The 6 Best Lenses for the Sony A100

A terrific combination of very compact size and lightweight. Fast and quiet autofocus is delivered by a built-in motor..

The circular aperture allows you to stop down by 2-stops and still have an almost circular aperture. This delivers gorgeous bokeh and greater versatility in managing your depth of field.

Minolta Maxxum AF 50mm f/1.7

• Built-in lens hood.
• Amazing value.
• Light and compact.
• Widely available used.
• Coupled autofocus.

This is one of the first lenses from the intro of the A-mount for autofocus. Due to the age of the lens, the autofocus is driven by the motor built into the A100’s body.

Coupled autofocus can be noticeably noisy and jerky. If that is not a major problem for you the image quality is amazing. {The bokeh is attractive and you will end up with a classic look to your images|You’ll get a classic image rendering and eye-catching bokeh.

One more significant benefit of this lens is the price. It’s significantly cheaper when compared to the Sony 50mm f/1.8 and on top of that could be the least expensive lens on the list.

Sony 50mm f/1.4

• Outstanding optics.
• Optical multi-coatings.
• Circular aperture.
• 55mm filter threads.

A bit faster when compared to the Sony f/1.8, but that can definitely be important when you are taking pictures in low light. That not surprisingly comes at an additional expense.

It is still a light and relatively small lens that works well on the A100 and will fit into virtually any camera bag.

A possibly less expensive alternative is the Minolta AF 50mm f/1.4. Be aware that they can be difficult to come across in usable condition. It also was built with physically coupled autofocus, which is worse than lenses that have built-in autofocus motors}.

Portrait & Telephoto Lens

Sony 85mm f/1.4 ZA

• Incredible bokeh.
• Excellent value used.
• T* coating to reduce flare and increase contrast.
• Astonishingly sharp wide open.

Sony wanted to exhibit what the A-mount can do. Zeiss produced this lens. The ZA (Zeiss Alpha) indicates that Zeiss created the lens specifically for the A-mount.

This lens is the real deal. Corner-to-corner sharpness with brilliant color that produces amazing portraits.

Potential downsides are that it’s a little on the heavy side due to being built like a tank and the autofocus can feel slow. Be aware, that you will find those same issues with any f/1.4 85mm.

Minolta Maxxum AF 85mm f/1.4

• Possible to find a good used deal.
• Superb image quality.
• Uses autofocus coupler.
• Double-Gauss design.

In terms of price, this lens sits between the others. Finding a used copy in better than acceptable condition could be hard as a result of a small available supply.

The lens does have autofocus, but it uses a mechanical coupler and is driven by an in-camera body motor. This means the lens will be a bit loud and slow to autofocus.

The lens is an older 6 lens element Double-Gauss design. That’s not a negative as the lens has a distinctive appearance that is not able to be produced using a modern lens.

Sony A100 Zoom Lenses

Sony 28-75mm f/2.8

• Very usable zoom range.
• Great value used.
• Constant aperture.
• Smooth Autofocus Motor (SAM).

A fast zoom lens that is perfect for night events, travel, indoor shooting, and family photos. The autofocus is fairly quiet and the lens is well constructed.

The lens is often compared to the legendary Zeiss 24-70mm, but it’s approximately 1/2 the weight and costs considerbly less. Both lenses produce pro images.

Sony 55-200mm f/4-5.6 SAM DT

• Telephoto zoom range.
• Great for portrait or wildlife photography.
• Smooth Autofocus Motor (SAM).
• Inexpensive.

While still creating very good results, this is a less expensive choice. It’s not a pro lens, consequently assuming that you do not require high end technology, it is an excellent lens.

For a telephoto zoom, it has an outstanding range for shooting pictures of sports, children outdoors, and wildlife.

The autofocus is snappy and it renders razor-sharp pictures. The lens is constructed of plastic, which aids in eliminating weight.

Sony 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6

• Super telephoto zoom lens.
• Great for portrait or wildlife photography.
• 2.81 inches in diameter and 4.81 inches long.
• 55mm filter threads.

A super-telephoto lens due to the large zoom range. It’s an excellent affordable alternative for any time you desire a lots of reach.

It’s only 4.8 inches (12.2 cm) long, 2.8 inches (7.1 cm) in diameter, and is 1 pound 2 ounces (510g). While that is not considered light, many pro telephoto zooms are multiple times heavier.

For a little bit better performance look for the Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 SSM ED G-Series, but assume you’ll have to pay nearly twice as much.

Wide Angle Lens

Sony DT 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6

• Has a aspherical lens elements.
• Optical multi-coatings.
• Great value when purchased used.
• Circular aperture.

Excellent value for the money if you want to shoot outstanding wide images that standard kit zooms can’t capture. Distortion, especially of vertical lines is low or non-existent unless you are purposefully trying to have an exaggerated perspective.

In addition to being outstanding at capturing beautiful landscapes, it’s an excellent lens to travel with. The lens is wide enough so that when you come across something you’ll be able to get everything in frame.

Sony 20mm f/2.8

• Great for landscapes and architecture.
• Coated optics for clarity and definition.
• Rear focusing system for fast autofocus response.
• 72mm filter threads.

It’s well-corrected and does an excellent job of reducing lens distortion. Additionally, quite a lot of effort has been done to minimize internal reflections and flare.

The result is an outstanding lens that is appropriate for astrophotography, architecture, and landscape photography. The rear focusing system means the front element is not going to rotate so you will not have any troubles using a circular polarizer or another filter.

Tokina AT-X 11-16mm f/2.8 DX II

• Wide angle zoom lens.
• Hardened Alumite finish.
• Advanced optical coatings.
• All metallic moving parts.
• Designed for APS-C Sensors.

It does not have extremely fast autofocus, but the MF/AF focus clutch means it’s a great pick for manual focusing. A pull or push of the focus ring will switch the lens from AF to MF or vice versa.

The Tokina has a larger aperture when compared to the Sony 11-18mm, which is not a huge issue for landscape or architecture photography. Where you’ll observe a big difference is with astrophotography. That’s a situation where you’d want to have the 1-to-2 stop advantage the Tokina offers you.

Fisheye

Sony 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye

• Sharp corner-to-corner.
• 4 built-in filters: Normal, 056, B12, A12.
• 8 inch minimum focus distance.
• Aspherical and Extra-low Dispersion elements.

Having built-in filters is a fantastic addition due to the fact the lens has a petal-style hood which prevents a lens filter from being attached to the front of the lens.

• 056 - Accented contrast for black and white photos.
• B12 - Correct color by eliminating red tones.
• A12 - Correct color by eliminating blue tones.

This lens has pretty much everything you could require from a fisheye lens. You can get the exaggerated distortion, but the image will be sharp from corner-to-corner without vignetting.

Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye

• Internal focus.
• 180 degree angle of view.
• Manual focus.
• Minimum focusing distance of 12 inches (0.3m).
• Designed for APS-C sensors.

The lens contains a large front that means lens filters can not be attached. It has a snap-on petal-style lens hood that you will want to make sure is included if you buy a used copy.

Construction quality will be a little hit or miss due to the budget price. Almost all owners are quite happy with the results they get. You will nevertheless want to fully test out the lens when you receive it to make sure the lens is not a bad copy.

Macro Lens

Sony 100mm f/2.8 Macro

• 9 aperture blades.
• Focus range limiter.
• High contrast and resolution.
• 55mm filter threads.

The right balance of price, size, and working distance for the Sony A100. The autofocus can be somewhat noisy, but for taking macro images, manual focus is easier than using autofocus.

For the optimal images at 1x magnification the lens really needs to be stopped down. Doing that will additionally give you a larger depth of field, which is useful for macro photography.

Sony 50mm f/2.8 Macro

• 10.4 ounces (295g).
• Focus range limiter.
• Focus Hold button for full creative control.
• 55mm filter threads.

A 50mm isn’t ideal for 1x magnification as a result of how little working distance you will have. At that level of magnification, the front lens element will need to be about 2 inches (5 cm) from the subject.

This lens excels at close-up, copy work, and tabletop photography. It gives you the option to get closer to a subject than a standard 50mm lens, and that is ideal for nature photography if you want to fill the camera frame with a smaller sized subject, such as a flower.

Tamron AF 90mm f/2.8 Di SP A/M 1:1 Macro

• Available in a variety of camera mounts.
• Improved resolution, chromatic correction, and optical coatings.
• Super Performance (SP)
• Focus clutch to switch between AF & MF.

In addition to having autofocus, the focus ring feels great when manually focusing. Closed down a couple of stops and you will get razor-sharp photos.

Additionally, be cautious when buying this lens as it is manufactured for various lens mounts.

Used A-Mount Camera Lens Prices

Pricing is constantly in flux. Over the past handful of years, interest in film photography has been going up. Seeing as there are Minolta 35mm cameras that use A-mount lenses, some additional demand is placed on the price of lenses.

The Sony A-mount also does not have a significant share of the market. Due to this fact, fewer third party options exist and the lenses produced by Sony are oftentimes on backorder.

To obtain the best price on what you want, look at a few sites. For pre-owned lenses, be ready to make a purchase when you see a good deal as they generally will not last long.

What Lens Mount Does the A100 Use?

The Sony A100 uses the Sony A-mount. It’s also the same as the Minolta A-mount. This is because Sony bought Konica Minolta’s imaging division in 2006.

Minolta engineered the A-mount for the intro of interchangeable lens cameras with autofocus in 1985. It’s still in use to this day.

Standard Lens Cap Size

Generally 55mm, but really the sizes are all over the place. Older Minolta lenses have 49mm filter threads.

Additionally, there are a number of lenses that have larger filter threads than 55mm. It is not uncommon to see 77mm ro 72mm. It would’ve been nice if Sony used only 2 or 3 different filter sizes.

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