Minolta AF Fish-Eye 16mm f/2.8 (later revision)įisheye lens same design as before except for different built-in filters succeeded by Sony SAL-16F28Ģ579-100, 2579-600, 2579-610 Leica Fisheye-Elmarit-R 16mm f/2.8) produced up to 1981 with an optical design originally introduced in 1966/1968. Minolta AF Fish-Eye 16mm f/2.8 (original revision)įisheye lens first 600 units used a different barrel construction internally optically similar to the Minolta MC Fish-Eye Rokkor 16mm f/2.8 (a.k.a. A similar scheme previously had been used by Minolta in the 1960s and 1970s to distinguish their Rokkor and Rokkor-X branding variants for SR-mount lenses. They differed only in their cosmetics (name plate engraving) and part number designations ( ?-1? for AF, ?-6? for Maxxum AF). Īlthough some buyers associated either the Maxxum AF or the AF designation with a higher quality, both types of lenses were built to exactly the same specifications and quality standards in the factory, and were only used to improve trackability and distinguish gray market imports (lenses originally purchased from international sources and resold in North America by private importers rather than official imports from Minolta). The initial production runs of Maxxum AF lenses introduced with the camera system in 1985 originally used a "crossed XX" font, which was soon dropped by Minolta after Exxon brought a trademark lawsuit that year under the settlement, Minolta agreed to change its logo. Until the mid 1990s, A-mount lenses for the North American market were engraved as Maxxum AF the rest of the world were branded as AF lenses, including the regions using the Dynax and α branding for the cameras. In North America, Minolta marketed the camera and lenses with the Maxxum branding. Minolta 50mm f/1.7 lens, branded as "AF" for the rest of the world The 20 lenses relaunched in 2006 included: Of the dozen rebranded lenses, most are optically, mechanically and electrically identical to their Minolta predecessors and differ only in their outer appearance, however, three have seen subtle changes in the optics and electro-mechanics. When Sony took over the system in 2006, 12 lenses were rebranded as Sony A-mount lenses and launched alongside 6 new designs and 2 teleconverters. Lenses were branded as "Konica Minolta" starting in August 2003 following the merger of the two companies. With the introduction of the Maxxum/Alpha 7 and its support for distance-encoded HS(D) flashes in 2001, Minolta began releasing its AF lenses with three additional contacts (eight total) to support the Advance Distance Integration (ADI) functionality, which reports the focus distance back to the camera body. Some of the original lenses were re-released with updated cosmetics and are known as "New" or "Restyled" versions minor optical updates such as coatings and aperture shape were sometimes included. Later lenses changed the grip style and added a rubber coating to the focus ring.
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Initially, the lenses were equipped with narrow ribbed manual focus rings in hard plastic near the front zoom lenses had a diagonally-ribbed rubber grip.