What other name brand lenses can I use on my Nikon D5100?

I just recently bought a Nikon D5100. I was just wonderingwhat other name brand company lenses may I be able to use besides the name brand Nikon. Reason I'm asking is due to the fact that I use to own a Minolta MAXXUM SPxi and have 3 different lenses. Which are: Minolta AF 35-80, Phoenix 19-35mm 1:3.5 -4.5 AF Zoom, and a Sigma DL Zoom 75-300mm 1:4 - 5.6. I tried looking online but had no luck. Please let me know cause it would be great if I can use the Phoenix & Sigma lenses on my Nikon!

You can't use Minolta mount lens' on a Nikon. Sigma, Tamron, Vivatar are just a few of the many companys that make lens' for just about every camera made.

I would warn you against Tamron. I own one and it has focus and and aberration issues. This will be my one and only Tamron lens.

You need to consider several things. First is the type of lens mount. For instance, your camera will likely require a FX or DX mount. So if your lenses are not of that type, you won't be able to put them on your camera. The second consideration is whether they will fully function with your camera. While they may fit, they may not auto focus or auto exposure.

Check out the link, which is a user forum on Sigma lenses on Nikon digital cameras.

I can't answer your question on the Phoenix lenses however.

From what I could find out about the Minolta lenses, is that you would be required to purchase an adapter, and in doing so lose auto focus and possibly auto exposure properties.

You might want to look into used lenses for your Nikon. Some of the older Nikon lenses work fine on the new Nikon digital cameras, but have gotten out of favor.

I'm using a little old zoom Nikon lens on my D300 that fell out of favor, but works great for my purposes. And it was cheap.

I stick to Nikon and Sigma. There are many to choose from but I think the Nikon 5100 does not have an external drive for lenses which do not have built in motors, so watch out for this.

For instance, if you see a Sigma you like, make sure it has a HSM motor.

Your other lenses will work only if they have the Nikon F mount. While some lens adapters do exist, and even if you can find one for your lenses, they are usually pretty mediocre, and often do not let you focus to infinity.

The best lenses for Nikon are in descending order:

Nikon
Tokina
Sigma
Tamron

There are a few Zeiss lenses available for the Nikon F-mount and they should probably be at the top of the list, but they are more of an exotic solution that most photographers can't afford or appreciate.

The other brands; Vivitar, Quantarary, and any ones not previously mentioned are not worthy of your camera.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to use most Tokina lenses, which is too bad as they are pretty good lenses - and rival some Nikon lenses.

Actually, you would be able to use them but you would not be able to autofocus most of them as only one Tokina currently being made has an internal focus motor.

Putting a garbage lens on a good camera results in garbage photos. You would be better off in spending most of your money on good lenses and buying a less expensive DSLR.

The best third party lenses are made by Tokina and they are only made for Nikon and Canon lenses.

Next to that, Sigma, Tamron are the next best. Lenses like Phoenix, Quantaray, and others have less quality in both the optics and the lens barrels.

The goal is to buy a good lens like a Nikkor or maybe Tokina and then keep them for a few decades. Lessor lenses tend to fail the test after ten or so years.

To answer your question about using a lens made for one camera on another one, generally it is a bad idea. You lose all the auto-focus, auto-aperture features and the light meter on one camera can't be used with the foreign lens and if it can, it takes a lot of work to figure it all out