Chiyoko Rokkor 3.5cm f/3.5 (Leica screw mount)

Minolta · LTM · 1956

Also known as: Rokkor 3.5cm f/3.5 · Rokkor 3.5cm f3.5 · Rokkor 3.5cm 1:3.5 · Rokkor 1:3.5 f=3.5cm · Rokkor 35mm f/3.5 · Rokkor 35mm f3.5 · Rokkor 35mm 1:3.5 · Rokkor 3.5/3.5cm · Chiyoko Rokkor 3.5cm f3.5 · Chiyoko Rokkor 35mm f3.5 · Chiyoko Rokkor 1:3.5 f=3.5cm · Chiyoko 35mm f3.5 · Chiyoko 3.5cm f3.5 · Chiyoda Kogaku Rokkor 3.5cm f3.5 · Minolta Rokkor 3.5cm f3.5 · Minolta Rokkor 35mm f3.5 · Minolta Rokkor 35mm f3.5 L39 · Minolta Rokkor 35mm f3.5 LTM · Minolta Chiyoko 35mm f3.5 · ロッコール 3.5cm F3.5 · ロッコール 35mm F3.5 · 千代田光学ロッコール 3.5cm F3.5 · 千代田光学ロッコール 35mm F3.5 · ミノルタロッコール 35mm F3.5 · ミノルタロッコール 3.5cm F3.5

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
First version, 8 blades (1,1xx,xxx)	LTM	1956	11xxxxx (Lens QA Works, citing Andrea Aprà) #1,10x,xxx lot (miyou55mane)	About 1,700 (Andrea Aprà's estimate, quoted by Lens QA Works)
Second version, 6 blades (1,2xx,xxx)	LTM	—	12xxxxx (Lens QA Works, citing Andrea Aprà) #1,203,012–1,203,025 seen (miyou55mane)	About 4,000 (Andrea Aprà's estimate, quoted by Lens QA Works; Flashback Camera also says about 4,000)

Date. May 1956 in JA Wikipedia's list (citing クラシックカメラ専科 No.12, ミノルタカメラのすべて, p.52) and in Lens QA Works; 1956 in miyou55mane and canonrangefinder-org.pages.dev. Leica Copies Japan finds the lens first in the Minolta Cameras brochure of about 1955–56 and in the Model II type b1 user manual, and calls 1956 'probably about right'. topgabacho alone writes that Minolta's wide-angles came only around the time of the Model IIB (1958), which the other sources contradict for this lens. No source gives an end date; the Minolta-35 line ended soon after the Model IIB of 1958.
Blades. Lens QA Works (from Andrea Aprà) and Flashback Camera describe an eight-blade first version and a six-blade second version; Leica Copies Japan gives only six. The Super A lens of the same name has eight (Kamerastore).
Size and weight. Lens QA Works: 47 × 23 mm, 159 g. Flashback Camera: 160 g measured. The 34 mm screw-in filter is given by Lens QA Works, JA Wikipedia ('アタッチメントはφ34mmねじ込み'), Flashback Camera and canonrangefinder-org.pages.dev.
Finder. None of the Minolta-35 bodies has frame lines, and the finder shows a field for the standard lens, so the 3.5cm needs an accessory finder. Leica Copies Japan writes that each accessory lens was supplied with a dedicated finder and shows the 3.5cm finder beside the 8.5cm and 13.5cm ones. Andrea Aprà, quoted by Lens QA Works, says the opposite for this lens: that it was sold without a finder, which had to be bought separately, and that the finder is therefore rarer than the telephoto ones. He counts four versions of the finder: metres or feet, each with two kinds of shoe and parallax mechanism.
Coating. Lens QA Works quotes English Wikipedia's Minolta article that this lens, in 1956, was 'the world's first multicoated consumer photographic lens', with two layers of magnesium fluoride of different thickness and no hard coat, so that many copies show cleaning scars. canonrangefinder-org.pages.dev writes that it 'has been described as' the first 'multi-layer achromatic coated' Japanese lens; Leitz Auction calls it 'often described as' such, and Flashback Camera calls the Achromatic Coating the world's first multi-coating ('世界初のマルチコーティング技術'). Joe McGloin's Minolta history, cited in the same Wikipedia passage, dates the Achromatic Coating to 1958. Leica Copies Japan does not mention it. No maker document of 1956 has been cited for it.
The Super A lens. Chiyoda Kogaku's leaf-shutter Super A (1957) had its own Chiyoko Rokkor 3.5cm f/3.5 on a bayonet, with no focusing helicoid of its own: Kamerastore gives it eight blades, 51 × 26 mm and 118 g. It does not fit a screw-mount body, and its serials overlap this lens's.
Prices. No list price for the lens has been found. Leitz Auction 40, lot 274 (No. 1100140, near mint, both caps): €408 including buyer's premium, against an estimate of €600–650. Leitz On 26, lot 110 (No. 1203152, metre scale, mint with some haze in the optics): €660 including premium, against €300–340. Both are auction results.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Engraved 'Chiyoko ROKKOR' with '1:3.5 f=3.5cm' (Lens QA Works). 'Rokkor', not 'Super Rokkor'
Focusing lever (camera-wiki); 34 mm filter thread; focuses to 1 m
Leica 39 mm screw mount, rangefinder-coupled. Not the Super A's bayonet 3.5cm f/3.5, which has no focusing helicoid of its own (Kamerastore); not the W.Rokkor QF 35mm f/1.8 of the Model IIB, engraved 'Minolta' and marked in mm

First version, 8 blades (1,1xx,xxx):

Eight aperture blades
Seven-digit serial starting 110 or 111 (examples: 1100140, 1100546)
Distance scale in metres or in feet; Lens QA Works lists both for this serial block

Second version, 6 blades (1,2xx,xxx):

Six aperture blades
Seven-digit serial starting 120 (examples: 1203152; Flashback Camera's copy in the 1,20x,xxx block)
Distance scale in metres or in feet (Lens QA Works)

First version, 8 blades (1,1xx,xxx): Lens QA Works (minolta.su) reviewed No. 1100546, which has eight blades, and photographed it on a Model E. Leitz Auction sold No. 1100140. miyou55mane gives the early lot as '#110,357〜110,750', six digits against the seven-digit numbers seen everywhere else; a digit has probably been dropped, but he does not say so. Leica Copies Japan knows only the six-blade lens.
Second version, 6 blades (1,2xx,xxx): Flashback Camera describes a 1,20x,xxx lens as the late type with six blades, made about 1957, with a metre scale, measured at 160 g; Leitz Auction dates its No. 1203152 to about 1956, so the start year of this version is left open. Leica Copies Japan gives six blades in its specification table and does not mention an eight-blade lens. Leitz Auction sold No. 1203152, with a metre scale. Lens QA Works lists four combinations, both serial blocks in metres and in feet, though its text misprints the last as 11xxxxx.

Serial-range notes

1,1xx,xxx; 1,2xx,xxx: Two lots, not one run. Lens QA Works ties eight blades to the 11xxxxx lot and six to the 12xxxxx lot, from Andrea Aprà's data. miyou55mane sees lots at #1,10x,xxx and #1,20x,xxx and puts the total below 10,000 ('総数は10,000本以下と推察'). Aprà's figures, about 1,700 and 4,000, are estimates; no factory record has been published.
1,101,158–1,101,344; 1,200,110–1,202,533: miyou55mane's serials for the 3.5cm f/3.5 of Chiyoda Kogaku's leaf-shutter Super A, which fall inside this lens's two blocks. He writes that the Minolta-35 and Super A lenses share their optics but not their barrels and mounts. A serial alone does not say which lens it is; the mount does (see note ⁶). In the same post's summary table the Minolta-35 35/3.5 line reads '#1,100,187 ... 1,204,215', two numbers that he lists elsewhere in the post under the W.Rokkor 35mm f/1.8, the second struck through as a 50/1.8. The 110 and 120 blocks also hold the Super Rokkor 5cm f/2 and f/1.8, the late Tele Rokkor 13.5cm f/4 (1,200,xxx) and the W.Rokkor 35mm f/1.8 and Tele Rokkor 100mm f/3.5 (1,100,1xx).

Specifications

Formula: Tessar type, 4 elements in 3 groups (Lens QA Works; miyou55mane; JA Wikipedia; Leica Copies Japan; camera-wiki)
Construction: 4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range: f/3.5–f/22
Min. focus: 1 m
Dimensions: 47 × 23 mm
Weight: 160 g
Filter: 34 mm
Years manufactured: 1956
Country: Japan
Coating: Two-layer magnesium fluoride 'Achromatic Coating' according to Lens QA Works, quoting English Wikipedia; a green tint ('独特なグリーン系', Flashback Camera). The 'world's first multi-coated lens' claim is disputed: see note ⁵
Material: Chrome-finished metal barrel

What reviewers say

Lens QA Works (minolta.su) (blog) — Tested No. 1100546 on a Sony A7II: soft corners at every aperture, strong vignetting still visible at f/8 and marked barrel distortion; only coma is acceptable. Usable for experiment, but its value is historical and for collectors, as a rare early Minolta lens.

History

The Rokkor 3.5cm f/3.5 was the first wide-angle lens Chiyoda Kogaku made for its Minolta-35 rangefinder, and its only one until the W.Rokkor 35mm f/1.8 of 1958. Chiyoda Kogaku was the maker of Minolta cameras until it took the Minolta name in 1962, and it engraved this lens “Chiyoko”. The lens came out in 1956, May according to JA Wikipedia and Lens QA Works. Leica Copies Japan first finds it in the Minolta Cameras brochure and the user manual of the restyled Model II type b1. That was nine years after the camera was launched, and two years before the faster W.Rokkor 35mm f/1.8 of the Model IIB. It is a plain Tessar-type design of four elements in three groups. Unlike the standard lenses it is called simply “Rokkor”, not “Super Rokkor”. It stops down to f/22, focuses to 1 m, takes 34 mm filters and weighs about 160 g. Several sources say a slow 35mm was an unattractive lens even in 1956 and that it sold poorly. Leica Copies Japan finds it hard to find today, and topgabacho writes that the 35mm is scarce, expensive and seldom seen.

There are two versions, told apart by serial number and aperture. Lenses numbered 11xxxxx have eight aperture blades and those numbered 12xxxxx have six, according to Lens QA Works, which draws on Andrea Aprà’s research. Aprà estimates about 1,700 of the first and 4,000 of the second. Flashback Camera describes the same six-blade late type, dating it to about 1957, though Leitz Auction dates a 12xxxxx lens to about 1956. Leica Copies Japan knows only the six-blade lens. Both versions were made with distance scales in metres or in feet. Much is made of the coating. English Wikipedia, quoted by Lens QA Works, calls this the world’s first multi-coated consumer lens: two layers of magnesium fluoride in Minolta’s “Achromatic Coating”, with no hard top layer. A Tokyo dealer and Leitz Auction repeat it. It rests on later histories, and one of them dates the Achromatic Coating to 1958, so it is best treated as unproven. The same passage notes that, with no hard layer, many copies now show cleaning scars. Lens QA Works tested one on a digital body and found soft corners at every aperture, heavy vignetting and barrel distortion. It values the lens as a historical piece rather than a tool.

The lens fits and couples on any Leica-thread body. None of the Minolta-35 bodies has frame lines, and their finders show the standard lens’s field, so a 35mm accessory finder is needed. Chiyoda Kogaku made one in metre and feet versions, and it is now rare and expensive. Sources disagree on whether it came with the lens: Leica Copies Japan says every accessory lens was supplied with its finder, while Aprà says the 3.5cm was sold without one. On the Minolta-35 bodies themselves the self-timer sits close to the mount. Leica Copies Japan says it can foul other makers’ focusing levers, but the Rokkor was made for these bodies.

When buying, check the mount first. Chiyoda Kogaku’s leaf-shutter Super A of 1957 had a 3.5cm f/3.5 Rokkor of its own, a bayonet lens with no focusing helicoid. Its serial numbers fall inside the screw-mount lens’s blocks, and dealers do not always say which one they have. The screw-mount lens has the 39 mm thread, a distance scale and a focusing lever. Count the blades and read the serial to tell the first version from the second, and look for the metre or feet scale if you are matching a body or finder. No list price has been found. Recent Leitz Auction results were €408 and €660 including premium. Check the front element for scratches in the soft coating, and check for haze, which one of those lots had.

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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.

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