More Auction Site silliness

But you have to admit that $27 isn't a lot of money for such an impressive and rare lens ;-)

<Chas>

It is a nice enough lens, but I wonder if someone should tell the vendor that it doesn't fit what he thinks it fits.

Now wait, to be fair, this is not even in the same league as a properly silly listing. There are those who would say an MD Rokkor X is the best Minolta lens - it's got the newest tech they used in manual focus but with better build quality than the post-Rokkor MD lenses. And he does say it needs a "proper adapter" to use on a digital camera. In the condition it looks to be in, and considering that a 50/1.7 MD is a very good lens - sharp as anything you'll see, with a nice quality that I can't quite explain but have seen referred to as the "3d effect" - I have no problem with valuing it at $28. If I were in the market for one of these, I'd buy this one.

It's silly inasmuch as the difference between a plain white Rokkor and orange lettered Rokkor-X is exactly nothing. The price is alright, considering what other MF lenses which can be used on mirrorless systems go for.

Recently there were a host of lenses offered on the 'Bay, made to fit Rittreck/Warner/ Norita/ Graflex Norita. The seller listed each separately plus two bodies. What was interesting, the seller claimed they interchange with P6 bodies: Kiev/ Pentacon/ Praktisix/ certain Exakta. There is a similarity, all of the above use breeching rings to mount and lock lenses. The P6 system relies on breeching ring mounted on the body mount. The Norita system relies in breeching ring mounted on the lens mount (like a larger Canon FD-FL mount). A bit of trivia, I believe the designer of the Norita mount and the Canon 35mm FD/FL as seen on the Canon F-1 was one and the same person.

If I was in the market for a Minolta MD Standard prime, I think I would go for this one, $28 is not an unreasonable amount, I do have a Minolta Dynax 7000i which I hardly ever use, but will not sell because they are fetching silly low amounts on the bay, I prefer to keep it even if I only use it occasionally to make sure it gets exercised.

There are a number of misunderstandings in the listing. When Konica merged with Minolta eBay started showing their items interchangeably. In some cases this allowed a buyer to get an item for less. In other cases it caused the buyer to get something which would not fit his/her camera/lens. The last of the "all metal" (at least on the outside) Rokkors were the MC Rokkor-X lenses. All MD models have a plastic aperture ring. The term "all metal" is a little funny. In a Star Trek movie we learn about "transparent aluminum." Only pinhole lenses can be "all metal." Most of the lenses sold as MC Rokkor-X and MC Rokkor XX (two letters) were otherwise identical but I have one lens which looks like an exception. It's a 100/2.5 MC with white lettering, with a rubber covered focusing ring and with the same coating as the MC Rokkor-X. The difference is that the lens has the depth of field preview tab near the mount while the MC Rokkor-x version does not. I posted a question about the lens and got links to several Minolta websites. Not one of these sites had any information about the lens in question. It is my guess that Minolta had some rear sections left over from the earlier 100/2.5 MC Rokkor and just used them up. This is also what probably happened with my 24/2.8 chrome front Canon FD SSC.

Some interesting responses here. I think Mark hits my feelings closest on this with his reply since the seller is specifically mentioning the "Orange" markings which simply denote what market the lens was sold in, not the quality of construction or the performance of the lens. If you search the auction site for "Orange Rokkor" you currently return only 3 lenses for sell, neither of the other two playing up the orange aspect as much as this seller did. What this tells me is that we may be witnessing the beginning of a false auction description trend when it comes to these old Minolta lenses. Soon a mystique will be built up around the orange Rokkors and the prices will rise and fool the uneducated. Soon they will be manufactured by Tomioka. :)

Or not.

I simply believe there is a misleading emphasis placed on the orange aspect when in fact it means nothing at all. As for the price, its more then fair. The 50/1.7 Rokkor in any of its guises is an absolutely incredible lens. I mean, we all know its kind of hard to mess up the tried and true 50mm design but these lenses realy do stand out. I have taken some of my best photos with a 50/1.7 Rokkor on either my XE7, XE5, SRT-102, X-700 and XG9. Here are a couple of examples Im fond of.

If I didn't already have several Rokkor 50's (and weren't on the verge of maybe getting rid of all my old Minolta gear) I would have already bought this. Its a heck of a steal for a really great lens.

I think I recently saw something like Kalimar or Fujinon 28mm lens with a $149 BIN. x'D

Sometimes ebay just cracks me up. Prices for even mediocre lenses have been going absolutely beyond the realm of reason lately...