The fabled 85mm 1.7

I have heard glowing things about the Rokkor MD 85mm 1.7, but never

contacted anyone who has used the lens. Have any of you chaps used

it? How does it compare to the Nikkor 85mm 1.4 AIS?

I have not used the 85mm f/1.7 but I have the 85mm f/2 and the f/2.8 Varisoft. Both are outstanding lenses and the 85mm f/2 is reported to be sharper than the f/1.7. I can certainly attest to it's outstanding performance, and it is also much more compact and lightweight. The f/1.7 is a big heavy lens that is similar in external appearance to the 58mm f/1.2, and to my mind is a little heavy for one of the more modern bodies such as the XD or X series.

I would personally recommend the 85mm f/2 over the f/1.7, and it is generally a lot less expensive.

Best regards,

Antony

Hi Robert

I did have a $350.00 85mm f/1.7. I found the $35 MD 135mm f/3.5 4/4 construction was sharper at f/5.6 than the 85mm at f/8. The 58mm is superb for inside low light shots. You can hand hold the 58mm at 1/30 which you can't do with the 85mm. The bokeh and contrast at f/3.5 is just outstanding with the 58mm.

Robert, I assume you mean the MC 85/1.7. The MD version was 85/2. I have the 1.7, and like it a lot. Due to its fast maximum aperture, I as able to take a great portrait of my grandfather in weak available light this winter. It turned out that it was my last chance - he died three months later.

My experience is the opposite of the previous posters - my 85 is sharper than my MC 135/3.5. My MD Rokkor-X 135/2.8 is also sharper than the 3.5, but I haven't compared the 135/2.8 and the 85/1.7 directly.

According to the real Minolta gurus on groups.yahoo.com/manualminolta, the MD 85 is better than the 1.7 at wider apertures. That wouldn't be because the 1.7 is bad - its just that the MD 85 may the best of all manual Minolta lenses.

To add a further comparison, I bought my 85 from a long-time photographer who said it was sharper than his Nikon 85s.

Robert, just for your info the 85mm f/1.7 was available for a very short time as an MD lens, and accordingly these are rare. Optically and cosmetically it is identical to the MC version, it just had the new dynamically balanced aperture blades of the MD series lenses. The change to the new f/2 construction occured later.

Cheers,

Antony