Minolta madness...

[peterqd]

This summer I've been collecting MC Rokkor lenses for my XG-M. I just got the first pictures back from the lab, so it's time to show them off. These lenses are beautiful quality, I think better built and even smoother dials than Takumars. The 55mm filter thread makes them much chunkier too:


28mm f3.5 MC W.Rokkor-SG with hood
58mm f1.4 MC Rokkor-PF
35mm f2.8 MC W. Rokkor-HG
135mm f3.5 MC Rokkor-QD

Total cost £45 + p&p!!
(includes £25 for the 58mm from the camera shop in Arundel)

135mm:


58mm:


35mm:


28mm:


All shots on Kodak E100G slide film, colour corrected and resized with CS3. From the scanner this film gives a strong blue cast, but it might be due to the blue light in the scanner lid. I haven't tried projecting the slides yet.

[Attila]

Beautiful set and pretty nice result on slide! Congrats!

[Seele]

In this case what Ivor M said in his book still rings true: Pentax screw mount lenses have gone up in price but Minolta MC lenses are still affordable. I am sure you can see the consistancy of the Minolta-look across the focal lengths, and the colour rendition as well. Leica-esque in fact!

[peterqd]

Thanks guys. I guess the reason they're still cheap is because they won't mount on Canon/Pentax/Nikon DSLRs. I tried each lens held by hand against the Canon mount with one hand but it's very difficult to take photos that way and impossible to adjust the focus. Infinity was about 6m. It's made me think about getting a 4/3 cam for them sometime.

I've never owned or even tried any Leica lenses so I can't compare, but I'm very impressed with these Rokkors so far and , as you say, they all have the same feel and character. I'm waiting for an XD-7 from Aus soon, so I'm hoping that has the same quality. The XG-M is great, but it doesn't match the solidity of the lenses.

[Minolfan]

I have the same set, except 135mm 2.8 instead of 3.5. Mine all have 55mm filter, not 58mm.
Nice lenses anyhow, I use them on X700, XG1, XD7/5 or, preferable on XE1. Sometime I even pick my good old SR1s out of the closet and use a Gossen handmeter with it.

[Jesito]

Congrats for such nice acquisition Peter!.
I love the Rokkors, they are sharp and render nicely the colour.
The only pity is the difficulty to mount them on digital SLRs...

(I like not only the samples, but the "product" first picture!. Did you shoot it with the 400D?. Which lens?.)

Regards.

Jes.

[peterqd]

Minolfan, thanks for pointing out my error. The filter thread is 55mm, as you say. These shots were taken on Av setting, but generally I use a Weston meter and manual settings.

Hi Jes, thanks. The product shot was taken indoors with the Flek 2.4/35 at f11 for DOF. I used a tripod and remote release, no flash.

It would be nice to be able to use the lenses on the 400D but, you know what? I'm taking far more pictures on film than on digital these days. It's diffult to explain why, I just don't seem to get as much fun out of being able to immediately see the pic I've just shot and take it again if I don't like it. Film has that extra edge of risk. And I can use all my M42 and Tamron lenses on the MD camera, the only lenses I can't use are the PKs, but I only have two of those.

[martinsmith99]

Nice looking equipment and good samples. The 35mm looks a bit softer than the other lenses to my eyes.

I like the look of Minolta cameras. Lens prices have put me off.

[peterqd]

Thanks Martin. You might be right about the 35mm, although for that particular shot the aperture was more or less wide open, on a dull day with 100 film, so that might explain it. I need to try again.

Lens prices putting you off? Before buying these I'd been waiting ages to find Pentax-M or -A primes at affordable prices, particularly a 35mm, but prices for those have shot up compared to a year or two ago. The Minolta lenses looked good value to me.

[martinsmith99]

[Seele]

Martin,

If you are not in a hurry, take your time to shop around and buy selectively, Minolta manual focus lenses can be exceptionally inexpensive, unless you are after some rare exoticas. I think the original MC series with bright aperture rings would be less costly than the later ones and are fully satisfactory in terms of performance. You might even be able to get pre-MC lenses at advantageous prices too, if the limitation is not an issue.

Perhaps you might want to put together a fun Minolta kit: if I were to start one from scratch, I would go for a clean example of the late-model SR-1s, the meterless one built on the Type V chassis. Any standard lens would be fine, even the 55/2 is nice. For other lenses, try the 28/3.5 and the 100/3.5. This should make a low-cost, simple, effective and yet high-perormance kit for film photography and very rewarding too. I have three different types of the SR-7 and the Type V chassis version is a blend of smoothness and crispness which I find very appealing, and the SR-1s should be no different.

[peterqd]

Here are a few more shots with the W.Rokkor-HG 2.8/35. I haven't done any side-by-side comparisons, but my feeling is that the Tak 3.5, Mir-24M and Flek 2.4 are all possibly a little sharper in the centre, but the Rokkor is more even across the picture.

These shots are at f11 on Kodak Portra 160NC, the first time I've tried it. At last I've found a colour neg film I really like.

[Attila]

[peterqd]

[koji]

[Rolf]

[LucisPictor]

Rokkors are excellent lenses!
The only reason why I only have one is that I cannot use them on my EOS cams.

[koji]

[peterqd]

koji, I normally resize pictures to 900w before I upload using the button and I never saw this degradation before. This time I tried uploading larger pictures but I was a bit disappointed to see the loss of definition. I'm going to stick with resizing before uploading from now on.

Thank you for the link and tip about converting the EOS camera mount. I looked at his website and his shop on Ebay and I'm really interested in doing this at some time later. I only have one Canon camera and I don't want to commit it to MD mount right now.

Thank you Carsten! I was thrilled with the beautiful solid build quality of these old MC lenses, they really are a joy to handle. My son has found an XD-7 camera for me in Australia and it's on its way right now!

I was wrong to say you can't mount them on an EOS cam. APart from koji's suggestion, there are also glass and glass-less adapters available and I might try one sometime. With the glassless adapter an MD lens will focus up to around 15 metres distance on a Canon, so not entirely useless.

Rolf, I didn't see your thread about the old Kodak from Arundel before. Nice to know you've been there too! If you ever come again, please let me know and I'll be pleased to meet you. And please bring Carsten over with you - he's always saying it's time he came to UK again!