Minolta SRT's -- Gotta Love 'Em.

Rokkor glass is almost universally way up there in terms of desirability.

Lets add to this thread: Using Rokkor glass on digital cameras.

Minolta Auto Tele Rokkor PF F2 100mm by Nokton48, on Flickr

I'll start here. This is my PF 100mm F2 Rokkor. This one was gifted to me the iris is wide-open (only). This is the best way to use this glass. Shown on one of my Lowly Nex-3's, they serve me well.

This lens is something of a cult object, when looking on the internet.

Minolta Auto Tele Rokkor PF F2 100mm 2 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Soooooooooo, what interesting Rokkor glass are you using? (film or digital?)
 
Nokton48 said:
...
Soooooooooo, what interesting Rokkor glass are you using? (film or digital?)
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A fairly modest kit for my two SRT-101's:

35/1.8 MC
58/1.2 MC
100/2.5 MC
135/2.8 MC

For my Maxxum 7, I've got a bit more (AF) lenses, but surprisingly the common 35-70/3.5-4.5 has proven to be stunningly sharp. Hardly believing the high quality I was seeing in the color prints, I took the negatives to work and looked at them under a Leica binocular microscope and found that the Minolta lens had resolved extremely fine detail (e.g. looking at photos from a car show, one photo from about 10 feet behind the car and off to the side, at a focal length of 35mm, clearly revealed fine details on the instrument gauges).
 
Nokton48 said:
Soooooooooo, what interesting Rokkor glass are you using? (film or digital?)
Click to expand...

I feel a little left out here because this thread is dedicated to the SRTs and I much prefer my XD7/11, but we can agree on the love of Rokkors, so here goes:
MC 24 2.8
MD III 28 2.8
MD III 35 1.8
MD and MC 50 1.4
MD 100 4.0 macro
MD 100 3.5 macro (needs to go)
MD 135 2.8 (needs to go, but worth nothing)
So nothing exotic except maybe the 24. The technically best of these lenses I think are the 24 and the 100 macros, the problem is these aren't my favourite fls... Which do you people think is the best of the 28s?
 
Rokkor lenses were the closest a Japanese optical maker got to making lenses that produce photo images with that look of German made lenses.

Canon did not have it and neither did mighty Nikkor.

Zuiko glass came a bit close and the Takumars had their own great magic going on.
 
Nokton48 said:
....Soooooooooo, what interesting Rokkor glass are you using? (film or digital?)
Click to expand...
Hi Dan,
I only have a few Rokkor lenses, really. I was given maybe a dozen MC/MD mount lenses maybe ten years ago (including some duplicates which I gave away to friends or family), and I ignored them for several years, being more interested in vintage German glass. When I finally tried the Rokkor lenses on a SRT101, I stopped ignoring them! The 58mm MC f/1.4 is one of my favourite lenses from any maker.

From memory my modest line up includes:
28mm MC Rokkor f/3.5
40mm MD Rokkor f/2
50mm MD Rokkor f/1.4
55mm MC Rokkor f/1.7 (x 2)
58mm MC Rokkor f/1.4 (x 2)
135mm MC Rokkor f/2.8
200mm MC Rokkor f/4.5

I very nearly lashed out on a MC 58mm f/1.2 last month, a lens I would dearly love, being so enamoured with my f/1.4s. But I plumped for a Voigtländer Prominent kit instead, a camera I've wanted for ten years or more. A f/1.2 may be my next major purchase though because I can only see them increasing in desirability and I don't want prices to creep out of my reach.

Rationally, I probably do not really need a MC 50mm f/1.4 in addition to my other 50/58mm Rokkors, or a MC 28mm f/2.5 as well as my MC f/3.5. But I think I'll probably end up keeping all the lenses in post 718 that arrived recently. Rokkors are so good that it seems imprudent not to retain an example of a type I do not own when it presents itself at a modest price. And I do rate the build of the MC series highly, so it is likely I'd end up using the MC 50mm f/1.4 more than the MD version anyway.
 
xayraa33 said:
Rokkor lenses were the closest a Japanese optical maker got to making lenses that produce photo images with that look of German made lenses.

Canon did not have it and neither did mighty Nikkor.

Zuiko glass came a bit close and the Takumars had their own great magic going on.
Click to expand...

What do you actually mean by that? I admit I’m sceptical...
 
Well, I have used many German made lenses, be they made by Leitz, Zeiss or Hugo Meyer or Schneider and they produce a certain look to photographs , albeit a bit different from each other but all produce a certain organic quality to the photos that the Japanese lens makers sort of omitted in their lenses to a greater and lesser degree...but Rokkor lenses came the closest to the German made lenses in their image making qualities.

And I have also used many Japanese made lenses from a lot of the famous Japanese optical firms be they Nikkor , Canon, Zuiko, Rokkor, Takumar or Topcor.
 
I haven't actually used these for quite awhile, but I have the following Minolta SLRs and lenses:

SR-Ts: Early black-dial 101, two 102s (one black, one chrome; both with MLU), and one of the very last 201s, that I bought new.

X: Two X-570s + winders (my favorite electronic Minolta SLRs).

Lenses:
28mm 2.8, late MC
35mm 2.8, early MC
50mm 1.4, mid-late MC (came with an SR-T 102; has the rubberized focusing collar)
50mm 1.7, MC (same vintage as the 1.4 above)
50mm 1.7, late MD x 2
50mm 3.5 macro, MC Celtic, (with rubberized focusing collar) + 1:1 extension tube
58mm 1.4, early MC (came with the SR-T 101)
85mm 1.7, early MD (my favorite lens; mechanically an MC with MD updates)
100mm 2.5, early MC
135mm 2.8 MD
200mm 4.0 late MD

Of these lenses, I used the 85 and the 28 for the vast majority of my shooting.

I have a Minolta angle-finder that, in my opinion, makes it a lot easier to use a camera with an eye-level finder on a tripod. It also reduces the needed amount of tripod extension.

- Murray
 
xayraa33 said:
Well, I have used many German made lenses, be they made by Leitz, Zeiss or Hugo Meyer or Schneider and they produce a certain look to photographs , albeit a bit different from each other but all produce a certain organic quality to the photos that the Japanese lens makers sort of omitted in their lenses to a greater and lesser degree...but Rokkor lenses came the closest to the German made lenses in their image making qualities.

And I have also used many Japanese made lenses from a lot of the famous Japanese optical firms be they Nikkor , Canon, Zuiko, Rokkor, Takumar or Topcor.
Click to expand...

Do you have any samples showing what you’re talking about?
 
nickthetasmaniac said:
Do you have any samples showing what you’re talking about?
Click to expand...

Yes I do, but my Photobucket site is in a mess and I cannot access it any more to post photo samples on this RFF forum.

But even on computer screen photo samples it will be hard to discern what I am talking about, as I noticed this German lens vs Japanese look difference through making B&W prints in my darkroom through the course of many years and it did not happen overnight.
 
xayraa33 said:
Well, I have used many German made lenses ... and they produce a certain look to photographs , albeit a bit different from each other but all produce a certain organic quality to the photos that the Japanese lens makers sort of omitted in their lenses to a greater and lesser degree...
Click to expand...

nickthetasmaniac said:
Do you have any samples showing what you’re talking about?
Click to expand...

Difference is lens coating infused with either schnapps or saki.
 
CMur12 said:
I haven't actually used these for quite awhile, but I have the following Minolta SLRs and lenses:

SR-Ts: Early black-dial 101, two 102s (one black, one chrome; both with MLU), and one of the very last 201s, that I bought new.

X: Two X-570s + winders (my favorite electronic Minolta SLRs).

Lenses:
28mm 2.8, late MC
35mm 2.8, early MC
50mm 1.4, mid-late MC (came with an SR-T 102; has the rubberized focusing collar)
50mm 1.7, MC (same vintage as the 1.4 above)
50mm 1.7, late MD x 2
50mm 3.5 macro, MC Celtic, (with rubberized focusing collar) + 1:1 extension tube
58mm 1.4, early MC (came with the SR-T 101)
85mm 1.7, early MD (my favorite lens; mechanically an MC with MD updates)
100mm 2.5, early MC
135mm 2.8 MD
200mm 4.0 late MD

Of these lenses, I used the 85 and the 28 for the vast majority of my shooting.

I have a Minolta angle-finder that, in my opinion, makes it a lot easier to use a camera with an eye-level finder on a tripod. It also reduces the needed amount of tripod extension.

- Murray
Click to expand...

The Minolta angle finder is a quality piece of kit. When I spotted one for sale locally for just a few dollars last year I grabbed it.

A few years ago I handled the sale of a number of ALPA 35mm cameras and accessories. One accessory was a right angle finder for the 10 & 11 series including 11el, 11si. Apart from its mounting collar for the viewfinder, and an ALPA badge on the outside of the prism, (and, no doubt, its sticker price when new!), it was a Minolta angle finder made by Minolta for ALPA.
 
Pál_K said:
Difference is lens coating infused with either schnapps or saki.
Click to expand...

The FSU lenses have coatings infused with vodka....problem is that the makers of these probably drank this vodka more than they applied it to their lenses during manufacture....this is going by the wildly shifting QC parameters of these lenses that I own.

Many of the same model of lens are average, some are plain dogs... and once in a while you run across a gem of a lens that can rival the best of the best.
 
Sarcophilus Harrisii said:
The Minolta angle finder is a quality piece of kit. When I spotted one for sale locally for just a few dollars last year I grabbed it.

A few years ago I handled the sale of a number of ALPA 35mm cameras and accessories. One accessory was a right angle finder for the 10 & 11 series including 11el, 11si. Apart from its mounting collar for the viewfinder, and an ALPA badge on the outside of the prism, (and, no doubt, its sticker price when new!), it was a Minolta angle finder made by Minolta for ALPA.
Click to expand...

Hi Brett -

I bought my Minolta angle-finder new, some years back. I've read around the 'Net that it is an especially good one.

The one downside is that you have to refocus the eyepiece if you use the 2x magnification. (This is also true of a Canon angle-finder that I have.)

This finder corrects for left-to-right. An older Pentax angle-finder I have doesn't, so the viewed image in the Pentax is reversed.

- Murray
 
001 by Nokton48, on Flickr

This one is great as a wide angle grab and go. I sold my 21mm Leitz Super Angulon and my 19mm RF Canon, and replaced it with this red ringneck lizarded SRT101

That's a Voigtlander RF cloth strap, I have many of them

TomA Black softie and black hair tye keep me from accidentally losing frames.

Great shooter. Have pasted TomA XX exposure sheet on the back, use only XX cinema film for quite a while.
 
Minolta SRM Original Brochure 1 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Minolta SRM Original Brochure 2 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Minolta SRM Original Brochure 3 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Minolta SRM Original Brochure 4 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Found this original SRM Brochure recently for no-money. Very rare, never has seen another one. Significant for me, as I have two fully functioning SRMs in my studio. The camera that I lusted after when I was shooting PJ in the 70s. Fred De Van shared my love of the SR-M and used it professionally for many many years. You could drive nails with the camera, then rack off a roll. Super super tuff insides, worthy of pro use.


Who here is using old Minolta glass on their digitals? Which lenses?
 
Does anybody here have the 58mm MC F1.2 Original Hood marked as such?

If you do it is worth more than the lens itself :) Would love to find one!
 
Nokton48 said:
Does anybody here have the 58mm MC F1.2 Original Hood marked as such?

If you do it is worth more than the lens itself :) Would love to find one!
Click to expand...

There are quite a few on ebay being sold with the lens for a 'normal' price.
Just search for the lens.


e.g. ebay item #392708318701
 
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