Minolta MC ROKKOR-PF 50mm f/2

[RokkorDoctor]

This was Minolta's budget normal lens, which came as a set with the SRT100 (from Stephan's artaphot.ch website it appears that in Germany it was originally only available as part of a set with the SRT100.)

Internal construction, materials and finish, and tooling marks on the injection moulds for the name ring all suggest this is indeed a budget lens that had been subject to a production cost cutting exercise.

For those interested in the details there, I have posted a tear-down & CLA of the internals on the other forum here:

http://forum.mflenses.com/minolta-mc-rokkor-pf-50mm-f-2-near-complete-cla-t83567.html


As a budget 50mm f/2 lens of the MC-X ROKKOR line of Minolta lenses, how does it perform?

The below images were all shot on a SONY A7s.

The first thing I noticed on my copy, is that at f/2 and even f/2.8 there is a hint of spherical aberration remaining, which gives the image a bit of a veil over the micro-contrast. Nothing like a proper soft-focus lens, but enough to be easily noticeable when using a focus magnifier. The later MD-III 50mm f/2 is better in this respect.


Below is an image taken wide-open at f/2, with a 100% centre crop also shown:


100% centre crop:


I am not entirely convinced by the out-of-focus rendering of this lens; I have seen better from Minolta lenses.

At f/5.6, things improve and any hint of residual spherical aberration is gone:


And again a 100% centre crop:


Again at f/2 there is some evidence of residual astigmatism. A proper test chart would show this better I'm sure, but in the meantime the neartest footbridge over the local railway will have to do:


Stopping down to f/11 proves that, whilst a budget lens, it can be made to perform:


I was expecting this to be a low contrast lens, and whilst it certainly isn't up to the same level as the later MD-III 50mm f/2, it can still put in a decent effort.
In the image below shadows were lifted +10 in Photoshop CS6 Shadows/Highlights adjustment:


Based on my subjective impressions after this lens' first outing, the most "budget" aspect of this lens performance, compared to the regular Rokkor lenses, are the noticeable higher residual spherical and astigmatic aberrations when shooting wide-open, and the somewhat uneasy character of the bokeh/out-of-focus rendering.

Colour rendering is maybe a tad cooler than what I am used to from Minolta, but without doing a direct comparison under controlled conditions, that may just be my first impression.

Undeniable is that whilst mechanically still very robust, there are definitely signs of cost-cutting in both the materials used and tooling finish with this budget lens.

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[RokkorDoctor]

[stevemark]

[RokkorDoctor]