Minolta elements and groups coding

From the launch of the Minolta SR system (1958) to the advent of the MD lenses (1977), Minolta lens names would be followed by a two-letter combination that (to those in the know) described the optical recipe of the lens. Hence lenses would have names such as: AUTO TELE ROKKOR-QE, MC W.ROKKOR-NL or MC W.ROKKOR-HH

The first of those characters describes the number of lens groups the lens design employed, according to table 1 below (the origin of the character was based on a combination of Latin and Greek),

Num. groupsCodeGreekLatin
3Ttreistres
4Qtettaresquattuor
5Ppentequinque
6Hhexsex
7Sheptaseptem
8Ooktooocto
9Nenneanovem
Table 1

The second part of that two-character code would signify the number of lens elements and was based on the latin alphabet

Num. elementsCode
3C
4D
5E
6F
7G
8H
9I
10J
11K
12L
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