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. groups	Code	Greek	Latin
3	T	treis	tres
4	Q	tettares	quattuor
5	P	pente	quinque
6	H	hex	sex
7	S	hepta	septem
8	O	oktoo	octo
9	N	ennea	novem

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

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