As you may have realized from my previous blog posts am i a huge fan of old vintage lenses. This love has grown so strong that I decided to completely switch from Sony A-Mount to Sony E-Mount. I sold my A77II, which I enjoyed for the past 2 years. But after I bought the A6000, the 77II found its place in my cupboard.
The reason for this step from A to E is the way shorter flange focal distance of an E-Mount Camera. The flange focal distance describes the distance between the last (rear) glass element of the lens and the sensor or film of the camera. As you can see in
the picture the flange focal distance of a conventional A-Mount (or any other camera with a mirror or translucent mirror) is way longer. The mirror and the flipping mechanism need space.
Flange focal distance
In this list, you can see the flange focal distance of several mounts (Full list can be found here). I personally use Minolta MD, Minolta A, M42 and Exakta EXA on my Sony Alpha 6000. If you want to adapt old or just different lens mounts to your camera without any effect to the infinity focus or the quality its important to always keep an eye on the flange focal distances. If the distance of the lens you want to adapt is at least 1mm longer than the one you need on your camera you may be able to find an adapter in the WWW.
| Sony E-Mount / Sony NEX | 18 mm |
| Sony A-Mount / Minolta A-Mount | 44,5 mm |
| M42 x 1 | 45,46 mm |
| Exakta EXA | 44,7 mm |
| Minolta MD / MC / SR | 43,5 mm |
| Pentax Q-Mount | 9,2 mm |
Some examples:
“I want to adapt a M42 lens to my Sony E-Mount Camera” à No problem. Look for an M42 to E-Mount adapter. Have fun.
“I want to adapt a M42 lens to my Sony A-Mount Camera” à Maybe a little problem. There are really thin adapters to buy. Make sure to buy a “good” one that has the exact measurements. Otherwise when it’s a little bit too thick or too thin you lose your infinity focus.
“I want to adapt an Exakta EXA lens to my Sony A-Mount Camrea” à There is no way to adapt the EXA Lens to A-Mount without either losing infinity focus or dealing with an extra lens inside the adapter. It’s possible but you either lose quality and light or the infinity focus.
“I want to adapt an Exakta EXA lens to my Sony E-Mount Camera” à No problem. Look for an EXA to E-Mount adapter. Have fun.
“I want to adapt a Pentax Q-Mount lens to my Sony E-Mount Camera” à There is no way to adapt the Q-Mount Lens to A-Mount without either losing infinity focus or dealing with an extra lens inside the adapter. It’s possible but you either lose quality and light or the infinity focus.
As you can see in the examples it’s always possible to adapt a lens. The only thing you might lose is quality and light or infinity focus. There are even some “smart adapters” which you can use to use autofocus lenses (Nikon, Canon) on your Sony E-Mount Camera. (Need to be the newer models to deal with the autofocus).
Photo examples
Meyer Optik Görlitz Primoplan 58mm f1,9
- Camera : Sony Alpha 6000
- Adapter : EXA to E-Adapter
Minolta AF 50mm f1,4
- Camera : Sony Alpha 6000
- Adapter : Sony LA-EA4 Adapter
Minolta MD 50mm f1,4
- Camera : Sony Alpha 6000
- Adapter : MD to E Mount Adapter
Adapt schema
I hope you enjoyed this post
I hope you enjoyed this little post like I did writing it. If you want me to review a special lens out of my portfolio of vintage lenses please comment here.
Kind regards,
Daniel
feel free to visit my pages and see all of my work.
The Golden Hour 
I’m using Contax Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.7T*, Yashica ML 28mm f2.8, Fujinon EBC 55mm f1.8 & f2.2 M42. Carl Zeiss Jena S (Sonnar) 135mm f3.5 MC M42. All Vintage legacy lens. None from Sony.
A little note on Adapting to A-Mount
The only two mounts which it is possible to adapt to (without correcting elements) from A-mount is M42 and Leica-R.
You can get other adapters like the Fotodiox adapter rings for Contax/Yashica, Olympus OM, Pentax K, and Nikon F mounts. The downside of these adapters is that they have a correcting element in them which degrade the performance of the adapted lens.
According to Daniel should it be possible to adapt loss-free to other mounts as well
https://guldmann.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/adapt-2-a-mount.xlsx
Fotodiox Pro Lens Mount Adapter – Exakta, Auto Topcon SLR Lens to Sony Alpha A-Mount (and Minolta AF) Mount SLR Camera Body
https://fotodioxpro.com/collections/lens-mount-adapters/products/exakta-snya-pro
standard Sony bayonet for Leica-R lenses with six holes.
http://www.leitax.com/Leica-lens-for-Sony-cameras.html