Can I mount my M42 and Sony/Minolta A-mount lenses on a Micro Four Thirds or APS-C mirrorless camera?

Question

I am thinking about buying a digital camera, namely a Panasonic Lumix GX80/GX85 Micro Four Thirds (M4/3).

Though, I do not intent to spend money on lenses very soon, and would like to remain using only the kit lens plus some old lenses I have at home together with some adapters, namely:

M42, from an old Praktica camera:

• macro 28mm f/2.8
• tele 135mm f/2.8
• standard 50mm f/2.8

Sony/Minolta A-mount (APS-C):

• Konica Minolta AF DT 18–70mm f/3.5–5.6
• Minolta MC Tele Rokkor 200mm f/4.5

Additionally I would also have the M4/3 kit lens from the Lumix camera:

• Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5–5.6 ASPH. Lens

I like M4/3 because of the nice features that Panasonic is providing (4k photo, focus stacking, post focus), and also because it is an open standard that is likely to be used by many manufacturers in the future, though I fear that the sensor size difference might make the lenses I intend to use very unusable. Do you think that these lenses will be okay to use with this camera, or is is maybe more reasonable to look at APS-C MILCs, such as the Sony a6000, because the results will be much better with it?

I still do not know what kind of photography I fancy most, since I am rather new to digital photography, having mostly a film photography background.

Answer 1

The lenses you have should adapt and work fine. They will be longer lenses (more telephoto) then what you're used to. But your kit lens can probably cover wide angles if you need them.

They won't be quite as long seeming in APSc, though they will still be quite a bit longer than full frame (traditional 35mm) - about 1.5x.

With m43 your lenses will be equivalent to exactly 2x the full frame lenses. So your wide 28mm becomes a normal 46mm equivalent*, your normal 50mm becomes a moderate tele 100m equivalent, and your 135mm and 200mm lenses become even longer reaching telephotos. No more wides, but the kit lens should cover that.

*Equivalent in Field of View. You still get the same f/stop and depth of field.

Answer 2

It's a good practice to use non-native lenses on MFT cameras due to short flange focal distance of MFT system.
But to my mind not all lenses deserve to be used. Some will give a pale ugly picture, but others, on the contrary, will create a miracle.

Wide angle. As said by @Jeremy S. you'll get more telephoto lenses so 24 mm FF (full frame) lense will be converted to 48 mm in EFV when you put it on MFT-camera. But I have some good experience using 8-mm fisheye on my Olympus (sigma 8/3.5), so sometimes it's a good idea.

Portrait range. There a lot of non-native lenses which could give you good results on MFT-camera. I've used Minolta 50/1.2, Canon 50/1.2 and 50/1.4, many Olympus OM 50/1.2, 50/1.4 and 50/1.8 and many other lenses with different focal length. Some shots are very interesting, have a good bokeh etc.
Some of those lenses are old and cheap (when you buy them via auction) so sometimes it can be good idea to have great shot for a practically nothing (in sense of money: I've bought Olympus OM 50/1.2 in broken state for 5 dollars then repair it and now I have a good manual portrait lense for 5 bucks :) ).

Telephoto range. The most applicable, to my mind. I have many non-native lenses, most commonly used of them are: Tair 3C, mirror lenses Rokinon 500/800/1000 and some telescope tubes. For astronomy and animal shots.

In any case, carefully select the adapter!!! My opinion, it must have the focus confirmation to help you with manual focusing (in that case you will get a zebra assistant and zoom in live view - see my answer on this question: Olympus E-M10 Mark II - zoom in live view with manual lens for a good example of such adapter (usually adapter + dandelion-chip attached). Yes, it will cost more than usual but it's worth it!