Problems with older Sigma lenses?

[Pink Dragonfly]

I have 3 older Sigma lenses from my Minolta Dynax 800si which fit my new Alpha 700. I have been a little hesitant to use them, as I have been reading on this Danish web site that the powerful motor in the Alpha 350/700 will trash the cogwheels in the Sigma lenses. Does anybody have any experience with this or know if there is any truth to these stories?

Mette

[Canuck935]

I have heard of at least a couple of cases where gears were stripped. You could always play it safe and just use those lenses in manual focus only. Another issue with older Sigma lenses is that there may be communication problems with the new camera's, but if you contact Sigma I think they will put new chips in them to fix the problem.

[Pink Dragonfly]

Thanks! I can always count on you for a quick and very useful answer - my new hero
It's my 105mm Macro lens I'm most fond of and that I used to use on MF quite a lot anyway. That leads me to another question....I no longer have perfect vision, getting a little bit long-sighted, what influence does that have on MF?
By the way, I was using the 18-70mm that came with the camera for photographing flowers on Saturday and was reasonably impressed with the results using the macro setting on the camera. Okay, they weren't the smallest flowers in the world but still...Huh...I love my new camera

[Canuck935]

Hi again! Glad to help! Well, first I would adjust the diopter on the camera. Use the camera's AF and lock focus on something, then adjust the diopter until it looks in focus to you. Also the green focus indicator in the viewfinder should still work in MF mode so that can help you verify focus.

[pisco]

Can you put focusing screens on the A700? (the image splits unless it's in focus)?
If there's no official way to do this, there must be an unofficial (there is a way for the A100)

[Canuck935]

I don't know if there are focusing screens for the a700. Maybe some third party ones out there like you mentioned..