My α Journey: Found Some Old Minolta Lenses

My friend who just bought the Sony Alpha A300 managed to find a couple of lenses from his dad’s old camera bag. In the bag, we found a Yashica SLR, a Minolta SLR with a 35-70mm/f4 attached to it, some external flash guns, and behold, we found a big Minolta lens pouch.

What was inside shocked us… real hard. We pulled out a near-mint Minolta 70-210mm/f4 lens! Yes, the legendary Beercan lens! It has the lens hood, front and back caps, and a UV filter as well. We wasted no time attaching the lens onto my trust A200 only to find out that it was hazy and dark when viewed through the viewfinder.

After looking through the lens from the front, we could see some crystallized specks on the front lens elements. Hmm, could be fungus. We were a little it worried that the fungus might be stubborn and stayed there permanently, but we were not sure.

The other Minolta lens, the 35-70mm/f4 was good, no fungus or specks inside the lens. The only downside is that the aperture blades were a little bit sticky and slow. That wouldn’t be much of a problem though, a minor service should do the job.

Through the Alphanatics forum, I managed to find out a good lens repairman who goes by the name of Albert Cheah whose shop resides at Mutiara Complex along Jalan Ipoh. We shall head there soon in order to get our new found lens back to its former glory.

Can’t wait to use the Beercan!