Old Vintage Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm f 1.4 Still Shines!

[Sony Guy]

I just put my old Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm f1.4 on my a7 II this morning and took a stroll with it to see if it still had it. Apparently it does. I would put these images up against my Sony "Zeiss" lenses any day. These images were shot handheld at around f8:

 

[Lefty]

That gorgeous Minolta saturated color lives. Old Rokkors are still sharp and they still rock!

[addicted2light]

That gorgeous Minolta saturated color lives. Old Rokkors are still sharp and they still rock!

 

Not just colors: for the same reason the old Rokkors are simply wonderful for b/w!

[Iveturnedintoacamera]

I just ordered a used one for my Sony A7II which I also recently purchased.

Is it easy and quick to focus?

[Gene Williams]

I just ordered a used one for my Sony A7II which I also recently purchased.

Is it easy and quick to focus?

It's very easy, quick comes with practice.  Here is a nice blog piece about manual lenses on the A7 family (many Rokkors) along with introductions to several focusing techniques.

[Moody]

Nice, got the same lens that I used on my father's XD-7 back in the 80s along with a 28 f3.5 & a 135 f3.5.

 

Bought a cheap adapter to use it on my A6000, I'll definitely have to give it a go these days.

 

Indeed, manual focus got very easy with focus peaking on those Sony cameras, used to it from macro photography on the A77 II.

[jrboxer1]

I'm using the same lenses on my a7, with similar results. What Minolta wide angle glass do you recommend? Any preferred adapter?

 

 

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[addicted2light]

I'm using the same lenses on my a7, with similar results. What Minolta wide angle glass do you recommend? Any preferred adapter?

 

 

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I can vouch for the 35/1.8. I have the old MC version (the MD is optically the same, maybe with improved coating); even wide open it is really quite sharp on the A7r, and the bokeh is extremely pleasing. It reminds me of the Voigtlander 35/1.2.

 

As an adapter I use a K&F; you can read more about these here on the forum:

 

     A good brand of cheap Chinese adapters    

 

My sample of the adapter has a light leak where the release button is if used in bright daylight (with light shining directly on top of the affected part) with shutter times in the order of 8 seconds or more (basically using an ND1000 filter or shooting in the deep of the woods with a stray ray of light hitting the adapter).

 

I managed to solve this anyway cracking the adapter open (just 3 screws) and putting a bit of gaffer tape underneath the lens mount in the same position where the release button is.

[addicted2light]

Oh, I forgot.

 

If for Minolta you count as well Minolta-made Leica M glass then the M-Rokkor 28/2.8 is absolutely one of my all-times favorite lens. I've shot with it on Leica M6 (film), Nex 7 and now A7r.

 

Sharp, nice contrast, and with an extremely pleasing ("film-like, for lack of a better term) way of rendering the images it captures. 

[jrboxer1]

Thank you. You read my mind, as I was going to ask about the M-Rokkor 28-2.8.

 

 

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[addicted2light]

Thank you. You read my mind, as I was going to ask about the M-Rokkor 28-2.8.

 

 

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If you want you can also check an old review of mine that I did for my first sample of the lens (one full of "bubbles"):

 

http://www.addicted2light.com/2012/01/15/review-minolta-m-rokkor-28mm-f28-for-leica-m/

 

Since then I managed to buy an almost mint sample. Guess what? The new one is a bit more resistant to flare, but if I had to guess I think the older one with all the bubbles was a tiny tiny bit sharper.

[Phillip Reeve]

It is a very nice lens indeed. I began a review but never finished it, thats a project for rainy days, but there is some information online none the less ;-).
 
Still on the Nex-6:

 

 

 
more recent on the a7



 


 
Some more samples in this set: Minolta MD 1.4/50 on flickr
 

[Pavlik]

My daily kit: A7R + MD Rokkor 50mm f1.4 + MD Rokkor 24mm f2.8.

Both lenses are superb.... The 24mm is really gorgeous..... The only bad thing, but I read that may be "only" a 7R problem, is the color shift with red/yellow dominants when used at the maximum aperture..... But I love the results !!

[addicted2light]

My daily kit: A7R + MD Rokkor 50mm f1.4 + MD Rokkor 24mm f2.8.

Both lenses are superb.... The 24mm is really gorgeous..... The only bad thing, but I read that may be "only" a 7R problem, is the color shift with red/yellow dominants when used at the maximum aperture..... But I love the results !!

 

May I ask, do you have the 49 or the 55mm filter ring version of the 24? I'm shopping for one of these, and since there are two different optical schemes and different opinions about which one is better I'd like to know your sample which one is.

[DonatasS]

I've just started to use Minolta 50mm F1.4 on my Sony NEX6 and love it! Some photos are on my newly opened flickr account:

 

https://flic.kr/p/ssQ4UA

 

https://flic.kr/p/sap3v2

[jrboxer1]

Phillip, it was your manual tutorial that got me to try the Minolta lenses. As luck would have it, my family all shot Minolta a few decades back. So there are a series of legacy lenses around for me to play with. I'm repairing two older lenses now, and will let you know how it turns out.

 

 

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[JDav]

I, too, have a Minolta Rokkor 50 1.4 and love it. I saved mine from a dingy old pawnshop in the bad part of town. It was covered in a layer of dust and probably hadn't seen the sunshine in a decade. The macro was shot using a $10 Minolta 1:1 extension tube (I believe it was made for the 50mm 3.5 macro) that I bought out of the used bin in a local camera shop.