Rokkor lenses with Leitz design?

[johannielscom]

in the 1970s Leitz and Minolta joined forces for a while.

They made the Leitz Minolta CL and there's a Minolta camera that is virtually identical to the Leica RE4, IIRC?


Myself, I own an X700 and 1.7/50mm Rokkor lens. All my other Minolta lenses are Panagor and Sigma stuff.

On the internet I saw somebody claim the Rokkor 3.5/35-70mm was Leitz designed, 'since it has the orange dot', like the Leitz lenses have.

Started wondering, which Minolta SLR lenses were actually designed by Leitz?
Or, if none, which Rokkor lenses compare to which Leitz lenses, quality-wise?

 

[Waus]

Hi Johan,

For all I know the following Leitz R lenses are Minolta-designed:
16mm fish-eye,24mm, 35-70 & 70-200mm and perhaps the 500mm mirror. I have never heard of Leica designs used by Minolta...

Cheers

 

[Nokton48]

I seem to remember that the 800mm Telyt was available in Minolta mount.
I recall it's in one of the Minolta instruction books

 

[Godfrey]

Hi Johan,

For all I know the following Leitz R lenses are Minolta-designed:
16mm fish-eye,24mm, 35-70 & 70-200mm and perhaps the 500mm mirror. I have never heard of Leica designs used by Minolta...

Cheers

Leitz adopted the Minolta 24mm optical design*for the Elmarit-R 24mm f/2.8, but produced the lens entirely in Germany with their own glass, mount, and finishing details. Over the years I've had both lenses, have the Elmarit-R 24mm now, and found that the Leica R lens easily out-performed the Minolta Rokkor 24mm.

Minolta produced the M-Rokkor 40mm f/2, which was an optical design adopted from the Leica Summicron-C 40mm f/2 for the CL. The Summicron was manufactured in Wetzlar with Leica glass and the M-Rokkor was manufactured in Tokyo with Minolta glass. Their performance was very very similar. A later version of this lens produced for the CLE, the M-Rokkor 40mm f/2 mark II, differed in that it had multicoating which reduced flare. It slightly out-performs the previous two lenses (and is what I use on the CL today).

Leica designed the Elmar-C 90mm f/4 and manufactured both it and first production runs of the M-Rokkor 90mm f/4 in Wetzlar, changing only the bezel and markings for the Minolta lens. Later, after Leica had discontinued the CL and Minolta continued with the CLE, the same lens design was manufactured by Minolta in Japan. You can tell which was which by the "Made in Germany" and "Made in Japan" markings on the lens barrel. As far as I'm aware, they perform identically regardless of where they were made. (I have the German made M-Rokkor 90, which like the M-Rokkor 40mm, has JIIS style 40.5mm filter threads.)

G

 

[mwoenv]

This provides a nice history of the Leica/Minolta collaboration on cameras: http://web.archive.org/web/20060812191633/http://members.aol.com/manualminolta/leica.htm

As for lenses:
The 35-70mm f4 zoom: http://web.archive.org/web/20060308080501/http://members.aol.com/xkaes/287035.htm (see Comments box, 3d lens in table)

The 80-200mm f4.5 and 70-210mm f4 zooms: http://web.archive.org/web/20070126050011/http://members.aol.com/xkaes/8020045.htm (see Comments box, 2nd and 7th lenses listed)

I have the Minolta 35-70mm f3.5 and 70-210mm f4 zooms and they are excellent.

 

[johannielscom]

This provides a nice history of the Leica/Minolta collaboration on cameras: http://web.archive.org/web/20060812191633/http://members.aol.com/manualminolta/leica.htm

As for lenses:
The 35-70mm f4 zoom: http://web.archive.org/web/20060308080501/http://members.aol.com/xkaes/287035.htm (see Comments box, 3d lens in table)

The 80-200mm f4.5 and 70-210mm f4 zooms: http://web.archive.org/web/20070126050011/http://members.aol.com/xkaes/8020045.htm (see Comments box, 2nd and 7th lenses listed)

I have the Minolta 35-70mm f3.5 and 70-210mm f4 zooms and they are excellent.

That was very useful, thank you!

I made me realise that I actually have a second Minolta lens, the MINOLTA MD ZOOM 75-200mm 1:4.5 JAPAN. It's in used condition but the glass is pristine and while I'm not all that fond of telephoto lenses, I'll be giving that one a try on film soon since there's a few frames left on the current roll in the X700.

So that 35-70mm is excellent, right? I might be giving it a try then.


Anyone know of other (wider) Minolta lenses that stand their ground against Leitz counterparts?

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

I mention this from time to time in the hope that it will ring a bell with someone.

Years ago I read an article in a magazine in which a journalist mentioned how surprised he was to see Leica Summicron-C's being turned out by a sub-contractor in Germany.

The point being that the article wasn't about the Summicron-C and his mention was no more than an aside about what he'd seen in the factory.

Does anyone else recall this? or have a copy of the article?

Regards, David

PS And there's the other compact and mini cameras to mention like the three made by Leica, Minolta and Panasonic that seem to have come off the same assembly line. And the Olympus Trip AF mini...

 

[Ranchu]

I read a rumor that the Rokkor 50mm f2 MC was the same lens as the original Summicron-R (1963?). It's a good lens. Very contrasty and good wide open, very warm color though.

 

[johannielscom]

Ranchu, interesting!

I have a lead on the whereabouts of such a lens through a camera shop in my town (and a few more in a kit with an SrT101 and X700) so I might look into that.

 

[Chiaroscuro]

The 35/70 f3.5 has Minolta connections, the (better) 35/70 f4 is all Leica

john

 

[mwoenv]

There are two versions of the Minolta 35-70mm f3.5 - one has macro and the other doesn't. I have one of each and they are both very sharp.

 

[johannielscom]

Last Saturday I got lucky and found a perfectly clean and functional Minolta MD Zoom 3.5/35-70mm Macro, for EUR 17.50 at a local thrift shop!

And it had a working X300 for a rear lens cap too!

I'll be shooting that lens shortly on my X700, to see what it can do😎