or binnocular to get a better picture of a bird out there.
To do that requires some kind of coupler that must have some kind of
lens in it to compensate so the image size is reasonable when veiwed
thru the scope. Then I realized I had this old minolta zoom lens and
I got to thinking maybe I could somehow use it in a similar manner.
So even if this coupler created a slightly unwieldly and not
altogether optically perfect solution it would at least be good enough
to capture a recognizable bird image. So part of the question I was
trying to answer was just what kind of lens do they put into those
screw in adapters. From what you are saying about the 740 its
particular lens implementation may not easily lend itself to do
something like this. Too bad, I really do like this camera.

I once was in to the SLR thing big time but I just got tired of
carrying around something so big. This 740 is so convenient to use.

Obviously, trying to save a few bucks here too. Something that
usually invites rude remarks here on newsgroups.

tks
Don
 >> Stay informed about: reusing old slr telephoto lens with olympus 740 

nospam.don DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:
> On Jul 24, 5:49 am, Alex Monro <nospamdeleteabusen... DeleteThis @argaty.org.uk>
> wrote:
>
>> nospam.... DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>>Are there adapters that would allow me to use my old Minolta telephoto
>>>lenses on my Olympus 740? I'm totally willing to give up auto focus
>>>or auto anything. I do see how this could be a chore since the
>>>original slr telephoto assumed that there was film right behind it not
>>>another set of lens, but it does seem like it would be possible to
>>>make such a thing work with an adapter that has yet another lens in it
>>>to make the compensations.
>>
>>The Olympus C-740 is a fixed lens ultrazoom camera, so there's no way
>>you could remove the lens to fit your old Minolta lenses. I believe
>>that there were originally wide, tele & macro conversion lenses that
>>screw on to the filter adapter, but since the camera design is 4 years
>>old, they may be hard to find now.
>>
>>You might be able to use Minolta SLR lenses on the Sony Alpha DSLR.
>
>
> tks Alex,
> what triggered all this thinking on this subject is that we are bird
> watchers and it would be nice to occasionally couple this 740 to a
> telescope or binnocular to get a better picture of a bird out there.
> To do that requires some kind of coupler that must have some kind of
> lens in it to compensate so the image size is reasonable when veiwed
> thru the scope. Then I realized I had this old minolta zoom lens and
> I got to thinking maybe I could somehow use it in a similar manner.
> So even if this coupler created a slightly unwieldly and not
> altogether optically perfect solution it would at least be good enough
> to capture a recognizable bird image. So part of the question I was
> trying to answer was just what kind of lens do they put into those
> screw in adapters. From what you are saying about the 740 its
> particular lens implementation may not easily lend itself to do
> something like this. Too bad, I really do like this camera.
>
> I once was in to the SLR thing big time but I just got tired of
> carrying around something so big. This 740 is so convenient to use.
>
> Obviously, trying to save a few bucks here too. Something that
> usually invites rude remarks here on newsgroups.
>
> tks
> Don

Now that you've supplied enough info as to what you want to do, I have a
suggestion.
It's possible to get an eyepiece that converts an SLR lens into a telescope.
I've seen the adaptors on eBay occasionally, the one you're after would
be for Minolta MD (if it's a manual focus lens, or Dynax/Sony Alpha
mount if AF).
Once you've got the eyepiece adaptor, you then need a coupling tube to
attach the lens of your Olympus C-740 to the eyepiece.

I suspect that what you're really looking for is a screw-in
teleconverter for your Olympus C-740.
This would be easier to find than an eyepiece adaptor and then fiddle
around with coupling tubes, as the teleconverter is a rigid unit with
your camera when it's screwed in.
It's also a bit easier to mount/dismount that the slr lens plus eyepiece
adaptor plus coupling tube.
 >> Stay informed about: reusing old slr telephoto lens with olympus 740 

> I'm sure that this question has been asked before but my googling and
> yahooing is not finding my answer so here goes.
> Are there adapters that would allow me to use my old Minolta telephoto
> lenses on my Olympus 740? I'm totally willing to give up auto focus
> or auto anything. I do see how this could be a chore since the
> original slr telephoto assumed that there was film right behind it not
> another set of lens, but it does seem like it would be possible to
> make such a thing work with an adapter that has yet another lens in it
> to make the compensations.
> At least the 740 does have some kind of thread on the front of the
> lens.

You would not only need an adapter, but an adapter with a lens element
to correct the afocal.

On the other hand, you can get a reverse-lens-ring and reverse mount
the Minolta lens on the front of the 740 for some extreme macro
photography.

Chieh
 >> Stay informed about: reusing old slr telephoto lens with olympus 740