Data sheet: Minolta Rokkor-TC 135mm f/4

Pekka Buttler, 07/2025

Specifications

The table below summarizes the lens’ key specifications (Measurements based on pictured sample):

Brand:	Minolta	Lens name	ROKKOR-TC 1:4 f=135mm
Focal length(s) 1	135 mm	Angle-of-view 2	18 °
Maximum Aperture	f/4	In Production	1960–1966
Lens mounts	Minolta SR	Subfamily (if applicable)3	SR
Length 4	114,7 mm	Diameter 5	56,5 mm
Filter ring diameter	46 mm	Weight	372 grams
Lens element count	3	Lens group count	3
Aperture blades (S/R/C) 6	12 S	Focus throw	270 °
Minimum focusing distance (measured)	146 cms	Maximum magnification (measured)	1:8,7
Has manual aperture ring	YES	Has Manual focus ring	YES
Aperture mechanism type	Preset	Aperture click stops 7	4-5.6-8-11-16-22 (on preset ring)

Further notes:
• This is a very early Minolta SR lens. It harkens back to the era before aperture automation became the norm and features a preset aperture.
• Minolta’s implementation of preset aperture featured one ring for setting the preset aperture (typically with click stops) and another ring to open up or stop down the lens.
• Before embarking on creating its own SLR system with the Minolta SR-2 in 1958, Minolta had already been working on its own variant of the Leica rangefinder, for which it also had produced a 135 mm f/4 lens.
• While it is easy to see a family resemblance between the Chioyda Kogaku (Minolta) Super Rokkor 135/4 and this Rokkor-TC 135/4 lens, this would be partially misleading as Minolta’s earlier rangefinder lens used a 4 elements in three groups design, while this lens is a Cooke triplet 3 elements in 3 groups.
• Starting in 1959, Minolta started introducing auto aperture versions of most of its lenses. This lens (along with some other budget lenses) was not immediately discontinued in favour of an auto aperture version and remained on sale until the mid 1960s.

Versions

Minolta has only ever produced one 135 mm f/4 lens for the Minolta SR mount.

Adapting

This lens cannot be used natively on any current SLR or dSLRs. To use it in its native environment, you will need a Minolta SR (SR/AR/MC/MD/X-600) film camera. Luckily these are quite easy to find.

Thanks to being a fully manual lens (manual aperture, manual focus), the lens can be adapted to all mirrorless cameras using a suitable adapter. Moreover, a simple ‘dumb adapter’ will do the job perfectly. Thanks to the popularity of the Minolta SR mount, the availability of adapters to all mirrorless mounts can be taken for granted, on the other hand, specialist adapters (speed boosters, helicoid adapters, tilt/shift adapters) are not available for all mirrorless mounts, but daisy-chaining adapters (e.g. Minolta SR -> Canon EF; Canon EF –> mirrorless) can offer a work-around.

Using Minolta SR mount lenses on dSLRs is also be an option, but it is not trouble-free due to that the Minolta SR mount’s flange focal distance is shorter than that of any dSLR mount (technically with the exception of Olympus’ four thirds mount). Hence, any attempt at adapting Minolta SR lenses must rely on an adapter that uses corrective optics to allow infinity focus. However, such adapters are readily available.

History of Minolta

Minolta exited the camera business in 2006 and sold its remaining photographic assets to Sony. The 50 years before that ignominious date tell a very different story: one of a Japanese optics and innovation powerhouse that has interesting links to Germany – not Nazi Germany, but both pre WWII Germany as well as postwar West Germany. Read more in the Minolta company profile.

Footnotes

1. Focal length is (unless stated otherwise) given in absolute terms, and not in Full-frame equivalent. For an understanding of whether the lens is wide/tele, see ‘Angle-of-view’. ↩︎
2. Picture angle is given in degrees (based on manufacturers’ specs) and concerns the diagonal picture angle. Rule of thumb:
   > 90 ° ==> Ultra-wide-angle
   70–90 ° ==> Wide-angle
   50–70 ° ==> Moderate wide-angle
   40–50 ° ==> ‘Standard’ or ‘normal’ lens
   20–40 ° ==> Short tele lens
   10-20 ° ==> Tele lens
   5-10 ° ==> Long tele lens
   < 5 ° ==> Ultra-tele lens ↩︎
3. The development of the Minolta SR mount can generally be divided into four main acts:
   • SR – before aperture automation
   • AR – with aperture automation but without communicating selected aperture to camera.
   • MC – ‘Meter coupling’ with aperture automation and communication of selected aperture to camera
   • MD – as MC but including communication of minimum aperture to camera
   Some further subdivide each of the later three acts into phases. ↩︎
4. Length is given from the mount flange to the front of lens at infinity. ↩︎
5. Diameter excludes protrusions such as rabbit ears or stop-down levers. ↩︎
6. S=straight; R=rounded; C=(almost)circular at all apertures. ↩︎
7. Numbers equal aperture values on aperture ring; • intermediate click; – no intermediate click. ↩︎