The Lens details of a series of images taken by Steve Cushing on mirrorless camera.

Fitting is a Minolta bayonet mount with a 43.5mm Flange Distance - this lens will fit and achieve focus to infinity mirrorless cameras but not on all DSLRs.

Lens History

The Lens details of a series of images taken by Steve Cushing on mirrorless camera.

When Minolta introduced their first SLR camera, the SR-2 in 1958, they started out with four lenses. These lenses where the 35mm wide angle, a 55mm normal lens, a 100mm short tele lens and a 135mm tele lens.

So how did these Japanese companies take over from the early German companies?

After the war, with many plants bombed and the Russians taking over East Germany, production cost for making lenses were a lot cheaper in Japan. Even before the war German optics companies started to partner with Japanese companies to manufacture optic lenses used in industry and in cameras. Japan as one if not the only industrialised Asian nation in the world at that time, had the capability and the cheap labor to entice German manufacturers to move some of their production there. Similar to what is happening right now with China.

Together with this due to new post-war Japanese law and export control, Japanese optics companies were effectively out of the business from military purpose optics for long time. So, company that was making gun sight for fighter plane or war ships optics for battleship had to start competing on civilian market to survive.

European manufacture did not suffer this problem as much as Japanese did, and they still had lucrative military optics market as soon as cold war kicked in. Even decade after Japanese started to return to scientific or partial return to military optics market, they still had to make majority of money in consumer, industrial, or medical optics market.

The Japanese soon became so adept at making lenses originally for the Germans and now for their own domestic use, that companies like Nikon, Olympus, Minolta started. Canon was an off-shoot of Nikon. And so, the Japanese came to dominate the camera as well as the lens market. The Germans still have Leica of course which is considered the most expensive camera system in the world.

Autofocus technology for example were really designed for the military so this was quickly adapted for civilian purpose in Japan but remained secret in the rest of the world as it was used for military purposes.
The terms MC and MD relate to different series’ of Minolta lenses, with different features. All of the lenses, however, use a SR mount.

Over the years since 1958 Minolta have manufactured some truly outstanding items of photographic equipment. MD-I version with four lens elements (4/4) is one of the most famous Minolta tele lenses. It uses a simpler optical formula than it’s MC predecessors, but performs considerably better.

The sharpness of this lens is legendary amongst Minolta fans.

The MD 135 mm f/2.8 – like the MD 200 mm f/4 – features an integrated lens hood and feels slightly heavier than it’s longer brother.

Lens In Use

• Excellent build quality
• Smooth and extremely precise focusing
• 135 mm can still be hand-held easily, as long as light is sufficient.
• The relatively high weight reduces camera shake when shooting hand-held.

Summary

It is a very cheap lens, absolutely underrated. So, if you are not interested in a rare, heavy, and expensive MD 135mm F2.0 – get 135/2.8 with no doubt


For images using this lens click HERE

For general information on lens design and lens elements go to the homepage HERE