Japan · 6 lenses

Minolta (MC / MD Rokkor)

Minolta made its own glass at Mukogawa near Osaka, and from 1940 to about 1980 its lenses carried the Rokkor name, after Mount Rokkō, which you could see from the factory. Until around 1975 the name ends in two letters for the formula. The first counts groups and the second counts elements, so a Rokkor-PG has five groups and seven elements. Lenses for North America were often engraved Rokkor-X and were built to the same standard as the rest. Every manual-focus Minolta SLR lens uses the SR bayonet of 1958. MC lenses from 1966 coupled to the meter, and MD lenses from 1977 added a lever for shutter-priority and program cameras. Minolta worked with Leica from 1972, and the Leica R3 was based on a Minolta body. The autofocus A-mount replaced SR in 1985.