Minolta M-Rokkor 90mm

[sandro]

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A friend loaned me a Minolta M-Rokkor 4/90mm to see if it's ok. I always thought these lenses were produced for Minolta in Germany by Leitz, but this one says Lens made in Japan.

Doe anyone know more about the connection between this lens and Elmar-C 4/90mm? Like are the optics of these lenses exactly the same? Apparently the Rokkor lenses were produced in various batches, also in Germany, since there are also M-Rokkor 90m lenses "Made by Leitz" as it says, without the name of Minolta.These look exactly the same as the Elmar-C.

The Japanese version has a different build. 

Lex

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[TomB_tx]

I believe the original series of M-Rokkor 90 were made for the Leitz-Minolta CL (identical to the Leitz CL but for the Japanese market). After the CL production stopped Minolta created the Minolta CLE and they made the lenses for it in Japan. The CL version lenses had a "sloping cam" surface intended for the CL, while the CLE lenses had a flat cam surface like regular Leica lenses.

I suspect Minolta redesigned the optics as well as the mounts for the CLE lenses.