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

Chiyoko Super Rokkor 5cm f/2 (Leica screw mount)

Minolta · LTM · 1954

Also known as: Super Rokkor 5cm f2 · Super Rokkor 5cm f/2 · Super Rokkor 5cm F2 C · Super Rokkor 5cm 1:2 · Super Rokkor 5cm 1:2 C · Super Rokkor 1:2 f=5cm · Super Rokkor 1:2 f=50mm · Super Rokkor 50mm f2 · Super Rokkor 50mm f/2 · Super Rokkor 50mm 1:2 · Super Rokkor 5/2 · Super-Rokkor 5cm f2 · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 5cm f2 · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 50mm f2 · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 1:2 f=5cm · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 5cm 1:2 C · Chiyoko 5cm f2 · Chiyoko 50mm f2 · Minolta Super Rokkor 5cm f2 · Minolta Super Rokkor 50mm f2 LTM · Minolta Super Rokkor 50mm f2 L39 · スーパーロッコール 5cm F2 · スーパーロッコール 50mm F2 · スーパー ロッコール 5cm F2 · スーパーロッコール 5cm F=1:2 · 千代田光学 スーパーロッコール 5cm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Version 1: 40.5 mm filter, stops to f/16, red © LTM — 110022x–110289x (Leica Copies Japan)
1,100,161–1,103,030 seen by miyou55mane; No. 1,100,161 is the lens pictured in the instruction manual 		About 3,000 (miyou55mane's estimate from observed serials)
Version 2: 43 mm filter, stops to f/16, red © LTM — 120013x–1201285 (Leica Copies Japan)
1,200,006–1,202,938 seen by miyou55mane 		About 3,000 (miyou55mane's estimate)
Version 3: 43 mm filter, stops to f/22, red © LTM — 130020x–130318x (Leica Copies Japan)
1,300,290–1,304,899 seen by miyou55mane 		About 5,000 (miyou55mane's estimate)
Version 4: 43 mm filter, f/22, no © LTM — 140035x–140376x and 150024x–150106x (Leica Copies Japan)
1,400,279–1,404,034 and 1,500,209–1,505,018 seen by miyou55mane 		About 9,000 across the two blocks (miyou55mane's estimates of 4,000 and 5,000)
  1. Versions. Leica Copies Japan describes three physical versions (40.5 mm and f/16; 43 mm and f/16; 43 mm and f/22) and a fourth that is the third without the red ©, and photographs each. canonrangefinder agrees on the two filter sizes and on later lenses with and without the C, at f/16 or f/22. Lens QA Works, crediting Andrea Aprà, counts 'at least 5 editions', which matches the five serial blocks rather than five different barrels.
  2. Date. Leica Copies Japan says the lens was released with the Model II type a2 and dates that body to 1953. The JA Wikipedia list of Minolta cameras says the Model II with the Super Rokkor 50mm F2 went on sale in April 1954 ('1954年4月…スーパーロッコール50mm F2付が発売された'), and Lens QA Works also gives 1954. miyou55mane lists the lens as 1955〜, the JA Wikipedia lens list and canonrangefinder give July 1955, and Flashback Camera May 1955. The page uses 1954 because it is the only date that fits both the dated product list and Leica Copies Japan's evidence that the lens arrived on type a2 bodies; the 1955 dates may describe the restyled type b1 outfit.
  3. Groups. Every source counts seven elements and draws the same layout. The disagreement is whether the two very narrowly air-spaced pairs at the front are two groups each or one. Leica Copies Japan reads the brochure and manual drawings as four separate front groups and gives 7/6; camera-wiki gives 7/4. In Lens QA Works' comments one reader says Minolta's literature shows the front pairs as cemented and calls it 7/4, and another, who took a lens apart, describes 'air-spaced doublets' held apart by a very thin spacer.
  4. Weight and size. 260 g is Lens QA Works' figure; Leica Copies Japan notes that the Minolta Cameras brochure gives 240 g and that it may depend on version. The 53 mm length is the brochure's figure via Leica Copies Japan; Leica Copies Japan gives no diameter.
  5. Filter. World Leica Copies gives 40.5 mm for the lens on its Model II body No. 94415, a late body that would normally carry a 43 mm lens; endoscopy.jp gives 43 mm for its lens.
  6. Price. No price for the lens alone has been found. Leica Copies Japan cites the US Department of Commerce booklet The Development of the Japanese Photographic Products Industry, 1954–1958, which lists the Model II at ¥49,000 with the f/2 and ¥39,800 with the f/2.8 on 31 March 1957, and ob-scura quotes the same two figures from a 1955 advertisement. These are Japanese list prices for the camera with lens.
  7. Super A. The Minolta Super A of 1957 was also offered with a 5 cm f/2 standard lens (Leica Copies Japan: f/2.8, f/2 and f/1.8), in that camera's own bayonet-type mount with the focusing helicoid in the body. It does not fit a screw-mount body. Super A lenses are sometimes listed as Leica mount, so check the rear of the lens for a 39 mm thread before buying.
  8. Engraving. Lens QA Works reads its lens as 'Chiyoko Super Rokkor 1:2 f=5cm C'. endoscopy.jp writes 'CHIYOKO SUPER ROKKOR 1:2 f=50mm' for its 43 mm example; no photograph confirms a millimetre engraving on this lens.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Leica 39 mm screw mount, rangefinder-coupled; name ring reads Chiyoko Super Rokkor, 1:2 and f=5cm, with a red © on all but the last version
  • Chrome barrel with a focusing lever (camera-wiki); clearly longer and heavier than the 5cm f/2.8 and 45mm f/2.8 Super Rokkors of the same bodies
  • Not the 5cm f/1.8 Super Rokkor of the Model IIB, engraved Chiyoda Kogaku; not the bayonet-mount 5cm f/2 of the Minolta Super A; not the M-Rokkor 40mm f/2 of the Leitz Minolta CL and CLE; not an SR-mount Auto Rokkor or MC Rokkor

Version 1: 40.5 mm filter, stops to f/16, red ©:

  • Smaller front ring with a 40.5 mm filter thread, without the ribbed outer edge of the later rings
  • Aperture scale ends at 16; red © on the name ring
  • Seven-digit serial beginning 110

Version 2: 43 mm filter, stops to f/16, red ©:

  • Larger front ring with ribbing round its outside edge and a 43 mm filter thread
  • Aperture scale still ends at 16; red ©
  • Seven-digit serial beginning 120

Version 3: 43 mm filter, stops to f/22, red ©:

  • Ribbed 43 mm front ring as on version 2, but the aperture scale runs to 22
  • Red © kept; seven-digit serial beginning 130

Version 4: 43 mm filter, f/22, no ©:

  • As version 3 but with no red © on the name ring
  • Seven-digit serial beginning 140 or 150

Serial-range notes

1100xxx–1505xxx
Five serial blocks, one per version or half-version: 110, 120, 130, 140 and 150. Chiyoda Kogaku reused the same block numbers for other lenses. The 5cm f/2.8 also has a 150 block, the 5cm f/1.8 has 110, 120 and 130 blocks, and the last 45mm f/2.8 runs through the 140 block. The 110 and 120 blocks also hold the Rokkor 3.5cm f/3.5, the late Tele Rokkor 13.5cm f/4 (1,200,xxx) and the IIB's W.Rokkor 35mm f/1.8 and Tele Rokkor 100mm f/3.5 (1,100,1xx). The Super A's bayonet 5cm f/2 overlaps too: miyou55mane gives 1,302,106–1,508,441 for it against 1,100,161–1,505,018 for this lens ('130〜150万台が重複'). The serial number only tells the lenses apart when it is read together with the engraving and the mount.

Specifications

Formula
Double-Gauss type, 7 elements. The first four elements are two pairs separated by a very narrow air gap, so the lens is counted as 6 groups (Leica Copies Japan, JA Wikipedia, Flashback Camera, World Leica Copies, canonrangefinder) or as 7 in 4 with the front pairs counted as doublets (camera-wiki; in Lens QA Works' comments one reader cites Minolta literature showing cemented pairs, another who took a lens apart describes air-spaced doublets on a very thin spacer)
Construction
7 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/2
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
53 mm long
Weight
260 g
Filter
40.5 mm (Version 1: 40.5 mm filter, stops to f/16, red ©) · 43 mm (Version 2: 43 mm filter, stops to f/16, red ©, Version 3: 43 mm filter, stops to f/22, red ©, Version 4: 43 mm filter, f/22, no ©)
Years manufactured
1954
Country
Japan
Coating
Coated; the first three versions carry a red © to say so and the last omits it (Leica Copies Japan). World Leica Copies blames its flare on a single-layer coating of poor quality; endoscopy.jp calls the coating of this period delicate to clean
Material
Brass barrel, heavy for its size (World Leica Copies: 真鍮製の鏡胴はずっしりと重く)

What reviewers say

History

The Super Rokkor 5cm f/2 was the first lens faster than f/2.8 that Chiyoda Kogaku made for its Minolta-35. Until the Model II, the camera was sold with the 45mm f/2.8 only. The f/2 arrived as the dearer of two outfits, and according to Leica Copies Japan it first came on the Model II type a2, the body with the red X on its slow-speed dial. The JA Wikipedia list of Minolta cameras dates the Model II with the 50mm F2 to April 1954. Other sources give 1953, May 1955 or July 1955. It stayed the top lens through both styles of Model II until the IIB of 1958 brought the 5cm f/1.8. The lens is engraved Chiyoko Super Rokkor, 1:2, f=5cm. miyou55mane, who has logged serial numbers from five production blocks, estimates about 20,000 were made.

Optically it is a seven-element double-Gauss lens. Japanese sources have long compared it to the Summicron: World Leica Copies notes that its drawing looks so much like the Leitz lens that it is sometimes dismissed as a dead copy, and JA Wikipedia says it is reported to have copied the early Summicron without the Summicron’s new types of glass. The first four elements are two pairs separated by very thin air gaps. Leica Copies Japan counts this as 7 elements in 6 groups, as do most Japanese sources, while camera-wiki and Minolta’s own literature, as reported by a reader of Lens QA Works, call it 7 in 4. The lens has ten aperture blades and focuses to 1 m. Lens QA Works gives 260 g; World Leica Copies calls the brass barrel heavy and says it unbalances the small body.

There are four versions, all set apart by the front of the lens. The first has a 40.5 mm filter thread and stops down to f/16. The second has a larger, ribbed front ring for 43 mm filters and still stops at f/16. The third keeps the 43 mm ring and stops down to f/22. The fourth is the third without the red © that marked the lens as coated. In Leica Copies Japan’s records the first is found mostly with the early-style type a2 body, the second and third with the restyled CHIYODA KOGAKU type b1 of 1955, and both serial blocks of the fourth with the type b2. Model II outfits with the f/2 have a smaller finder window than the 45mm outfits, to match the narrower field. No Minolta-35 has frame lines: on the f/2 outfits the window is masked down to suit the 5 cm field, while earlier bodies and Model II bodies sold with the 45mm show a wider view, so framing is approximate. The lens fits any Leica-thread body and couples to its rangefinder. On the A and B bodies the effective rangefinder base is only about 13 mm, which is little for focusing an f/2 lens wide open; Leica Copies Japan gives 28 mm from the Model C to the Model II and 32 mm for the IIB. World Leica Copies places the higher finder magnification at the Model E and miyou55mane at the Model F.

Reviewers do not find it a sharp lens. World Leica Copies tested it on negative film and found moderate sharpness, low contrast, a slight yellow cast, and ghosts and flare in almost every frame shot against the light. Lens QA Works found that stopping down one or two stops does not make the whole frame sharp, advises f/8 or another lens for landscapes, and recommends it for its bokeh. Flashback Camera describes it as rather soft wide open and properly sharp from about f/4. World Leica Copies blames the flare on a poor single-layer coating, and Lens QA Works advises a hood.

When buying, read the front ring and the aperture scale to place the version; the serial blocks (110, 120, 130, 140, 150 at the start of a seven-digit number) confirm it. Other Chiyoda Kogaku lenses share these block numbers, so a serial alone is not proof. Make sure the lens has a 39 mm screw thread: the Minolta Super A of 1957 was also offered with a 5 cm f/2 standard lens in its own bayonet-type mount, and such lenses are sometimes listed as Leica mount. endoscopy.jp warns that the coating of this period is delicate and needs great care when cleaning, so look for cleaning marks as well as the haze and fungus usual on lenses of this age. No price for the lens on its own has been found. In 1955–57 the Model II cost ¥49,000 with the f/2 and ¥39,800 with an f/2.8 lens (Japanese list prices for camera and lens, from a 1955 advertisement and the US Department of Commerce list of 31 March 1957).

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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.

Example photos

More sample photos elsewhere

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Chiyoko Super Rokkor 5cm f/2 (Leica screw mount)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $110 across 13 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $98–$220). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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 2026-11-10. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Sources (11)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, 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.