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Chiyoko Super Rokkor 8.5cm f/2.8 (Leica screw mount)

Minolta · LTM · 1948

Also known as: Super Rokkor 8.5cm f/2.8 · Super Rokkor 8.5cm f2.8 · Super Rokkor 8.5cm 2.8 · Super Rokkor 85mm f/2.8 · Super Rokkor 85mm f2.8 · Super Rokkor 85mm 2.8 · Super Rokkor 85/2.8 · Super Rokkor 1:2.8 f=8.5cm · Super Rokkor f=8.5cm 1:2.8 · Super Rokkor 1:2.8 f 8.5cm · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 8.5cm · Chiyoko Super Rokkor 85mm · Chiyoko 85mm f2.8 · Chiyoko 85mm 1:2.8 · Minolta Super Rokkor 85mm f2.8 · Minolta Super Rokkor 8.5cm f2.8 · Super-Rokkor 85mm F2.8 · スーパーロッコール 8.5cm F2.8 · スーパーロッコール 8.5cm · スーパーロッコール 85mm F2.8 · スーパーロッコール 85mm · スーパー ロッコール 8.5cm · 千代田光学 スーパーロッコール 85mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
First version: thin ring above the mount flange LTM 1948 320x–469x (Leica Copies Japan) No figure published
Second version: thick flat band LTM 1949 522x–626x (Leica Copies Japan) No figure published
  1. Serial notation. Leica Copies Japan writes ranges with a trailing x for one more digit (522x = 5220–5229). These ranges are lenses the authors have seen, not factory allocations.
  2. Minimum aperture. f/22 according to Leica Copies Japan's specification table; f/16 according to Lens QA Works, whose specification table comes from its review copy, No. 5226. The page leaves the field empty until a lens or a brochure settles it.
  3. Filter. 40 mm according to Leica Copies Japan, Lens QA Works and JA Wikipedia. Manuell fokus gives 40.5 mm.
  4. Weight and size. Leica Copies Japan weighed its lens at 383 g and measured it at 48 × 79 mm; both Chiyoda brochures it reproduces give 370 g and a length of 76 mm. Lens QA Works gives 'more than 400 g', and Manuell fokus 405 g. Leica Copies Japan thinks the later brochure simply repeated the earlier brochure's figures.
  5. Close focus. 1.3 m / 4 ft according to Leica Copies Japan. Lens QA Works reads 1.35 m off the scale of its lens (and 1.4 m in its conclusion), and Manuell fokus, whose lens is scaled in feet, says just under four feet.
  6. Dates. October 1948 from JA Wikipedia (citing Classic Camera Senka No. 12, 'Minolta kamera no subete', p. 52) and from Andrea Aprà, quoted by Lens QA Works. Lens QA Works heads its table '1947 (1949?) – 1958', and Manuell fokus gives 1947–1958. Leica Copies Japan finds the lens in the circa 1955–56 Minolta Cameras brochure, after the 11cm Tele Rokkor had been dropped. No source documents when it ended, so the page leaves the last year empty.
  7. Versions. Leica Copies Japan and Lens QA Works both describe two versions. Lens QA Works' specification table, however, notes 'three editions but always the same 5/3 schema' without saying what the third is. Leica Copies Japan also reproduces an early advertisement whose 85mm appears to be black and chrome, and writes that no other reference to such a version is known and that it may never have reached production.
  8. Not this lens. The Minolta Super A, a leaf-shutter camera launched in 1957 (Leica Copies Japan), had its own Rokkor 8.5cm f/2.8 for its own bayonet. miyou55mane finds it engraved 'Rokkor', not 'Super Rokkor', with serials 1,100,657–1,100,735, and writes that the Super A lenses share their optics with the Minolta-35 lenses but have different barrels and mounts. It does not fit a Leica-thread body.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved 'Chiyoko SUPER ROKKOR' with 'f=8.5cm' and '1:2.8', a red © coating mark and the serial; focal length in centimetres
  • Short, heavy chrome barrel with a 40 mm filter thread; the aperture ring sits on the focusing ring and turns with it as you focus (Lens QA Works)
  • Four-digit serial between about 3100 and 6300. A seven-digit number starting 1100 and a plain 'Rokkor' engraving belong to the Super A bayonet lens
  • Leica 39 mm screw mount, coupled to the rangefinder

First version: thin ring above the mount flange:

  • Base of the barrel, just above the protruding mount flange, has a separate thin ring: two thin rings at the bottom of the lens rather than one wide band
  • Four-digit serial in the 3000s or 4000s; red ©

Second version: thick flat band:

  • One thick, flat band at the base of the barrel in place of the thin ring
  • Serial above 5000; red ©

Serial-range notes

3,142–6,267
The full range of serials miyou55mane has seen, across both versions. They suggest fewer than 10,000 lenses. Andrea Aprà's estimate, quoted by Lens QA Works, is about 3,500 for the two versions together. No factory figure has been published.

Specifications

Formula
5 elements in 3 groups (Leica Copies Japan; Lens QA Works; JA Wikipedia), the front group a cemented triplet (Flashback Camera)
Construction
5 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
1.3 m
Dimensions
48 × 79 mm
Weight
383 g
Filter
40 mm
Years manufactured
1948
Country
Japan
Coating
Coated; both versions carry a red © coating mark (Leica Copies Japan)
Material
Metal barrel; Manuell fokus describes it as brass, which accounts for its weight

What reviewers say

History

The Super Rokkor 8.5cm f/2.8 was the portrait lens of the Minolta-35, the Leica-thread rangefinder that Chiyoda Kogaku (Chiyoko, later Minolta) introduced in 1947. It was one of the first accessory lenses, offered beside the 11cm and 13.5cm Tele Rokkors, and JA Wikipedia and Andrea Aprà, as quoted by Lens QA Works, both date it to October 1948. It is a short, heavy lens: five elements in three groups, the front group a cemented triplet like the one in the 45mm standard lens. It has ten aperture blades, a 40 mm filter thread, and the red © that Chiyoda engraved to show the glass was coated. Leica Copies Japan weighed its lens at 383 g, which is a lot for an 85mm f/2.8. Lens QA Works notes that the aperture ring is built onto the focusing ring and turns with it, so the f-number moves around the barrel as you focus. JA Wikipedia quotes the writer Hioki Munehiro (日沖宗弘): the flavour of the Rokkors of the good old days, with brilliance and fine tonal rendering inside a steady performance.

There are two versions, and the difference is at the base of the barrel. The first has a separate thin ring just above the mount flange, which Lens QA Works describes as two thin rings at the bottom. The second has one thick, flat band. Leica Copies Japan has seen the first version at 320x–469x and the second at 522x–626x, and Aprà places the change in 1949 or later. Production was small. Aprà estimates about 3,500 lenses, and miyou55mane, from serials 3,142 to 6,267, thinks fewer than 10,000. The lens was still in Chiyoda’s brochure of about 1955–56, but no source says when it was dropped. Sources disagree on several figures: the minimum aperture is f/22 in Leica Copies Japan’s table and f/16 in Lens QA Works’; the filter is usually 40 mm but one source gives 40.5 mm; and the weight runs from the brochure’s 370 g to 405 g.

The lens fits any Leica-thread body and couples to its rangefinder. No Minolta-35 body has frame lines or an 85mm field, so Chiyoda supplied a matching accessory finder. It is marked ‘C.K.S. Tele Finder 85mm’ in millimetres, although the lens is engraved in centimetres. The finder turns up separately and is worth finding: one sold on Yahoo! Auctions for 5,250円 in July 2026, more than an untested lens without a camera sold for there about seven weeks later (4,600円). Both are auction results, not list prices, and no period list price for the lens has been found. On the Minolta-35 itself, focusing is the weak point. Every model has a 40 mm rangefinder base; Leica Copies Japan gives the finder magnification as 0.33x on the Models A and B (an effective base of 13.2 mm), 0.7x from the Model C to the Model II (28 mm) and 0.8x on the IIB (32 mm), and calls rangefinder accuracy problematic, particularly on the first two (miyou55mane, Hayata Camera Lab and the Ei Mook 735 table instead keep the 0.33x finder on the Models C and D and put the larger finder at the Model E). miyou55mane writes that the Model I’s effective base makes the 85mm hard to focus. Leica Copies Japan gives a Leica III an effective base of 58.5 mm, so the lens is easier to focus on a Leica than on the camera it was made for.

Reviewers treat it as a lens for character. Lens QA Works, testing No. 5226 on a Sony A7II, found soft corners but a usable centre and middle of the frame, contrast loss into the light, and old-style, aberration-laden bokeh with a strong three-dimensional look that suits portraits. It recommends the lens to photographers who know what they are doing, not to everyone. Manuell fokus calls the results average to good for the period, with decent sharpness wide open and lovely bokeh. When buying, check the serial against the engraving: a lens marked only ‘Rokkor 8.5cm’ with a seven-digit number starting 1100 (miyou55mane has seen 1,100,657 to 1,100,735) is likely the Super A bayonet lens, which shares the optics but will not mount on a Leica-thread camera. Other Chiyoda lenses also use 1100 numbers, so confirm by the mount: the screw-mount lens has a 39 mm thread and a four-digit serial. Check that focusing is smooth across the whole range, since Manuell fokus’s lens was uneven. Look through the lens for haze and for separation in the cemented front group.

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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 8.5cm f/2.8 (Leica screw mount)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $360 across 5 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $290–$370). First day tracked.

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

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.