Minolta MD Lens test, 200mm Rokkor

smackaay — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 07:07:40 +0000

A while back I purchased a 200mm f4. Rokkor lens off EBay for pretty cheap, like 40 bucks total. Since then, I haven’t really been taking any photos and thus haven’t been able to get a good feel for the lens. Tonight I decided to brave the cold and take some night shots with the camera, nothing special, just some far away downtown shots with lights incident to the lens.

Sony A300 with 200mm Rokkor lens attached

As for the build of this lens, it’s all metal, including the built-in hood that slides nicely into place with a little satisfying click. The focus is smooth and the mechanics of it are pleasant. Even the grip is nice with its typical waffle pattern bezel. Very nice lens. However, reflections are a true pain on this lens, much like the other Rokkor lenses. I take night shots to test the lenses ever since I discovered the horrible properties of the Star-D 135mm f2.8 lens. This lens is not much different with internal reflection galore. Granted though, I haven’t really put this lens through its paces as yet and these two scant images are hardly a definitive test. Anyways, here are two of the shots I felt could grade the camera decently.

Night Shot with 200mm Rokkor, Level corrected

Tree shot with 200mm Rokkor Lens

As you can see with the downtown image, it’s level corrected, the wind was so strong that long exposures tended to make the focus look poor, when in fact it was shaking. The tree image is also level corrected, just to give it more contrast, I did not, however, sharpen the image.

Anyways, these are obviously poor tests but can serve as a bit of a guideline as to what to expect from these lenses. Another issue is the MD adapter, I’m not entirely sure that either adapter that I have access to is appropriate for these lenses. I’ll do more tests later.

Steve's Junk » minolta md

Minolta MD Lens test, 200mm Rokkor