M8 Images with Minolta 40mm

[mgcd]

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Minolta teamed with Leica several years back and made the minolta CLE about the same time Leica made its compact CL. As such, Minolta made a few M-mount lenses, notably the 40 that sold with the body, a 28 and a 90. These lenses will mount and focus on any M camera. In all regards, the Minola design CLE lenses are very good performers, though with different signatures than Leica glass.

 

While the Leitz/Minolta CL was a joint development several years before (circa 1973), the Minolta CLE (circa 1980/81) is a separate and distinct exclusive Minolta development, this along with the three lenses designed and developed by Minolta for the CLE including the 40mm M-Rokkor, the 90 and the 28. The CLE featured Minolta's patented OTF (Off the film) metering system also licensed to Olympus for its OM line of SLRs. I was straight out of university and working for Minolta at the time of its introduction. The only Leitz thing here is the mount.

 

Cheers,

[barjohn]

Boy! There sure is a lot of disagreement about this lens, who made it and which design is the better.

 

Here is Steve Gandy's take:

 

Rokkors Vs Leitz Lenses I believe the same focal length CL lenses will give you the same results, whether it's a Leitz or Minolta 40/2 or 90/4. Strangely enough, the 90/4 Rokkor is actually a German produced 90/4 Elmar with the Rokkor name on it. The Leica mystique being what it is, you can save a few bucks if you choose the Minolta CL and Minolta lenses. The German lenses use Series 5.5 aka 40.5mm. The Rokkors use the Japanese JIS standard thread, and so will not accept the German filters.

 

How can you tell the difference between the Minolta CL 40/2 and 90/4 lenses and the later improved Minolta CLE 40/2 and 90/4 Lenses? The Minolta CLE lenses use a traditional Leitz parallel focusing RF cam and have the filter size of 40.5 marked on the filter ring. The Minolta CL lenses do not. The CL lenses have their serial numbers on the filter ring, the CLE lenses have their serial numbers on the lens barrel.

 

Based on this information I would guess that mine is a CL since the filter size is not on the filter ring but rather on the lens hood and the serial number is on the filter ring.