Minolta Rokkor 35mm f2.8 vintage lens review

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In 1966 Minolta introduced their first meter coupled lenses, from which the MC stamp on the front, recognizable by the unpainted aperture ring. They seem to be considered not great and therefore can be found for cheap so, obviously, I had to give it a try

The lens is made of metal, it weights around 220g, it is 45 to 49mm long and it has an external diameter of 63mm, with a 52mm front thread.

The letters HG on the front indicate the optical design of 6 elements in 7 groups.

The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f16 with half steps.

The focusing has textured dimples, it turns 160 degrees and minimum focusing distance is a little less than 40cm.

The Minolta SR mount has a flange distance of 43.5mm.

Both aperture and focus ring are a bit light on my copy, but overall it feels solid like most lenses from this era, plus it is light and compact.

 Sharpness wide open can be fairly good in the center, but it quickly falls off towards the corners. By f8 it visibly improves all over the frame.

Chromatic aberration is surprisingly not that strong, but it does bloom a lot wide open.

Colors are a bit pastel and contrast and saturation are a bit muted.

Specular highlights have hard edges and don’t deform much towards the edges. Stopping down they get visibly hexagonal.

Backgrounds can occasionally feel busy, but also have a painterly quality to them.

-         It doesn’t much focus breathing.

Flares are big and soft and ghosting is well controlled.

It took me six months to finish this review, because initially I was very underwhelmed by this lens, I thought it was bad.

It does have a bit of a distinctive look wide open that can lead to some creative uses, so I can see how some people might find it desirable.



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