minolta 35-70 f/4 macro AF hack

this was original found in a chinese xitek.com forum thread:

 

forum.xitek.com/showthread.php?threadid=349607&pagenu...

 

then passed on to dyxum.com by jvc2000 in this thread:

 

www.dyxum.com/dforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12549&PN=1

 

since there wasn't a picture other than from the xitek.com, i thought i'd post my hack job.

 

the minolta AF 35-70 F4 lens has no auto-focus when you use the macro. this hack is very simple, allow auto-focus to be used when in macro mode.

 

all you need are:

1] xacto knife

2] "scotch"/transparent tape

3] scissors

4] 5 minutes

5] some steady hands.

 

since i have 3 of these lens I decided to take the plunge with 1 of them.

 

- go into macro mode

- pry off the rubber grip using the knife.

- you will see a black tape. again use the knife to pull it off on one side

- this will expose the gold contacts

- the third large band is where you will put the scotch/transparent tape over. (view the picture above). you can also tape over the thin band to the right of it.

- for me, the width of the scotch/transparent tape is the same length as the entire macro gold contact.

- because the hole is smaller than the entire length of the macro gold contact, i had to put the tape on the start of the macro gold contact and taped it down, and then turned the zoom to expose the end of the macro gold contact and pushed the tape down.

- be careful not to bend the pins on the white plastic while doing all this!

- close the black tape back up

- put the grip back on. you don't need any glue. the adhesive on the grip should be plenty sticky.

 

YMMV and do at your own risk :)

Done