Minolta W.Rokkor QF 35mm f/1.8 (Leica screw mount)
Minolta · LTM · 1958
our own findingAlso known as: W.Rokkor QF 35mm f1.8 · W.Rokkor QF 35mm f/1.8 · W.Rokkor QF 35mm 1:1.8 · W.Rokkor QF 1:1.8 f=35mm · W.Rokkor-QF 35mm f1.8 · W.Rokkor 35mm f1.8 · W.Rokkor 35mm f/1.8 · W Rokkor 35mm f1.8 · Minolta W.Rokkor QF 35mm f1.8 · Minolta W.Rokkor 35mm f1.8 LTM · Minolta W.Rokkor 35mm f1.8 L39 · Minolta Rokkor 35mm f1.8 LTM · Minolta Rokkor 35mm f1.8 L39 · Rokkor 35mm f1.8 LTM · Rokkor 35mm f1.8 L39 · Rokkor 3.5cm f1.8 · Super Rokkor 3.5cm f1.8 · Minolta 35mm f1.8 LTM · Minolta 35mm f1.8 L39 · WロッコールQF 35mm F1.8 · W.ロッコール QF 35mm F1.8 · Wロッコール 35mm F1.8 · W.ロッコール 35mm F1.8 · ミノルタ Wロッコール 35mm F1.8
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leica screw mount, engraved Minolta W.Rokkor QF | LTM | 1958 | — | No figure published. Leica Copies Japan knows of one example, and canonrangefinder has seen none other than the same Steven Pollock lens; camera-wiki says it and the 10cm f/3.5 were made 'probably in very small numbers, judging by the rarity of both lenses today and by the low serial numbers of the actual examples that have been observed'. miyou55mane logs one serial, #1,100,187, and guesses at a few thousand with a question mark |
- Date. JA Wikipedia gives 1958 (1958年発売), citing Classic Camera Senka No.12, 'Minolta Camera no Subete', p.52. miyou55mane lists it as 'W Rokkor QF 35mm F1.8(1958〜)'. camera-wiki and Leica Copies Japan place it with the Model IIB of May 1958, but Leica Copies Japan adds that it has 'some uncertainty in that regard'. canonrangefinder reports Steven Pollock's account that the lens was introduced with the launch of the IIB 'at the 1958 Photokina trade show', and notes that the lens is listed in Dominique and Jean-Paul Francesch's Minolta-35 documentation. No source gives an end date.
- Filter. The 46 mm filter thread is given only by JA Wikipedia ('アタッチメントはφ46mmねじ込み'). It is the same size as the IIB's 5cm f/1.8.
- Rarity. Leica Copies Japan knows of one example and calls the lens 'definitely quite rare'; canonrangefinder has seen no example other than Steven Pollock's and concludes that production was small. miyou55mane writes '本数不明なるも、数千？' (number unknown, a few thousand?), a question-marked guess rather than a figure, and in his follow-up post that the IIB's 35/1.8 and 100/3.5 are 'really few in number' (本当に数が少ない), which he puts down to the short production run of under a year. Topgabacho lists a 35mm f/1.8 among the Minolta-35 lenses and writes that the 35mm lenses are few, expensive and rarely seen ('35mmは数が少なく高価でめったに見ない'), without separating the f/1.8 from the f/3.5.
- Name and construction. The engraving reads W.ROKKOR QF. canonrangefinder calls the lens a 'Rokkor 35mm f1.8', and reports that camera-wiki listed a 'Super Rokkor 3.5cm f1.8 lens of 6 elements in 4 groups'; both are names for this lens, not other versions. canonrangefinder adds that it had not found information about that construction; Leica Copies Japan and JA Wikipedia now both give 6 elements in 4 groups, which the QF code also states.
How to tell them apart
- Leica 39 mm screw mount, rangefinder-coupled; 35mm f/1.8 with QF on the front ring
- Not the SR- or MD-mount reflex lenses of the same name and speed, such as the MC W.Rokkor-HH 35mm f/1.8 (8 elements in 6 groups, Kamerastore): those have a bayonet and an HH, X or MD marking
- Not the chrome Chiyoko Rokkor 3.5cm f/3.5, the other screw-mount wide-angle for the Minolta-35, and not the M-Rokkor lenses of the Minolta CL and CLE
Leica screw mount, engraved Minolta W.Rokkor QF:
- Front ring engraved W.ROKKOR QF 1:1.8 f=35mm, with the maker's name as 'minolta' in the new lower-case style and the serial number (Leica Copies Japan's photograph of the Steven Pollock lens)
- Focal length in millimetres, not centimetres, and the maker name Minolta rather than Chiyoko or Chiyoda Kogaku: Leica Copies Japan notes that this lens and the Tele Rokkor QE 100mm f/3.5 of the same year are the two Minolta-35 accessory lenses of the IIB period marked this way, while the IIB's own 5cm f/1.8 still reads Chiyoda Kogaku
- Black barrel with a chrome front ring, the styling of the IIB's 5cm f/1.8; the earlier Chiyoko Rokkor 3.5cm f/3.5 is chrome
- The one pictured example has a seven-digit serial in the 11001xx range (read from Leica Copies Japan's photograph; the last digit is not legible)
- Leica screw mount, engraved Minolta W.Rokkor QF: The only version known. Leica Copies Japan pictures one lens, belonging to Steven Pollock, together with a Chiyoko front cap, a Minolta rear or front cap and a chrome accessory finder engraved 'Minolta 35mm', and says it is aware of only one example. Leica Copies Japan also says that each Minolta-35 accessory lens was supplied with a finder for its focal length. No weight, blade count or close-focus distance has been published, and the only serials on record are in the 1,100,xxx block (see serial notes).
Serial-range notes
- 1100187
- miyou55mane gives lot #1,10x,xxx for this lens and, in his follow-up post, the one W Rokkor QF serial he has logged, #1,100,187. A second number he added there, 1,204,215, he struck through and marked '50/1.8の間違い' (a mistake: it is a 50/1.8), and the photograph beside it shows a Chiyoda Kogaku Super Rokkor 5cm f/1.8 with that number. Steven Pollock's lens, pictured by Leica Copies Japan, also has a serial in the 1,100,1xx range. Chiyoda Kogaku used the 1,100,xxx block for other lenses too, including the 5cm f/1.8 (miyou55mane logs it from #1,100,xxx to 1,101,548), so a serial alone does not identify this lens. The same post's summary table of Minolta-35 serials puts #1,100,187 and 1,204,215 on its 35/3.5 line ('35/3.5 = #1,100,187 ... 1,204,215'), so even the one logged number is not securely tied to this lens. The only documented Tele Rokkor QE 100mm f/3.5, sold by Leitz Auction, is No. 1100188, the next number after it.
Specifications
- Formula
- Double-Gauss type, 6 elements in 4 groups (JA Wikipedia). Leica Copies Japan gives the same 6 elements in 4 groups, which is also what the 'QF' engraving means in Minolta's lens code (Q = four groups, F = six elements)
- Construction
- 6 elements / 4 groups
- Aperture range
- f/1.8
- Filter
- 46 mm
- Years manufactured
- 1958
- Country
- Japan
- Material
- Black barrel with a chrome front ring ('black barrelled, chrome nose', Leica Copies Japan), as on the Model IIB's Super Rokkor 5cm f/1.8
What reviewers say
No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.
History
The W.Rokkor QF 35mm f/1.8 is the fast wide-angle that Chiyoda Kogaku made in Leica 39 mm screw mount for the last Minolta-35, the Model IIB of 1958. JA Wikipedia and miyou55mane, a Japanese collector who has logged Minolta-35 serial numbers, date it to 1958. camera-wiki and Leica Copies Japan place it with the IIB, released in May of that year, though Leica Copies Japan is not sure the two arrived together; Steven Pollock, as reported by canonrangefinder, says it was introduced with the IIB at Photokina in 1958. It was the second wide-angle in the system after the chrome Chiyoko Rokkor 3.5cm f/3.5 of 1956, and nearly two stops faster.
The lens belongs to the IIB generation rather than the Chiyoko line before it. Like the Tele Rokkor QE 100mm f/3.5 of the same year, it has a black barrel with a chrome front ring, reads “Minolta” instead of “Chiyoko” or “Chiyoda Kogaku”, gives its focal length in millimetres, and carries Minolta’s code for its construction. In that code Q means four groups and F six elements. Leica Copies Japan and JA Wikipedia both give 6 elements in 4 groups, and JA Wikipedia calls it a double-Gauss with a 46 mm filter thread. The same name and speed were later used for Minolta’s SR-mount reflex lenses, such as the MC W.Rokkor-HH 35mm f/1.8, which is a different 8-element design with a bayonet mount, and the two should not be confused.
Very little else is known, because almost no examples have been seen. Leica Copies Japan knows of only one, belonging to Steven Pollock, which it pictures with a 35mm accessory finder engraved Minolta, and canonrangefinder has seen no other. camera-wiki says the lens was made, probably in very small numbers, judging by its rarity today and the low serials of the examples observed. miyou55mane, who logs a single serial, #1,100,187, offers “a few thousand?” only as a question-marked guess, and later writes that the IIB’s 35mm f/1.8 and 100mm f/3.5 are really few in number, made for less than a year before Minolta’s shift to the SR-2 reflex. No production figure, weight or price is published, and there is no published review of the lens in use.
The lens fits any Leica-thread body and couples to its rangefinder. No Minolta-35 body has frame lines, so a 35mm lens needs an accessory finder in the shoe; Leica Copies Japan says each Minolta-35 accessory lens was sold with a finder for its focal length, and the pictured lens has one. Anything offered as this lens should be checked closely. The front ring should read W.ROKKOR QF 1:1.8 f=35mm and “minolta”. The rear must have a 39 mm thread and a rangefinder cam, not an SR bayonet, and the barrel should match the IIB’s black-and-chrome 5cm f/1.8. Ask for clear photographs of the engraving and the mount, and for provenance, before paying a rarity price.
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 Minolta W.Rokkor QF 35mm f/1.8 (Leica screw mount)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
The listings collector hasn't run for this family yet — check back soon, or search the marketplaces directly meanwhile.