Minolta MD W.Rokkor 35mm f/1.8

About 240 grams. That is what the MD W.Rokkor 35mm f/1.8 weighs, against roughly 410 for the MC W.Rokkor-HH it replaced, and the element count did not change: still eight in six groups. Rokkor Files calls it a completely new design, not the old formula in a lighter shell. Minolta's data has it on sale in August 1978 at 37,000 yen; a plain MD version without the Rokkor name followed in December 1981.

Other numbers moved too. The filter thread dropped from 55 mm to 49 mm. On the aperture ring, now plastic, the scale runs a stop further, to f/22 where the MC lens stopped at f/16, and the extra lug on the mount tells an XD-11 where the smallest aperture sits, which its shutter-priority mode needs. Focusing does not turn the front element, a detail Rokkor Files calls handy for landscape work, since a polarizer or a grad stays where you set it. What you don't get is a floating element; Rokkor Files notes the 24mm f/2.8 and 28mm f/2 have one and this lens does not.

Optically the diet cost very little. Rokkor Files found the center exceptional at f/1.8 and the corner resolution excellent, even where flare had crept in. By f/4 the flare is gone and resolution has improved in the center and the corner; at f/8 the frame looks very sharp. Distortion is hard to find, and the review rates the contrast outstanding. On whether it beats the MC lens, opinion on the Minolta groups was mixed with a lean toward the MD, and the reviewer called it a very close call.

That reviewer calls it a constant companion and rates the focal length for two jobs: street work, where a moderate wide frames easily, and landscapes. On that copy a 49 to 55 mm step-up ring stays on at all times, under a 55 mm cap, so 55 mm filters thread straight on. Flare wide open is the weakness to plan around. It shows in the corners at f/1.8, so a night street full of lamps either becomes part of the look or a reason to stop down to f/4, if the light allows.

It was never the common Minolta 35, either. Rokkor Files calls it considerably rarer than the popular f/2.8 and priced a good copy at about US$170 to $190 on eBay, or $240 to $260 in a shop. The f/2.8 went for $50 to $70, and the reviewer reckoned it probably performs much the same from f/4 up. So the premium buys speed and a brighter finder. If your rolls live at f/8, buy the slower lens.

That f/22 matters on the meter as well. Set Zone Light Meter's lens range to the real f/1.8 to f/22 and a sunlit beach on ISO 400 film can come back as f/22 at 1/500 rather than f/16 at 1/1000, which is already the XD-11's fastest speed with no room left for a brighter frame.