I would not bother trying to use old manual focus Minolta stuff. You can find excellent Minolta AF (autofocus) lenses used on eBay. Minolta AF lenses are every bit as good as Canon and Nikon. Some of the new lenses from Sony are great also, but rather expensive.
But you can often get a MF lens for 1/5 or even 1/10 the cost of the equivalent AF.
Check these guys out -
You’re right about the AF goodies. They are excellent, widely available, and it seems like most everybody goes that way these days.
I guess I am just a nostalgic old coot, but there was something about selecting shutter speeds, F-stops, and manually focusing that made me feel involved in the process. I never will be any great wizard as a photographer, but I like playing around with the old camera.