Minolta Auto Rokkor PF 55mm 1:1.8 – AR I – review

Minolta Auto Rokkor PF 55mm 1:1.8 (AR-I) engraved as “Minolta Auto Rokkor-PF 1:1.8  f=55mm” lens review

  • Official classification: SR
  • Collector’s classification: AR I

Absolutely the first one – Minolta’s newest SLR camera SR-2 went on sale in 1958 with this lens. It doesn’t matter what results this lens performs in testing, but its historical significance makes it the very valuable for owners.

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Minolta MD Rokkor 50mm 1:1.2 – MDII – review

Minolta MD Rokkor 50mm 1:1.2 lens review

  • Official classification: MD/New-MD
  • Collector’s classification: MD-II

Ladies and Gentlemen! If you are even a little fond of photography, then this lens should be put on your camera, and only sometimes change to some other lenses. OK, it is a joke. I am by no means going to insist on such radical advice. The choice of lens is a personal matter for everyone. It’s just that this particular lens is really a great option among other ultra-fast models.

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All about Minolta Camera – the book

The book “All about Minolta Camera” (or simply “MINOLTA”) is one of the most important materials for Minolta enthusiasts. I can even say that this is the true Gospel for MINOLTA collectors:

  • The full description of 277 lenses and tons of cameras.
  • A lot of historical details and enough special information.
  • The interviews of those who are linked with Minolta production.

Despite the importance of this book, I have never come across its electronic copy. Even just scanned pages. Yes, the book is from Japan – Minolta’s origin country, and never was translated/published in the outer world. So finally this problem is solved. Here is a fully scanned book, as well as its recognized version. You just have to copy the text of interest to your favorite translator. (Note: some Japanese texts especially in vertical layouts are need to be converted to horizontal layout for better translation result)

The OCR version / searchable PDF, optimized size for comfortable reading (33 Mb):

All about Minolta Camera book

Additionally: here is the scanned “All about Minolta Camera” book PDF version (223 Mb) – pictures only (not OCR) but high resolution if more details are needed like lens optical designs. (more…)

Yashica ML 28mm 1:2.8 vs Minolta MD 28mm 1:2.8 – 5 elements 5 groups – comparison

Yashica ML 28mm F/2.8 vs Minolta MD 28mm F/2.8 5×5 – comparison

Both of these lenses are quite suitable for those looking for an inexpensive wide-angle. But the price quite accurately reflects their capabilities – they cope with their tasks, although they are not something outstanding from the point of view of optics. They are somewhere in the middle of the evolution of 28mm lenses – there are many sharper ones, but there are also many much weaker models.
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Minolta MD 50mm 1:1.4 vs Minolta MC Rokkor PF 50mm 1:1.7 – comparison

Minolta MC Rokkor PF 50mm 1:1.7 vs Minolta MD 50mm 1:1.4 – comparison

This battle cannot be called fair – the difference in construction between 1.4 and 1.7 usually always makes itself felt. But it so happened that I still have materials that are suitable for such a comparison, and it was decided to use them. Just out of curiosity.
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Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm 1:3.5 DDR Sonnar – review

Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3.5/135 lens review, aka Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm 1:3.5 DDR Sonnar

Mount – M42

This lens is out of the zone of my interests, I don’t know much about it, nevertheless, it was interesting to test it and find out what it was capable of. It turned out that everything is very good. Unlike the “second” Zeiss (Western, or FRG), lenses from which are so overpriced that after tests they can even be disappointing, this lens turned out to be much better than I imagined at the beginning.

The lens for the test was provided by Egor Nikolaev (Егор Николаев) – many thanks and greetings.

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