{"id":5612,"date":"2026-04-29T11:15:13+00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:15:13+00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iso3200.org\/blog\/?p=5612"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:30:21+00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:30:21+00:00","slug":"a-mount-and-in-lens-focus-motor-lenses-on-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iso3200.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/a-mount-and-in-lens-focus-motor-lenses-on-film\/","title":{"rendered":"A-mount and in-lens focus motor lenses on film"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While Minolta introduced in-lens autofocus motors to the A-mount in 2003, it was Sony that fully utilises the technology. Introduced late for the film era, support for SSM\/SAM lenses in film cameras is flaky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In 2003, Minolta introduced two lenses — the Minolta AF 300mm F2.8 G APO D SSM and the Minolta AF 70\u2013200mm F2.8 G APO D SSM. Both lenses introduced an in-lens focus motor, labelled as SSM \u2013 Super Sonic-wave Motor. It is an equivalent technology to the well-known Canon USM \u2013 Ultra Sonic Motor. Technically, it’s a piezoelectric ring motor that drives the focus group directly without gears, yielding faster, quieter AF and typically allowing full-time manual focus override.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction of a new autofocusing technology in 2003 meant that film cameras significantly older than that aren’t able to use autofocus on those two lenses. But both lenses were top-of-the-line models, and film photographers of the era wanting to use them were already using equally top-of-the-line cameras or considered switching to digital cameras that fully supported the technology outright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Minolta AF 300mm F2.8 G APO D SSM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Minolta AF 70\u2013\u200d200mm F2.8 G APO D SSM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Then and now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the last 23 years, a lot has changed. Film went into obscurity, Minolta merged with Konica and got sold to Sony; Sony made a whole bunch of digital cameras with A-mount only to officially discontinue it almost two decades later in 2022. With a whole bunch of DSLRs across the price range, Sony also introduced a whole bunch of lenses with in-lens focusing motors and even introduced a less complex and less expensive in-lens focusing technology \u2013 SAM, Smooth Autofocus Motor. What was an exotic and expensive technology available only to professional photographers is now a widely available, affordable option. In a digital world, everything is just fine; even a “lowly” Konica Minolta Dynax 5D supports both SSM and SAM lenses out-of-the-box. But in a film world, with film cameras solidly frozen in time, support for exotic technology is flaky, at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For us wanting to use all those more or less fancy SSM or SAM lenses on film cameras, options fall down to just seven models \u2013 all the last hurrah models made after the turn of the millennium, single-digit Dynax models (and a Dynax 60), and a sole exception of a Minolta Dynax 9, released in 1998, that needs a factory update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compatible cameras<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Only film cameras listed here are able to use SSM and SAM in-lens motors for focusing. All other, older cameras don’t support the feature, and manual focusing is the only available option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Minolta used three different naming schemes \u2013 for the domestic market in Japan (and China), for North American markets and for the rest of the world \u2013 the list is divided into three sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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