I went nuts and finally converted most of my rokkors to alpha mount to use with my A900. Here's the list and I will rank the levels of conversion from 1 to 3(1 is the easiest and 3 the most difficult).
Primes: Rokkor-NL 21mm f2.8 (3): nice wide, flares easily. Pretty close to the zuiko 21/3.5. The zuiko gets the notch.
MC W. Rokkor 24mm f2.8 (3): great 24mm. It's sharp at all apertures.
MC W. Rokkor 28mm f2 (3):: very sharp with wonderful bokeh. I like it as much as the 58 1.2.
MC Rokkor 35mm f1.8 (3): a good low light 35mm. Not as sharp wide open as the summicron 35/2 or distagon 35 1.4 but again it's much cheaper.
MD Rokkor 45mm f2 (2):: a nice and cheap alternative to the 40mm fl. It's pretty sharp wide open however can't match the oly 40/2, especially on the A900 high mega-pixel sensor.
MD Rokkor 50mm f1.7 (2): a cheap 50/1.7 that noone seems to care about. Surprise, surprise, it's still excellent on digital as I remembered on film. Sharp wide open with excellent bokeh.
MD Rokkor 50mm f1.2 (1): Another great one. Sharp wide open with nice bokeh. The bokeh is not as dreamy as the 58 but pretty close. It's smaller and is in my bag all the time.
MC Rokkor 50mm f3.5 Macro (1):: nice macro with excellent color. I like its color much better than the zuiko 50/3.5.
MC Rokkor 58mm f1.2 (1):: the one that started it all. There's nothing to add.
MC/MD Rokkor 85mm f1.7 (1):: an excellent 85 with the trademark rokkor's bokeh. I still use it a lot even after I had a rokinon 85 1.4. They render quite different I think.
MD 85mm f2 (3): This is my favorite 85mm for street photography. It's tiny, very sharp wide open. The bokeh actually is pretty nice and closer to the MC than I thought.
MC Rokkor 100mm f2.5 (1) : It's a nice lens. I converted it to complete the rokkor line. I haven't used it much since it has too many competitions: c/y 100mm f2, minolta af 100mm f2 and nikkor 105mm f2.5 ais.
MD Rokkor 100mm f4 Macro (1) : Another great macro with beautiful color. It 's so good it shares equal time with the AF 100mm f2.8 macro and the tamron 90mm f2.8 di macro.
MD 135mm f2.8 (2): This late version is excellent. Most will ignore the 135mms since there are so many great 135mms. For me, it's sharper than my minolta af 135mm f2.8. I also converted a c/y 135mm f2.8 but in the end, the nikon 135 f2 DC get used the most.
MD 135mm f3.5 (2): This little baby gets noone's attention. Well, It got mine. It's a sharp little lens that pairs perfectly with the 85mm f2.
MD Rokkor 200mm f2.8 (2): Nice alternative at 200mm. There's some CA wide open but pretty sharp overall. I found it fares pretty well with the nikkor 180mm f2.8 AIS that I also converted to alpha mount. The nikkor is a bit sharper but I prefer the rokkor's bokeh.
Rokkor 200mm f3.5 (1): Pretty old, big and heavy lens. Low contrast.
MD Rokkor 250mm f5.6 mirror (1): Sharp and small mirror lens. For some reason its price is ridiculously high. I am sure I will put it back and there it goes on Ebay.
MD Rokkor 300mm f4.5 (1): Not so good. Wide open is soft + CA. Sharpness increases when stop down to f8. I rarely use this one.
MD Rokkor 500mm f8 mirror (1):: Nice and sharp mirror lens. I sold my tamron SP after I converted this to M42.
Zooms: MD Rokkor 24-50mm f4 (2): Great zoom. Very sharp at 24mm. I usually grab this more than the AF 28-135mm f4-4.5.
MD Zoom 35-70mm f3.5 Macro (1):: Another excellent zoom. It's sharper than my zuiko 35-70mm f3.6.
MD Zoom 70-210mm f4 (2): I like this one. It's at least as sharp as the beercan. I use this much more than the beercan and big beercan since I hate their tiny manual focus rings.
Thanks Debuggerus!
This is a great list and helpful review of all the Minolta Rokkor great lenses.
It would be really great to post example shots of each lens on this thread.
I am also interested in the 85/1.7 and how it compares to the Rokinon 85/1.4.
Love the minolta color in the shot above. Of course some of that extra color comes from the Sony color fingerprint.
i've got a sanwa 28/2.8 and minolta 45/2 & 100/2.5 which was I found lost in a bunch of dad's old stuff. You're right how the old stuff gets no one's attention. I shot a roll of film with the 100/2.5 and it didn't seem that special to me. perhaps i'll give it another go.
I've thought about the 35/1.8 many times. Can I ask about the conversion? I'm curious if it's a simple conversion where you just replace the rear mount and file down a bit, or whether you have to fiddle about with the aperture mechanism?
Thank you for your efforts! Can't say I'm terribly fond of old wide glass on digital because of the glare but at the same time i do enjoy using old glass on digital
Do you use your 135/2 nikon lens on a sony body? if so: how? changed mount?
I'd be very interested in this as well, main reason I'm keeping Nikon kit around is my CV58 and 85/1.8 preAI, love to be able to use them on my Minolta bodies.
I guess, since the sony mount is 2mm shorter than the nikon (FFD), you can add a 2mm ring and a m42->sony mount, screw holes and be pretty much good to go. It really just depends on the mount throat, but nikon is _small_ in this department too, so I don't see how that could pose a problem.
ulrikft2 wrote:
I guess, since the sony mount is 2mm shorter than the nikon (FFD), you can add a 2mm ring and a m42->sony mount, screw holes and be pretty much good to go. It really just depends on the mount throat, but nikon is _small_ in this department too, so I don't see how that could pose a problem.
You'd want a 1mm ring, since Nikon mount is only 1mm shorter than M42 mount and the adapter makes up the difference.
Hmm, might have to test this out... Time to get another Series E 50 I think.
mawz wrote:
You'd want a 1mm ring, since Nikon mount is only 1mm shorter than M42 mount and the adapter makes up the difference.
Hmm, might have to test this out... Time to get another Series E 50 I think.
good point.
The main reason for me, is to get infinity @ 1.2 on my rokkor. And if I could use my 24/2, 105/2.5 and other manual lenses too, that would be quite a bargain (d700s go for more used here than a900 new..).
The main reason for me, is to get infinity @ 1.2 on my rokkor. And if I could use my 24/2, 105/2.5 and other manual lenses too, that would be quite a bargain (d700s go for more used here than a900 new..).
The Rokkor does very nicely on the A900, no mirror issues at all.
Personally, I just really like the Sony FF bodies and Minolta film bodies, but replacing my Nikon kit would be expensive and some lenses just aren't available (85/1.8, CV 58). I think I'm going to have to get a couple M42-Alpha adapters and do a test conversion
For the nikons, I used a M42-alpha mount adapter, trimmed the inside so it could fit over the existing nikon mount. I put a 1mm spacer and screwed in the new mount, on top of the existing mount.
