I have been thinking for a whole that there is a dearth of information out there about Rokkor lenses. I know about the Rokkor files and while I like that site, it hasn't been updated in ages and as far as I can tell the fellow that started it has moved on to using his Canon gear (all good). I was thinking about collecting whatever information I could find about Rokkors and do something along the lines of the Konica Hexanon site although more specialized. Don't know what to call it yet...I think I'd just like to deal with the Rokkor MF lenses so maybe something along those lines. I'd like to collect together lens information, some details and perhaps some reviews and photos. If anyone would like to contribute I would love the help. I was thinking of setting it up as a Wordpress site perhaps with the perspective of using Rokkors as adapted lenses on the NEX or mirrorless cameras. There is oddly a good deal of info on adapting Rokkors to use on Canon EOS cameras (it requires modification of the lens). If anyone wants to do this let me know and I'll add you to the site as an Admin so you can edit and add content as you wish. Anyone want to join in?
I could join in a way because I've been playing with Minolta lenses for over a year and even using them for real pictures , but unfortunately for this forum I only have experience with Minolta lenses on µ4/3 cameras. Just today I was able to play around with a NEX-6 for quite a while and I don't foresee buying it anytime soon, it just doesn't offer me anything extra really above what I have now. Only photos now on my Minolta pages so far, have been thinking about a blog lately with my experiences. See my sig for the link.
I just want to collect Rokkor info, I don't see that it needs to NEX specific. I am thinking it will be more form the point of view of ADAPTED lenses so that could be m43 (which BTW is where I started using MF lenses), NEX or even the new Fuji mirror-less cameras.
Kevin I'm in as far as making detailed pictures of the lenses I own, and sample shots with each at various apertures (in my case, various mean wide open and stopped down ONE stop. Don't ask me to stop further, I just emotionally can't, lol !!). That's a pretty restricted input, but I'm more than willing to do that much
ok, I have 2 rokkor lenses,Minolta Rokkor X 50mm f1.7, Minolta Rokkor 50mm f/1.4 PG and thinking about taking one macro, I would like to join in this page somehow.
I'm taking the community approach. Whatever you want to do (as much or as little as you like) and however you want is fine by me. It'll just be a place where folks can go to get info.
Kevin, you might head to pentaxforums.com or fredmiranda.com and check out their lens databases. I know you're thinking Rokkor lenses only, but you might be able to borrow the format i.e. user ratings etc. It's all subjective, but short of buying some rather spendy testing equipment it's about all we can come up with as a community.
I like the way Pentax forums does it and that was sort of what I was hoping for. If you're looking for Rokkor info go there and see what folks that use them think of them. See some photos and then some easy to read matrix of lenses so you can see what's out there. It's already out there it's just the folks that have them seemed to have stopped updating them so all i wan to do is make a bit more complete list.
I just invited Claire to see how the process works. Right now I was trying to keep it simple. I have it set as a Wordpress blog with a few extra pages and I want to add anyone that wants to participate as authors. I decided to start with Claire as a test and once we work out the process then I'll invite you. Fair enough? I'm not anticipating it will take long to figure out, nor will there be that many of us and that way those of us that use Rokkors can all contribute some reviews/pictures and maybe all chip in to make the lens list more complete. I'm hoping will be a useful document when done and that folks can refer to.
Oh, just a thought: calling it something with Rokkor would suggest that you exclude the later Minolta lenses with the same mount, that don't have the Rokkor designation, but simply something like the lens below. There are some real gems among these late MF lenses! As a title something like "Minolta MF lenses", "Minolta SR lenses", "Minolta MC/MD lenses" (excluding the very old Auto ones) might be more appropriate. Haven't been able to think of something catchy now, sorry! {}
After giving your call for input some more thought I decided to stick with the site I already set up and augment it with a write-up of my experiences with Minolta lenses. I like to keep my stuff in 1 place, that's why. So I won't join in a great deal, but who knows...
That's cool but if you reconsider you're always welcome. I was thinking I would pretty much collect MC and MD Rokkor info (at least at first). I am always open to suggestions though. The format would be simple. A list of lenses, a tiny bit about Minolta (all of which is pretty easily found most places) then the heart of it would would be real world reviews by folks like us that use them. They don't have to be long and I don't care about specifications or shots of test patterns. Really more like we all do here in our posts. Picture(s) and impressions. If folks want to do more that's fine but I am really wanting it to be simple. BTW, I like you Minolta stuff. Do you mind if I link to your Minolta page? I'm not really seeing this as a site meant to compete with anyone, it's really just something that I want to make because it was so hard for me to find any info when I was looking for it.
Thanks for the kind words and no, I don't mind at all if you link to my pages. And if you want a link to a list of lenses, this one is very good IMHO.
I thank Kevin for inviting me on board for a very first test. Being a nifty nuthead, I'll try to make a little 50ish shootout with my various Rokkor lenses, and post on the new site asap.
