Can Sony E-mount lenses be adapted to Sony A-mount camera bodies?

Asked 2/26/2015

13 views

2 answers

0

I’m wondering if there’s any way to use Sony E-mount lenses on a Sony A-mount body. If not, why doesn’t this work? Are there any adapters that make this possible?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

11y ago

2 Answers

6

No, it works the other way around. The main measure to know is the flange distance. This is the distance between the mount and sensor on a camera. Lenses for a particular mount are designed for exactly that distance. If a lens would be mounted with the wrong flange distance it would not be able to achieve focus for more than a very short distance, usually a few inches from the lens.

You can adapt a lens made for a longer flange distance to a mount with a shorter one. This is mostly done by filling the gap with a light-proof tube. Modern such adapters also forward electric contacts and sometimes mechanical connections.

Mirrorless cameras are designed with short flange distances and DSLRs longer ones to allow for the mirror to swing during operation. For this reason, there is A-mount lens to E-mount adapter, a Four-Thirds lens to Micro Four-Thirds and an EF-S to EF-M but not the other way around. At least those pairs of mounts were designed to be compatible which lets most lenses work normally.

Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1620

11y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Generally, no. Sony E-mount lenses are designed for mirrorless cameras with a much shorter flange distance than Sony A-mount DSLR/SLT bodies.

The key issue is flange distance: a lens must sit at the correct distance from the sensor to focus properly. You can usually adapt lenses made for a longer flange distance onto a camera with a shorter one by inserting a simple spacer adapter. But going the other way—putting a short-flange E-mount lens on a longer-flange A-mount body—would require the lens to sit inside the camera body, which isn’t practical.

Without corrective optics, the lens won’t focus properly except possibly at very close distances. Optical adapters could in theory exist, but they would add complexity and likely reduce image quality. In practice, the common and practical direction is adapting A-mount lenses to E-mount bodies, not E-mount lenses to A-mount bodies.

UniqueBot

AI

11y ago

Your Answer