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

Chiyoko Super Rokkor 5cm f/2.8 (Leica screw mount)

Minolta · LTM · 1955

Also known as: Super Rokkor 5cm f/2.8 · Super Rokkor 5cm f2.8 · Super Rokkor 5cm 2.8 · Super Rokkor 5cm F2.8 C · Super Rokkor 50mm f/2.8 · Super Rokkor 50mm f2.8 · Super Rokkor 50/2.8 · Super Rokkor 2.8/5cm · Super Rokkor 1:2.8 f=5cm · Super Rokkor 1:2.8 f 5cm · Super-Rokkor 50mm F2.8 · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 5cm f2.8 · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 50mm f2.8 · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 1:2.8 f=5cm · Chiyoko Rokkor 5cm f2.8 L39 · Chiyoko 50mm f2.8 · Chiyoko 5cm f2.8 · Chiyoda Kogaku Super Rokkor 5cm f2.8 · Minolta Super Rokkor 5cm f2.8 · Minolta Super Rokkor 50mm f2.8 · Minolta Rokkor 50mm f2.8 LTM · Minolta Rokkor 50mm f2.8 L39 · Rokkor 5cm f2.8 L39 · Rokkor 5cm f2.8 LTM · スーパーロッコール 5cm F2.8 · スーパーロッコール 50mm F2.8 · 千代田光学 スーパーロッコール 5cm F2.8 · ミノルタ スーパーロッコール 5cm F2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
First lot, red © (1,500,xxx) LTM 1955 150013x–151147x (Leica Copies Japan)
#1,500,117–1,511,698 seen (miyou55mane)
1,500,001–1,511,xxx block (collection-appareils.fr) 		About 12,000 (miyou55mane's estimate from the serials seen); see note ⁴
Second lot, no © (1,600,xxx) LTM 1956–1958 160060x–160406x (Leica Copies Japan)
#1,600,107–1,603,621 seen (miyou55mane); 1,604,028 in his revised list 		About 4,000 (miyou55mane's estimate from the serials seen)
  1. Serial notation. Leica Copies Japan writes ranges with a trailing x for one more digit (150013x = 1500130–1500139). Its ranges, and miyou55mane's, are lenses the authors have seen, not factory allocations.
  2. Date. July 1955 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.106) and in canonrangefinder-org.pages.dev's narrative; 1955 with the Model II type b1 in Leica Copies Japan; '(1955〜)' in miyou55mane. Lens QA Works (minolta.su), collection-appareils.fr and canonrangefinder-org.pages.dev's lens entry give 1954. The page follows 1955. The end date of 1958 is Leica Copies Japan's: the Super Rokkor 5cm f/1.8 of the Model IIB, released in May 1958, replaced both the f/2.8 and the f/2.
  3. Bodies. Leica Copies Japan says the lens arrived with the Model II type b1 (1955), one step after the 5cm f/2 of type a2, and replaced the 45mm, though a few early b1 bodies were still sold with the last 45mm lenses. collection-appareils.fr says it was fitted from the Model II type a2. Leica Copies Japan finds the 5cm f/2.8 and f/2 in roughly equal numbers on types b1 and b2. Model II bodies sold with a 5cm lens have an 11.5 mm finder window instead of 13.5 mm, to suit the narrower view; Leica Copies Japan first sees the small window on type a2 bodies sold with the f/2, and collection-appareils.fr says the same of bodies fitted with this lens.
  4. Production. About 16,000 according to miyou55mane (12,000 + 4,000 from the two serial lots) and collection-appareils.fr (from the gap between 1 511 xxx and 1 600 001), quoted by Lens QA Works. canonrangefinder-org.pages.dev (Minolta_lenses.htm) writes 'About 1,600 of these Rokkor 5cm f2.8 lenses were manufactured'; no other source gives that figure, and the two serial blocks point to roughly ten times as many.
  5. Aperture blades. 8 according to Leica Copies Japan's specification table and 老鏡器材控 (iplaylens), who owned the lens ('八片光圈葉', in a specification line that cites Camerapedia). Lens QA Works' table and collection-appareils.fr both say 9. Under the Lens QA Works review a reader, Paul Sokk, wrote that the 5cm f/2.8 has 8 angular blades and the 45mm 9 curved ones, and the author replied 'Fixed', though the table still gives 9. The page follows 8.
  6. Size and weight. The Minolta Cameras brochure gives a length of 43 mm and a weight of 230 g (as quoted by Leica Copies Japan, who agrees with the length but doubts the weight). Lens QA Works measured 47 × 37 mm and 175 g; Leica Copies Japan weighed its own at 178 g; collection-appareils.fr gives 47 mm diameter, 34–37 mm long, 175 g.
  7. Coating. Leica Copies Japan reads the red © simply as a mark that the lens is coated, used until about 1956–57, with blue © on the earlier 45mm. JA Wikipedia says the 5cm f/2.8 changed to a hard coat ('ハードコート化'). canonrangefinder-org.pages.dev says a two-layer 'achromatic coating' was applied to the 5cm f/2.8 and marked with 'C'; Lens QA Works repeats this, citing canonrangefinder, and collection-appareils.fr's specification lists the lens as multi-coated. None of them cites a maker document, and Leica Copies Japan does not support it.
  8. Price. No list price for the lens alone has been found. The US Department of Commerce booklet The Development of the Japanese Photographic Products Industry, 1954–1958, cited by Leica Copies Japan, gives the Model II with the f/2.8 lens at ¥39,800 on 31 March 1957 (¥49,000 with the f/2): a Japanese list price for camera and lens together. ob-scura quotes a 1955 advertisement at the same ¥39,800 for the f/2.8 outfit and notes it does not say whether that lens is the 45mm or the 50mm. Leitz Auction's lot 616, a Model II with lens No. 1508395, cap and case, made €531 including buyer's premium: an auction result for the outfit.
  9. The Super A lens. Chiyoda Kogaku's leaf-shutter Super A (1957) had a 5cm f/2.8 Super Rokkor of its own (camera-wiki), on a bayonet with the focusing helicoid in the body, so its lenses have no focusing mount of their own (Leica Copies Japan). miyou55mane says it shares the Minolta-35 lens's optics. It does not fit a screw-mount body. Short and without a helicoid, it can be mistaken for a collapsible lens: one Yahoo! Auctions title reads 'Chiyoko ROKKOR 5cm f2.8 千代田光学 沈胴？' (collapsible?).
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved 'Chiyoko Super Rokkor 1:2.8 f=5cm', with a red © on the first lot (Lens QA Works; Leica Copies Japan)
  • Conventional rigid barrel, not the scalloped 'umebachi' focusing ring of the 45mm ('デザインは梅鉢では無く、通常のものに変更', miyou55mane); a focusing lever that is also the infinity lock (Leica Copies Japan)
  • 40.5 mm filter thread; aperture scale engraved on one side only, though the aperture ring turns with the helicoid (JA Wikipedia); a red infrared focusing dot on the right of the depth-of-field scale (collection-appareils.fr)
  • Leica 39 mm screw mount, rangefinder-coupled, focusing to 1 m. Not the Super A's bayonet 5cm f/2.8, which has no focusing helicoid of its own; not the Super Rokkor 45mm f/2.8 it replaced or the 5cm f/2 and f/1.8 of the same bodies

First lot, red © (1,500,xxx):

  • Red © engraved on the front ring after the focal length, the mark Leica Copies Japan reads as 'coated'; sellers write it as '5cm F2.8 C'
  • Seven-digit serial starting 150 or 151

Second lot, no © (1,600,xxx):

  • No © on the front ring; otherwise the same engraving and barrel
  • Seven-digit serial starting 160

Serial-range notes

1,500,001–1,511,xxx; 1,600,001–1,604,xxx
Two blocks with a gap between them, not one run (Leica Copies Japan; miyou55mane; collection-appareils.fr). miyou55mane notes that the numbers are not continuous and that each lot ends at a different figure ('連番ではなく、ロット毎に最大値が異なる'). His estimate of about 16,000 counts each lot from its round starting number (1,500,000 and 1,600,000) up to the highest serial he saw, rounded; it is an estimate from serials, not a factory figure.
1,602,432–1,703,641
miyou55mane's serials for the Super A's bayonet-mount 5cm f/2.8, which overlap this lens's second lot in the 1,60x,xxx numbers ('160万台が重複'). He writes that the Minolta-35 and Super A lenses share their optics but not their barrels and mounts. A serial alone does not tell them apart; the mount does. The first lot's 1,500,xxx numbers are also shared with the last Super Rokkor 5cm f/2 (Leica Copies Japan 150024x–150106x; miyou55mane to 1,505,018), so read the aperture on the front ring as well.

Specifications

Formula
5 elements in 3 groups: the Super Rokkor 45mm f/2.8 design enlarged to 50mm (topgabacho; JA Wikipedia; miyou55mane; Leica Copies Japan)
Construction
5 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
47 × 43 mm
Weight
175 g
Filter
40.5 mm
Years manufactured
1955–1958
Country
Japan
Coating
Coated. The first serial block carries a red © after the focal length, the second none (Leica Copies Japan). JA Wikipedia says the coating was changed to a hard coat, where the early 45mm had a soft one; see note ⁷

What reviewers say

History

The Super Rokkor 5cm f/2.8 was the cheaper of the two 50mm standard lenses that Chiyoda Kogaku, the maker of Minolta cameras, offered for the Minolta-35 rangefinder in the mid-1950s. It arrived in 1955 with the restyled Model II, the type b1 in Leica Copies Japan’s breakdown, and replaced the Super Rokkor 45mm f/2.8 that had been the camera’s standard lens since 1947. The 5cm f/2, which Leica Copies Japan finds a step earlier on the Model II type a2 (JA Wikipedia’s list of Leica-mount lenses dates both 50mm lenses to July 1955; its list of Minolta cameras puts the Model II with the f/2 at April 1954), stayed alongside it as the more expensive choice. Sources split between 1954 and 1955 for the date: JA Wikipedia gives July 1955 and Leica Copies Japan ties the lens to the b1 body of 1955, while Lens QA Works and collection-appareils.fr give 1954. In May 1958 the Model IIB and its new 5cm f/1.8 replaced both lenses.

Optically it is the 45mm stretched to 50mm. topgabacho, JA Wikipedia, miyou55mane and Leica Copies Japan all describe the same five elements in three groups. topgabacho adds that the longer focal length reduced the 45mm’s vignetting, and JA Wikipedia that the lens was reworked for the Leica frame (the Model II bodies it came on took 24 × 34 mm, according to Leica Copies Japan). The barrel is new. In place of the scalloped “umebachi” focusing ring there is a plain rigid barrel with a focusing lever that is also the infinity lock. The aperture ring has click stops and even spacing, and the filter thread is 40.5 mm. JA Wikipedia points out two flaws: the aperture scale is engraved on only one side, although the ring turns with the helicoid, and click stops are of limited use on a ring that rotates as you focus. Lens QA Works found its sharpness low and its aberrations strong, as expected of a lens of its class, but liked the old-fashioned pictures those aberrations make, and the Hong Kong blogger 老鏡器材控 found strong swirling bokeh.

There are two lots and no real redesign. Lenses numbered 1,500,xxx to 1,511,xxx carry a red © after the focal length. Those numbered 1,600,xxx to 1,604,xxx do not, because by about 1956–57 Chiyoda Kogaku had stopped marking its lenses as coated (Leica Copies Japan). From serials seen, miyou55mane estimates about 12,000 in the first lot and 4,000 in the second, about 16,000 in all, which collection-appareils.fr also gives. canonrangefinder’s “about 1,600” is not supported by the serial evidence. No price for the lens alone has been found. The US Department of Commerce’s 1957 list of Japanese retail prices, cited by Leica Copies Japan, gives the Model II at ¥39,800 with this lens against ¥49,000 with the f/2, so the f/2.8 was the cheaper way into the camera.

When buying, check the mount first. Chiyoda Kogaku’s leaf-shutter Super A of 1957 had a bayonet 5cm f/2.8 Super Rokkor with the same name and, miyou55mane says, the same optics, and some of its serial numbers overlap this lens’s second lot. The Super A lens has no helicoid of its own, because the focusing mount is in the camera, and it will not fit a screw-mount body. Being short, it is sometimes taken for a collapsible lens in Japanese listings. The screw-mount lens has the 39 mm thread, a distance scale and the lever. It fits and couples on any Leica-thread body. None of the Minolta-35 bodies has frame lines, but Model II bodies sold with a 5cm lens have a narrower finder window to suit it. A Model II b1 or b2 is the period match, and Leica Copies Japan reports this lens and the f/2 in about equal numbers on them. As with any 1950s lens, check for haze, balsam separation and cleaning marks, and make sure the lever moves freely and catches at infinity.

Expand Collapse

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

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Chiyoko Super Rokkor 5cm f/2.8 (Leica screw mount)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $99 across 12 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $77–$130). First day tracked.

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

Show 1 more listing

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

Sources (13)

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.