My New Lenses Are Here

[heath]

My new lenses in Minolta manual mount have arrived.

First is one not made by Minolta, but made by Soligor. It is the Tele-Auto 300mm 1:5.5. Very nice looking lens, and almost looks like new.

Next is the Minolta MC Rokkor-PG 1:1.4 50mm. Looks pretty good, but may need a clean in the near future.

Next is the Minolta W.Rokkor-QE 1:4 35mm. Pre-set lens with the front element recessed quite far back into the lens body. Very good condition and probably the oldest lens of the lot.

Last is the Minolta MC Tele Rokkor-QD 1:3.5 135mm. Very good condition too, the glass is almost unmarked.

I recieved the last 3 lenses with a Minolta SRT 303 which is working, except for the meter. I will be using them with both the SRT 303 and my Braun SR 2000.

Now all I have to do is use it and wait and see the results.

Heath

[kamera]

Heath,

I will definately vouch for the Minolta lenses. The Soligor...I do not know...some have been fine and others not so fine.

And who needs the meter in the body. Good ol' sunny-16, good judgement from experience...and also fun to use a hand-held meter.

Ron Head
Kalamazoo, MI

[Peter S.]

Hi Heath, dear fellow camera collectors,

hope nobody minds about replies to old threads... but I as
impassionate Minoltinian I just have to comment.

I find the Soligor 300mm lens by far the most interesting one
of the set. Minman thinks of it as a good lens... - see:

members.aol.com/xkaes/30056.htm

And I'll hunt one down, when one pops up on Eb*y. It can be
supposed, that it could be a bargain lens.

The MC Rokkor-PG 1.4/50 is my favourite normal lens - even
though there is a tough competition within my photo bag.
Some people say, it were one of the best normal lenses ever
made. It is tack sharp at F=5.6 to 8. But it is a bit prone
to flare. Therefore I often prefer the MD Rokkor 1.7/50 in
backlight situations. But anyway, the Rokkor-PG is an
extremely nice lens.

The MC Tele Rokkor 3.5/135 should also deliver first quality
results. I recommend the 2.8/135 anyway, since the wider
aperture of the 2.8 is quite handy when playing with limited
DoF. Besides especially the MC 2.8/135 versions usually are
a bargain. The older construction (i.e. the MC Rokkor-PF 2.8/
135) seems to offer a slightly better bokeh, while the later
version with the diamond mark for aperture and focus distance
(the earlier version used a dot and an triangle for that)
is reported to be slightly sharper. I very much like the
handling of the old version with the milled focus ring -
the smothness of operation got no parallel in the later
makes. But You should be happy with the 3.5/135 anyway!

What I am unshure about is that very old MC W.Rokkor 4/35.
All the later designs were definitely more complex than
this one (5 lenses in 4 groups). Moreover personally I were
picky on that small aperture resulting in a dim viewfinder -
I accept that for long lenses, but one these the possible
alternatives are expensive, which is not the case considering
the MC W.Rokkor 2.8/35 as an inexpensive, readily available
alternative. Er, and manual stopping down ... not for me.

But of course, this is the most important: have fun with it.
I take my best pictures with my SR-T 101. The slow operation
compared to a XD-7 or X-700 seems to help me in making
better pictures. Maybe You will feel the same way.

Best regards
Peter