Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Minolta-35 Model II

Minolta · LTM mount · 24×34mm on 35mm film in Chiyoda Kogaku's Model II brochure and leaflet; measured bodies come out a fraction under that, and some Japanese sources give 24×34.5mm for the late body (see disputed) · 1953

Also known as: Minolta-35 Model II · Minolta 35 Model II · Minolta 35 Model-II · Minolta-35 II · Minolta 35 II · Minolta 35 Model 2 · Chiyoda Kogaku Minolta-35 Model II · C.K.S. Minolta-35 Model II · ミノルタ35 II型 · ミノルタ35 II · ミノルタ35 2型 · ミノルタ35 2 · ミノルタ35 モデル2 · ミノルタ35 モデルII · ミノルタ 35 モデル 2 · ミノルタ ３５ モデル ２

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Type a1 (early body, C.K.S., no X) LTM 1953–1954 3536x–4914x seen (Leica Copies Japan)
From #35,127, no X on the slow dial up to #48,450 (miyou55mane) 		No maker figure. Leica Copies Japan's recorded a1 bodies span about 14,000 numbers
Type a2 (early body, red X) · [object Object] LTM 1953–1955 4903x–5940x seen (Leica Copies Japan)
X from about #48,8xx, first seen #48,810; C.K.S. to #59,183 (miyou55mane) 		No maker figure. Leica Copies Japan's recorded a2 bodies span about 10,000 numbers
Type b1 (late body, CHIYODA KOGAKU, plain shoe) LTM 1955–1956 7012x–8953x seen (Leica Copies Japan)
No balls on the shoe up to #88,907 (miyou55mane) 		No maker figure. Leica Copies Japan's recorded b1 bodies span about 19,000 numbers
Type b2 (late body, shoe with pressure balls) LTM 1956–1958 8633x, and 8916x–10182x seen (Leica Copies Japan)
Balls on the shoe from #89,323; highest Model II seen #102,671 (miyou55mane) 		No maker figure. Leica Copies Japan's recorded b2 bodies, from 8916x, span about 13,000 numbers
  1. Japanese writers split the Model II into 前期 (early, 1953) and 後期 (late, 1955) by the body shape. Leica Copies Japan and Collection Appareils (Renaud Laemmli's identification key) split each again, into types a1, a2, b1 and b2, and those four are the variants here.
  2. The maker named only the original Minolta-35 and the Models E, F, II and IIB; the letters A–D and the type letters are collectors' labels.
  3. No US list price for the Model II has been confirmed from a period advertisement or catalogue.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 'MODEL II' engraved at the top right of the front plate. The E and F read 'MODEL-E' and 'MODEL-F'; the A–D bodies have no model name; the IIB has a wind lever and a lower-case 'minolta-35' in a new typeface
  • Knob wind and a large round back-lock knob marked Open and Shut (or Close) on the base plate; the earlier bodies open the back with a small recessed button
  • A PC flash socket on the back below the shoe
  • Early body (types a1, a2): the rounded top plate of the earlier models with 'C.K.S.'. Late body (types b1, b2): deeper top and bottom plates, a squarer shutter-dial platform, a platform under the rewind knob and 'CHIYODA KOGAKU'

Type a1 (early body, C.K.S., no X):

  • 'MODEL II' engraved at the top right of the front plate; 'Minolta-35' and 'C.K.S.' on the top plate
  • No red X on the front slow-speed dial, and the large centre screw of the earlier slow dial is gone
  • A large round back-lock knob on the base plate, engraved Open and Shut (or Close), with a matching pedestal under the tripod socket; the A–F bodies have a small recessed button instead
  • A PC flash socket on the back below the plain accessory shoe
  • The old rounded top plate with no platform under the rewind knob; finder-window surround in satin chrome rather than the polished chrome of the E and F, window 13.5mm wide
  • MADE IN JAPAN on the tripod pedestal

Type a2 (early body, red X):

  • Red X between 8 and 25 on the front slow-speed dial
  • Still the rounded early top plate and 'C.K.S.'
  • Finder window 13.5mm wide on bodies sold with the 45mm f/2.8 and 11.5mm, inside a wider surround, on bodies sold with the new 5cm f/2
  • A longer, dimpled black pressure plate from about 5068x; earlier a2 bodies mostly keep the old plate
  • Some backs carry an adhesive 'Minolta Camera' label (seen up to about 5301x)

Type b1 (late body, CHIYODA KOGAKU, plain shoe):

  • 'CHIYODA KOGAKU' in place of 'C.K.S.' on the top plate
  • New top and bottom plates with a deeper lip; a wider, squarer platform under the shutter dial; a triangular platform under the rewind knob, like a Leica IIIc/f
  • Plain accessory shoe without pressure balls
  • JAPAN on the base in place of MADE IN JAPAN (a few early b1 bodies still read MADE IN JAPAN; miyou55mane sees only JAPAN from #74,xxx)
  • Finder window mostly 11.5mm; the few early b1 bodies sold with the last 45mm lenses keep the 13.5mm window
  • A film-plane mark added

Type b2 (late body, shoe with pressure balls):

  • Accessory shoe with two small balls between its screws
  • New cast-alloy shutter cover with machined film guides, seen with the back open
  • A shorter, smooth pressure plate on the back
  • Late body and 'CHIYODA KOGAKU', as on the b1

Serial-range notes

35,127–102,671
The Model II bodies miyou55mane has seen. Leica Copies Japan's recorded bodies run from 3536x to 10182x. No Model II has been recorded between about 5940x and 7012x, the gap between the last early body and the first late one.
about 48,8xx
The red X appears on the slow-speed dial: miyou55mane sees none up to #48,450 and all from #48,810; Leica Copies Japan starts the type a2 at 4903x.
about 60,001 or 7012x
The top-plate name changes from C.K.S. to CHIYODA KOGAKU. miyou55mane infers #60,001 from bodies at #59,183 (C.K.S.) and #61,866 (CHIYODA KOGAKU), but his later recount found that bodies he had logged in the 60,000s were misread 80,000s. Leica Copies Japan sees the new name only with the new body, from 7012x, and English Wikipedia puts the second version at about 70,000.
about 89,001
The shoe gains its two balls: miyou55mane sees none up to #88,907 and all from #89,323. Leica Copies Japan records one ball-shoe body at 8633x and the rest from 8916x.
140017x–140948x and 141191x–141690x (lens numbers)
Super Rokkor 45mm f/2.8 serials that Leica Copies Japan finds on type a1 bodies, and on type a2 and early b1 bodies, respectively. The f/2.8 5cm on its b2 body 8633x is 15067xx. Useful for judging whether a kit is original.

Specifications

Format
24×34mm on 35mm film in Chiyoda Kogaku's Model II brochure and leaflet; measured bodies come out a fraction under that, and some Japanese sources give 24×34.5mm for the late body (see disputed) · 8 perforations per frame · 36 exposures
Finder
Combined coupled rangefinder and reverse-Galilean viewfinder in one window (透視逆ガリレオ式), with diopter adjustment at the eyepiece · 0.7× magnification
Base length
40 mm
Effective baselength
28 mm
Shutter
Horizontal cloth focal-plane; the leading and trailing curtains wind onto separate drums (Hayata), with the curtains reached from the back of a die-cast frame (endoscopy.jp) · T, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 and 1/25 on the front slow-speed dial (with X between 1/8 and 1/25 from type a2); B, 1/25, 1/35, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200 and 1/500 on the top dial · flash sync PC socket on the back. The type a2 manual is the first to mention X, at 1/25, alongside FP bulbs; Leica Copies Japan presumes the earlier sync was FP only (Ei Mook 735 table, for the early II: FP, X接点) · self-timer
Film advance
Knob, self-cocking, with automatic stop (ノブ式セルフコッキング自動巻き止め)
Back
Hinged, with a fixed take-up spool; locked by a round Open/Shut knob on the base plate, which also works Minolta's reloadable cassette
Meter
None
Weight
584 g
Dimensions
137 × 76 × 62 early, 137 × 76 × 70 late with the 5cm f/2.8 (Ei Mook 735 table, which appears to include the lens in the depth); bare bodies measured by Leica Copies Japan at 135mm base-plate length, 79mm high and 31mm deep mm
Country
Japan
Original price
Japanese retail list price at 31 March 1957: ¥39,800 with the Super Rokkor f/2.8 and ¥49,000 with the 5cm f/2 (US Department of Commerce, The Development of the Japanese Photographic Products Industry, 1954–1958, via Leica Copies Japan). ob-scura quotes a 1955 advertisement with the same two prices (advertised prices). Leica Copies Japan puts mid-1950s advertised prices with the f/2 at ¥48,000–49,000. No launch price for 1953 has been found. (today ¥249,000)
Accessories
Minolta reloadable film cassette, a Zeiss-style design opened and closed by the base-plate lock; the earlier bodies cannot use it (Leica Copies Japan, Model II manual pages 4 and 10) · Minolta Auto-Up close-up lens with a shoe-mounted rangefinder compensator, boxed 'For Minolta 35'; Leica Copies Japan thinks it almost certainly not made by Chiyoda Kogaku (the Auto-Up was Shimada's 'Pleasant' design). A version shown in the b2 manual mounts on the lens instead of the shoe · Flashguns for the PC socket: Minolta B.C. Model and Minolta Penlite Model E (type a2 manual); Minolta Junior B.C. (type b2 manual) · A dedicated accessory finder supplied with each Rokkor wide-angle and telephoto (Leica Copies Japan), since the finder has no frame lines

No frame lines: the whole window is the field of the standard lens, so the 3.5cm, 8.5cm, 11cm and 13.5cm Rokkors each came with an accessory finder for the shoe. Window 13.5mm wide on bodies sold with the 45mm and 11.5mm on most bodies sold with the 5cm lenses (Leica Copies Japan). Magnification from the Ei Mook 735 table and endoscopy.jp; base and effective base from Leica Copies Japan and Collection Appareils.

Figures we worked out rather than found: The production spans in the variants are differences between the highest and lowest serials Leica Copies Japan has recorded for each type, not maker figures. · The 57,000 total is miyou55mane's estimate from observed serials, not a maker figure.

Where sources disagree

First
  • February 1953 (Hayata, '昭和28年(1953年）2月にミノルタ35Ⅱ型が登場'; Japanese Wikipedia, 'ミノルタ35II前期型（1953年2月発売）')
  • August 1953, when Asahi Camera reported it as new (ob-scura, citing 『昭和10～40年 広告に見る国産カメラの歴史』 p.369)
  • 1953 (Leica Copies Japan; Ei Mook 735 table); 1953.3 (Photoethnography)

Better supported: February 1953

Format
  • 24×34mm: Chiyoda Kogaku's Japanese camera-range brochure and Model II leaflet (via Leica Copies Japan); English Wikipedia; ob-scura gives 34×24 for its early II
  • 23.4×33.8mm measured on two type a1 bodies and a type a2, 23.5×33.9mm on a type b1 (Dennis Oyama of This Old Camera, via Leica Copies Japan); Leica Copies Japan's own ruler gives a fraction under 34mm on its a2 and between 34 and 34.5mm on its b2
  • 24×34.5mm for the late body: Japanese Wikipedia ('ミノルタ35II後期型（1955年発売） - 24×34.5mm判') and endoscopy.jp, which also gives it for the late II it restored
  • 24×36mm: Photoethnography

Better supported: 24×34mm nominal, a little under in measurement

Japanese Wikipedia also says the early II changed only the film advance to 36mm. Leica Copies Japan dates the change to an 8-perforation advance to the Model C, and every measured Model II frame is about 34mm wide.

Production
  • About 57,000: miyou55mane's revised count from body and lens serials, down from an earlier estimate of about 70,000
  • About 20,000 (Photoethnography)
  • About 40,000 for the whole Minolta-35 line, 1947–58 (English Wikipedia)

Better supported: The serial evidence, which runs from about 35,000 to about 102,000 with a gap near 60,000–70,000

No factory record is known. Leica Copies Japan's recorded ranges for the four types add up to about 56,000 numbers.

Weight (grams)
  • 584g, bare type a2 body, and 575g, bare type b2 body (Leica Copies Japan, measured)
  • 595g body (Photoethnography)
  • 770g early and 780g late with the f/2.8 (Ei Mook 735 table; Leica Copies Japan's a2 body with its 45mm lens comes to 770g, so the table appears to include the lens)

Better supported: 584g for a bare early body

Flash sync
  • X at 1/25, marked by the red X between 8 and 25 (Leica Copies Japan, from the a2 user manual)
  • X between 1/8 and 1/25 (camera-wiki); 'シンクロスピードは1/25秒と1/8秒の間' (topgabacho)
  • 1/60 X sync (Photoethnography)

The first two readings describe the same dial position, and the manual names 1/25. The 1/60 has no support in the manual or on the dial.

Self timer
  • Three-step delay (3段時間調節式) on the early and late II (Ei Mook 735 table); a Model II with three numbered positions (ITmedia)
  • Self-timer numbers 1, 2, 3 from the Model F on (Leica Copies Japan models table)
  • Two settings, '1' and '2' (Photoethnography); two positions (Collection Appareils)
Variants
  • Early and late differ only in the lens (小寺信良, ITmedia)
  • Early and late bodies differ in their top and bottom plates (Leica Copies Japan; camera-wiki; topgabacho; Collection Appareils) and in depth and weight (Ei Mook 735 table)

Better supported: The body changed

What reviewers say

History

The Model II of February 1953 is the Minolta-35 most often found, and the one Chiyoda Kogaku built longest. It kept the formula of the 1947 original: a die-cast Leica-thread body, taller than a Barnack Leica, with a cloth focal-plane shutter to 1/500 set on a top dial and a front slow-speed dial, a knob wind, a hinged back with a fixed take-up spool, a self-timer by the mount and one window for rangefinder and viewfinder. The finder is 0.7× on a 40mm base, with a diopter and no frame lines. What the II added is on the base plate and the back. A large round lock marked Open and Shut replaced the small release button, and it also opens Minolta’s own reloadable cassette. A PC flash socket replaced the unidentified sockets of the E and F. From the type a2 the slow-speed dial gained a red X, giving electronic-flash sync at 1/25. The frame stayed short. Chiyoda Kogaku’s Model II brochure and leaflet say 24×34mm. Calliper measurements of early bodies give 33.8mm, and Leica Copies Japan finds a b2 between 34 and 34.5mm. Japanese Wikipedia and endoscopy.jp give 24×34.5 for the late body; the 24×36 in some English sources is wrong.

There are two bodies and four versions. The early body of 1953 (types a1 and a2) is the rounded body of the E and F with ‘C.K.S.’ on the top plate; the a2 differs only by the red X. In 1955 the late body (types b1 and b2) arrived with deeper top and bottom plates, a squarer platform under the shutter dial, a small platform under the rewind knob and ‘CHIYODA KOGAKU’ in full. From 1956 the b2 has two balls in the accessory shoe and a cast shutter cover with machined film guides. The lenses changed alongside. The Super Rokkor 45mm f/2.8 was the only standard lens on the a1. The 5cm f/2 was added with the a2 (April 1954 in Japanese Wikipedia; English Wikipedia says summer 1955), and the 5cm f/2.8 replaced the 45mm with the late body. Bodies sold with a 5cm lens have a smaller finder window, 11.5mm against 13.5mm, so the window shows which lens a body left the factory with. The lever-wind IIB took over in 1958: May in Japanese Wikipedia and Leica Copies Japan, March in Hayata.

Japanese retail prices in the mid-1950s were ¥39,800 with the f/2.8 and ¥49,000 with the f/2. The US Department of Commerce recorded those two figures at 31 March 1957, and ob-scura quotes a 1955 advertisement with the same pair. Leica Copies Japan puts that well below the Canon and Nikon bodies of the day, and in line with the Leotax and Nicca. No maker production figure exists. Body serials seen by collectors run from about 35,000 to about 102,700. Leica Copies Japan has recorded no Model II between its last early body, 5940x, and its first late one, 7012x. miyou55mane, counting from serials, estimates about 57,000 Model IIs. Photoethnography’s 20,000 looks low against those numbers.

When buying, check the shutter first. Karen Nakamura found that few of these cloth shutters survive in their original state, and bodies sold as junk go cheaply. On Yahoo! Auctions in 2026, body No.101483, listed with a faulty shutter, closed at ¥1,760, and an untested Model II with a Super Rokkor 45mm at ¥14,000. A Model II listed with a 5cm f/2.8, cap and case made €531 with premium in Leitz Auction 4. ob-scura notes that the 45mm Rokkor’s focusing tab sits high enough to clear the self-timer. Not every Leica-thread lens does. topgabacho reports that the Leitz Elmar 5cm and 3.5cm and the Hektor 2.8cm, whose infinity catch sits low by the mount, will not go on, and owners report the same with the tabs of an Industar-50 and a FED 50mm. Any lens but the standard one needs an accessory finder. To check that a kit is original, match the finder window to the lens, the lens serial to the body (Leica Copies Japan pairs 45mm lenses 140017x–140948x with a1 bodies and 141191x–141690x with a2 and early b1), and the top-plate name to the body shape.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

More sample photos elsewhere

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Live listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-11-09. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Lenses for this body: Chiyoko Super Rokkor 45mm f/2.8 (Leica screw mount) · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 5cm f/2.8 (Leica screw mount) · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 5cm f/2 (Leica screw mount) · Chiyoda Kogaku Super Rokkor 5cm f/1.8 (Leica screw mount) · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 8.5cm f/2.8 (Leica screw mount) · Chiyoko Tele Rokkor 11cm f/5.6 (Leica screw mount) · Chiyoko Tele Rokkor 13.5cm f/4 (Leica screw mount) · Chiyoko Rokkor 3.5cm f/3.5 (Leica screw mount) · Minolta W.Rokkor QF 35mm f/1.8 (Leica screw mount) · Minolta Tele. Rokkor QE 100mm f/3.5 (Leica screw mount)

Sources (16)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.