List of Minolta SR-mount lenses


Minolta sold cameras and lenses with the Minolta SR-mount between 1958 and 1996.

Nomenclature

Most Minolta lenses for SR-mount cameras are branded Rokkor; in the United States, to combat unofficial gray market imports, lenses officially imported were engraved as Rokkor-X, with the X colored orange. Before 1975, lenses also carried a two-letter suffix indicating the construction.
Because the number of groups is always equal to or less than the number of lens elements, certain combinations are not possible. In other cases, the combination is not used, such as -QG, which would be a four-group, seven-element lens. Although the -OJ suffix was never used for a production lens, a prototype MC Rokkor-OJ 24 mm lens was shown at Photokina 1970.
In addition to Rokkor-branded lenses, Minolta also sold a lower-cost line of lenses, designated Celtic. Compared to the Rokkor lenses, Celtic lenses have less sophisticated coatings.
In the final series of lenses, the "Rokkor" branding was dropped.

Generations

Minolta SR-mount lenses can be broken into three broad generations with some overlap:
  1. Pre-MC : Lenses with manual, preset, and automatic diaphragms, without the meter coupling tab on the aperture ring to signal the f-stop that was selected to the in-body light meter.
  2. MC : Lenses with automatic diaphragms, with the MC tab.
  3. MD : Lenses with automatic diaphragms and the MC tab, and an additional minimum diaphragm tab to signal the minimum aperture opening size of the lens to the body for shutter-priority autoexposure.
In general, MD lenses tend to incorporate more plastic components and are lighter than MC and pre-MC lenses. Within each of these generations, there are minor differences which are generally cosmetic changes.
NameGenerationYearsExampleNotes
Pre-MCSR1958 – 1966The earliest lenses had pre-set and manual aperture controls. Lens engraving included "Rokkor" branding, basic construction details, maximum aperture, and focal length.
Pre-MCAR 1958 – 1960These were contemporaneous with the SR lenses, and had automatic diaphragm, as designated by the engraved "Auto Rokkor" name.
Pre-MCAR 1961 – 1964These are distinguished from the earlier AR lenses by the evenly spaced f-stop engravings.
Pre-MC"Compact"1965 – 1967Encompassing both AR and SR types; most have 52 mm front filter threads using a black-colored nose, while preceding generations had 55 mm with a chrome nose.
MCMC 1966 – 1969These lenses have a meter coupling tab on the aperture ring to signal the aperture setting to the body. The aperture ring is colored silver, while prior generations were colored black.
MCMC 1967 – 1972Cosmetically similar to MC with a more deeply scalloped focusing grip knurling.
MCMC-X1972 – 1976Rubberized focusing grip with square, truncated pyramid shapes; aperture ring reverts to black. Starting in the mid-1970s, Minolta began adding two to three anti-reflection coating layers to balance color and contrast across the lens lineup.
MCMC Celtic1972 – 1976Budget line. Cosmetically similar to MC-X, with a different rubber grip waffle pattern and simplified coatings. The first lens was a 135 mm branded MC Celtic-QD, with a metal focusing ring and silver aperture ring similar to MC, and the Minolta name did not appear on the lens.
MDMD 1977Additional tab added to signal the minimum aperture value has been set; aperture ring becomes plastic.
MDMD 1978 – 1980Cosmetic update to put focal length before maximum aperture on the front nameplate.
MDMD Celtic1977 – 1980Update of MC Celtic, adding MD tab.
MDMD 1981 – 1984Dropped "Rokkor" branding; sometimes referred to as "Plain MD". Mechanical lock added to aperture ring to secure the aperture ring at minimum value.
MDMD 1985 – 1996Possibly rebranded lenses built by a third-party manufacturer, lacking features compared to MD.

List of lenses

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Brochures

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