Found this lens last Sunday on the Dutch Fotografica fair. It was priced at € 20, I offered € 15 but the English seller didn’t understand me and said I could have it for 10. Deal struck.
The slowest Minolta 200mm lens
This is a somewhat rare find: a Minolta Tele Rokkor-QE 200mm 1:5. The lens doesn’t have an automatic diaphragm and wide-open it’s only f/5, thus keeping the price lower. It was introduced in 1964 and so it wasn’t Minolta’s first 200mm: in 1960 Minolta brought the more expensive Auto Tele Rokkor-QF 200mm 1:3.5. In the price list shown at Dennis Lohmann’s site the 200/5 is listed for $119.50 vs. $199.50 for the Auto 200/3.5.
Carl Zeiss Tessar 45mm 1:2.8
I bought this one to enhance my options in the 40-50mm range. My ideal standard lens is a bit shorter than 50mm and shows excellent sharpness across the frame at f/8 for landscape pictures. There’s only one other 45mm lens in my line-up, the Minolta MD Rokkor 45mm 1:2 and to be honest, I really don’t like it. Optically it is useable though not stellar, but especially the mechanics put me off: focussing feels plasticky and not at all smooth, even on the rather nice-looking copy I have now. Yuck.
Another Minolta 35mm
Picked up this 35mm Minolta lens which is the second version of the MC 35/2.8 line-up, the one with the hills-and-dales focussing ring. In Dennis Lohmann’s list it is number 72, type MC-II.