Rokkor vs Rokkor-X vs Plain MD

What is the difference between Plain old Minolta lenses, Minolta

Rokkor and Rokkor-X?

 

I searched the forums for an answer and only found one the came close

but still left me with questions. I understand the difference between

MC and MD lenses, i.e. the mechanical differences. I understand that

MD coatings are generally considered superior to the older MC. I

understand that Celtic Minolta lenses where Minolta's economy line.

 

I have a Minolta 50mm lens marked "MD 50mm 1:1.7 Japan 49mm Minolta".

The words Rokkor or Celtic do not appear. The lens came with my X-370

and has the little minimum apeture lock on it.

 

I suspect that Rokkor and Rokkor-X are somehow of special quality.

 

What would be the hierarchy of quality with Celtic, Rokkor and

Rokkor-X Minolta lenses? How does my plain old MD lens fit in there?

Did I leave out any types of Minolta lenses? Leitz?

 

I understand about the meter coupled versus non-meter coupled issue

with "MC Rokkor" & MD lenses versus "Auto Rokkor" lenses and �plain

old Rokkor�, i.e. non MC/MD. The latter two are not meter coupled and

require stop down metering with the DOF preview button. Right?

In the North American market Rokkor lenses where succeeded by Rokkor-X lenses, which were succeeded by plain MD lenses. Minolta introduced the X designation at some stage to to mark lenses that were destined to be sold in North America, and at some later stage they dropped the Rokkor name, supposedly to avoid confusion with third party lenses that were sold under very similar names such as Rokunar etc. The only difference between the lenses is the time they were made. There is no inherent quality difference; although newer lenses tend to have better coating and use newer materials, in other words plastic. If you equate metal with quality, then plain MD lenses tend to be of lower quality. Personally, I don't beleive in this, and have many plain MD lenses that I enjoy enormously. Also, the optical design of some lenses never changed throughout the whole period from Rokkor over Rokkor-X to plain MD, changes in some lenses coincided with name changes, and some lenses were changes at other time, leading for example to optically different Rokkor versions. You might find the following page to be of interest:

 

http://members.aol.com/manualminolta/slrlens.htm

 

http://members.aol.com/manualminolta/series.htm

What Frank said, plus some personal spin. If you aren't using a camera with shutter priority (XD-7 or XD-11) or program mode (X-700), you should also look at MC Rokkor-X lenses. I'm generalizing, but for the most part, the difference between MC Rokkor-X and MD Rokkor-X is an extra tab on the aperture ring and one letter.

 

I'm pretty much out of the market for Minolta lenses, but when I was buying, I would look for MD Rokkor-X lenses first, then MC Rokkor-X (rubber focus grip), then MD, then older MC Rokkor lenses (metal focus grip). In my opinion, the MD Rokkor-X and MC Rokkor-X lenses are the best combination of build quality and multicoating, plus the standard for filter sizes was still 55mm and not the 49mm favoed by many "plain MD" lenses.

The above answers are fairly comprehensive, so I won't reiterate them. However, you mentioned Leitz in your question, so I thought I might address that. As far as I know Leitz never made any lenses for Minolta cameras, however, several of the Minolta Rokkors were (supposedly) sold as Leica lenses by Leitz. The 35-70/3.5 and 24/2.8 Rokkor-X's are said to be of this group, but I don't have any direct information.

 

I own a plain MD normal lens and I see no reason to avoid such lenses; the only minor annoyance I can think of is that the aperture ring on my lens is plastic and feels slightly cheap. However, the lens is still way better made than most modern ones and the optics are fine.

Ahh Ha! That's very interesting. I keep getting hits for Leitz & Leica whenever I searched for the words Rokkor-X, which made me wonder what is Leitz. Apparently Leitz has very little to do with Minolta lenses.

Thanks Robert R.

 

Thanks to everyone for the thorough answers.

Yes to your last question. They will also work on an X-700 in auto mode, but you won't get an accurate finder reading prior to exposure. You've received good answers above relative to order of manufacture, just two extra coments: 1) The Celtic lenses, at leat in some cases appeared to be Minolta's slower, earlier Auto Rokkor designs; 2) The Rokkor-X and Celtic lines came in about 30 years ago. Any (Amercan market?)MC lens predates that. I have worn out diaphragms on MC lenses after 25 years or so of use, so age can be a factor depending on how hard a lens has ben used. I wouldn't worry about the optics - they should be satisfactory regardless.