Pekka Buttler, 07/2025
Specifications
The table below summarizes the lens’ key specifications (Measurements based on pictured sample):
| Brand: | Minolta | Lens name | Auto Tele Rokkor-PF 1:2.8 f=135mm |
| Focal length(s) 1 | 135 mm | Angle-of-view 2 | 18 ° |
| Maximum Aperture | f/2.8 | In Production | 1962–1965 |
| Lens mounts | Minolta SR | Subfamily (if applicable)3 | AR II |
| Length 4 | 94,3 mm | Diameter 5 | 63,6 mm |
| Filter ring diameter | 55 mm | Weight | 525 grams |
| Lens element count | 6 | Lens group count | 5 |
| Aperture blades (S/R/C) 6 | 8 S | Focus throw | 265 ° |
| Minimum focusing distance (measured) | 148 cms | Maximum magnification (measured) | 1:8,8 |
| Has manual aperture ring | YES | Has Manual focus ring | YES |
| Aperture mechanism type | automatic | Aperture click stops 7 | 2.8-4-5.6-8-11-16-22 |
Further notes:
• This is an early Minolta SR lens. It harkens back to the era when aperture automation was still a relatively new thing.
• This lens does not support meter coupling, meaning that even on Minolta bodies that can do aperture priority auto exposure, this lens will meter only in stop-down metering mode.
• Unlike most later auto aperture lenses, this lens still has its aperture ring at the front.
• While you can use any 55 mm screw-in tele lens hood with this lens, Minolta originally offered a custom Clamp on lens hood coded the D57KH.
• Until the 1981 introduction of the Minolta MD 135 mm f/2, the various 135 mm f/2.8 designs were Minolta’s fastest 135 mm primes.
Versions
Minolta has a very long history of manufacturing 135 mm f/2.8 lenses. That genealogy is outline below.
| Name | Generation | In production | Elements | Groups | approx. weight |
| Tele Rokkor-PG | SR | 1958–59 | 7 | 5 | 550 |
| Auto Tele Rokkor-PG | AR I | 1959–60 | 7 | 5 | 535 |
| Auto Tele Rokkor-PG | AR I | 1960–62 | 7 | 5 | 535 |
| Auto Tele Rokkor-PF (this lens) | AR II | 1962–65 | 6 | 5 | 530 |
| Auto Tele Rokkor-PF | AR C | 1965–66 | 6 | 5 | 405 |
| MC Tele Rokkor-PF | MC I | 1966–70 | 6 | 5 | 450 |
| MC Tele Rokkor-PF | MC II | 1970-73 | 6 | 5 | 490 |
| MC Tele Rokkor(-X) (PF) | MC-X | 1973–75 | 6 | 5 | 520 |
| MC Minolta Celtic | MC Celtic | 1973-75 | 5 | 4 | 610 |
| MC Tele Rokkor(-X) | MC-X | 1975–77 | 4 | 4 | 535 |
| MC Minolta Celtic | MC Celtic | 1975–77 | 4 | 4 | 535 |
| MD Celtic | MD Celtic | 1977– | 4 | 4 | 535 |
| MD Tele Rokkor(-X) | MD I | 1977–78 | 4 | 4 | 535 |
| MD Tele Rokkor(-X) | MD II | 1978–79 | 4 | 4 | 535 |
| MD Tele Rokkor(-X) | MD II | 1979–81 | 5 | 5 | 365 |
| MD | MD III | 1981– | 5 | 5 | 385 |
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
- 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’. ↩︎
- 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 ↩︎ - 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. ↩︎ - Length is given from the mount flange to the front of lens at infinity. ↩︎
- Diameter excludes protrusions such as rabbit ears or stop-down levers. ↩︎
- S=straight; R=rounded; C=(almost)circular at all apertures. ↩︎
- Numbers equal aperture values on aperture ring; • intermediate click; – no intermediate click. ↩︎