MINOLTA SLR LENS MOUNTS

Thanks to the longevity of the Minolta lens mount, every manual-focus Minolta-style lens will fit on any Minolta-style manual-focus camera.  Even the oldest Minolta lens (1958 Auto Rokkor and Rokkor) will fit and function on the newest Minolta camera (2004 X-370).  Reciprocally, the newest manual-focus Minolta lenses (2006 MD Minolta) will fit and function on the oldest manual-focus Minolta camera (1958 SR-2).  No other SLR camera company can make this claim!  Not Nikon, not Canon, not Leica.  Not nobody -- except Minolta.

All the other camera companies either stopped making SLR cameras or they made substantial changes to their lens mount along the way.  This prevents their newer lenses from working on their older cameras, and vice versa.  For example, Pentax, Yashica, Mamiya, Olympus, Fuji and several others all started their SLR camera lines with screw-mount lenses.  They eventually had to make the switch to the much-more-convenient, bayonet mount in order to allow their lenses and camera to adequately "talk" to each other.  Since a screw-mount lens rotates several times while it is being attached to the camera body, it is difficult to incorporate fixed linkages designed to mate with static pins in the camera.  Plus, it's a time-consuming, pain-in-the-butt to put on!  And without the best convenience features, the screw-mount cameras could not compete for customers against the feature-rich Minolta cameras.  They were merely fodder for the trash heap of photographic history.

So these camera companies eventually switched away from the screw-mount, but their older screw-mount lenses will not work on their newer camera bodies without an adapter -- and then they only function in a limited capacity.  And don't even think about putting one of their new lens on one of their older cameras -- adapters are not available.  So if you had an old camera, and they developed a new lens, you were just out of luck.  

Similarly, although Nikon used a bayonet system from the beginning, they finally were forced to switch from their original, awkward, manual, meter-coupling system of the F camera, to the convenient, spring-loaded, Minolta-like AI system.  This left Nikon's older lenses in the dust bin.  They will only work on the newer cameras with an expensive fix.  And how about Canon?  Well, they started out with a frustrating, breech-lock system that requires three hands to change a lens.  They, too, eventually gave it up and went to the sensible bayonet system, like Minolta's, that allows you to change lenses in the dark -- with one hand.  

In short, Minolta got it right from the beginning.  They avoided all of these problems when they created their original lensmount and lens design.

The original Minolta lenses, more often than not, had the aperture ring right next to the camera body.  Most other camera companies placed this ring out toward the front of the lens, assuming that this was somehow convenient for the user.  When it came time for lenses and cameras to talk to each other -- for metering and auto-exposure purposes -- the original Minolta designs left them well ahead of the game.  They had only to make relatively minor adjustments to their lenses while everyone else had to "go back to the drawing board" and come up with completely new lens series -- infuriating many of their loyal customers.  

Since automatic lenses remain at the maximum aperture, the meter in the camera has no way of knowing what the f-stop is set at. The meter cannot compute the correct exposure unless it knows what the final f-stop setting will be.  Most companies got around dilemma this by using "stop-down" metering.  In this approach, you have to press a lever (on the camera or the lens) to stop-down the lens, and at that point the meter can take a reading..  Not only is this awkward, but it defeats the whole purpose of an automatic lens system -- to keep the lens open and the viewfinder bright until the moment of exposure.  Minolta was able to avoid this whole problem of "stop-down" metering because they had designed most of their lenses, from the beginning, to have the aperture ring next to the camera body.  All Minolta had to do was make a minor modification to the f-stop ring on their lenses to tell the meter what the f-stop was set at.  It's the same thing with f-stop displays in the camera viewfinder.  This feature was easy for Minolta to add because the f-stop ring on Minolta's lenses was located next to the pentaprism from the very beginning.  Other camera firms came up with excuses and expensive fixes.  

In summary, while Minolta's older lenses do not have all of the automatic features of the newer lenses and cameras, they are still very usable on the newest cameras. But just because you can get a particular Minolta lens to physically attach to a particular Minolta camera does not mean that all of the features of the lens or the camera will be usable.  For example, if you put a new lens on an old camera, the new features of the lens may not be usable.  Conversely, if you put an old lens on a new camera, the new features of the camera might not be usable. This page provides details on using cameras and lenses of different eras.

Minolta did made changes to their lens mount over time that provided certain improvements to the lenses's features or improved their ease of use.  None of these changes to the lensmount directly improved picture quality, although the new features might improve a photographer's ability to use the lens correctly.  The Minolta lens mount can generically be called the "SR" mount or the "Minolta Manual Mount" (to distinguish it from that used on Minolta's autofocus cameras).  But since there are a number of variations, they can be categorized as follows:

• SR -- The SR mount is the basic mount to fit most of Minolta's SLR lenses to the camera and first appeared in 1958.  The basic feature of the lens is the three-pronged bayonet mount (red arrows) with a lock-tab in one of the bayonets. (The tab by the black arrow is the preset lever, but not all lenses used this feature.) The SR mount is used on many of Minolta's early lenses, but is also used on many later Minolta lenses that did not require special connections to the camera, such as mirror lenses which lack diaphragms, and bellows lenses which lack automatic diaphragms.  This lens mount lacks any pin or tab which pass lens settings to the camera. Most of the lenses in the Rokkor series use this mount, and some of the lenses in the MC Rokkor, MC Rokkor-X, MD Rokkor-X, and MD Minolta era use this mount.
  

• SR2 -- This mount appeared at the same time as the SR mount and has all of the features of the SR mount, with the additional feature of an automatic diaphragm operation.  It is named after the Minolta SR-2 which was the first Minolta SLR camera to offer this feature.  A pin (blue arrow) connects with a tab in the camera which keeps the lens diaphragm open until the moment of exposure. The pin rotates on a plate on the rear of the lens (blue arrows). (The tab by the black arrow is the f-stop lock lever, but not all lenses used this feature.) This mount was short-lived and only available on the earliest Auto-Rokkor lenses. It was soon replaced by the SR3 mount.
  

• SR3 -- This mount appears in 1961 and is an improved version of the SR2 mount.  It is named after the Minolta SR-3 which was the first Minolta camera to offer this mount.  Specifically, while the SR2 mount has its aperture linkage on a rotating, external plate, the SR3 has an internal, laterally moving linkage. The SR2 approach proved inadequate to handle the speed of the fully-automatic aperture operation of the SR-3, and Minolta modified the mechanism to shorten its needed range of motion. Some other lens features changed as well. (The tab by the black arrow is the stop-down lever, but not all lenses used this feature.) Most of the lenses in the Auto-Rokkor series use this mount, and a few of the lenses in the MC Rokkor-X, MD Rokkor-X, and MD Minolta eras use this mount.
  

• SRT -- This mount first appeared in 1966 and has all of the features of the SR3 mount, with the addition of meter-coupling operation.  The green arrow points to the MC (meter-coupling) tab. It connects to the meter in the camera and tells the meter how much to change the exposure as the lens is "stopped-down" -- even though the diaphragm actually stays in the fully opened position.  It is named after the Minolta SRT line of cameras which were the first Minolta cameras to offer this feature. This mount was available only on the MC Rokkor line of lenses. (Some, but not all, lenses with this mount had a stop-down lever, as seen above and below.)
  

• SRX -- This mount first appeared in 1972 and has all of the features of the SRT mount, with the additional feature of displaying the aperture setting in the viewfinder in cameras that were equipped to display it.. It is named after the Minolta XK camera which was the first Minolta camera to offer this viewfinder display feature. Earlier lenses were not designed to display their settings in the viewfinder, although many of them happen to have their f-stop scale in the right location. This mount standardized the location (yellow arrow). All of the lenses in the MC Celtic series, most of the lenses in the MC Rokkor-X series , and some of the lenses in the MD Rokkor-X, MD Minolta, and earlier MC Rokkor series use this mount. (The tab by the black arrow is the stop-down lever, but not all lenses used this feature.)
  

• SRD -- This mount first appeared in 1977 and has all of the features of the SRX mount, with the additional feature to support the new shutter-preferred, auto-exposure option of the Minolta XD-11. This is referred to as an MD lug (pink arrow) and is used to display correct exposure information in the viewfinder when using the shutter-preferred exposure mode.  All it does is indicate to the meter what the minimum aperture of the lens is -- f16, f22, or f32. When the lens is set at the minimum f-stop, and the camera is set for shutter-preferred automatic exposure, this lug allows the meter to accurately display the f-stop (that will be set automatically) in the viewfinder. It is named after the Minolta XD-11 camera which was the first Minolta camera to offer this feature. All of the lenses in the MD Celtic series, most of the lenses in the MD Rokkor-X, and some of the lenses in the MD Minolta series use this mount.
  

• SRM -- This mount first appeared in 1981 and has all of the features of the SRD mount, with the additional feature to support the focus-assist feature of the Minolta X-600.  It is named after the Minolta line of lenses which were no longer called "Rokkor". They were simply called "Minolta". The tab is very small, easily overlooked (white arrow), and completely irrelevant in all Minolta cameras except the X-600. Most of the lenses in the MD Minolta series use this mount.
  

• SRL -- This mount first appeared in 1961 and isn't really a "Minolta" mount at all. It is a standard Leica thread mount, just like the thread that is used for many enlarging lenses. Why is it mentioned here? Because Minolta made a couple of SLR lenses with a Leica screw-mount.  Why would they do that? There is a lot of speculation about this, but most of it is just that. Some suggest that Minolta made the lens to be used on Leica cameras. Although this lens can be used on Leica screw-mount cameras, it's extremely doubtful that any Leica users of the time (1960's) would consider using a "cheap" Minolta lens on their very expensive cameras. This rumor probably developed due to the later cooperative manufacturing and sales agreements that Minolta and Leica forged. In fact, Minolta did make many lenses for Leica cameras, but this happened much later -- in the 1970's. Instead, Minolta probably gave these lenses a Leica thread due to the special nature of the lenses and the hope that it would expand their market share. This SLR thread was only used by Minolta on a Macro lens and a Bellows lens --  two lenses that Minolta needed to produce, but which had very low sales potential. Because they were both non-auto-diaphragm lenses, it was a simple matter to produce the lens in a Leica thread -- a thread that users of other cameras could easily use with an adapter. In fact, when these lenses were purchased they came with a Minolta L-adapter as standard equipment.
  

• SRB -- This mount first appeared in 1974, and like the SRL mount, this isn't really a "Minolta" mount either. It is a screw-mount that is commonly used on microscope lenses (0.8 inch / 20.32mm thread).  Why is it mentioned here? Minolta made a few SLR lenses with a microscope screw-mount.  Why would they do that? The lenses that have this mount are very small, such as the 12.5mm bellows lens. It's about the size of your thumb. The normal mount could be used if these lenses would only be used on a camera or bellows, but Minolta knew that photographers would want to use these lenses on a microscope. The only way to make that happen was to use a smaller mount, and the standard microscope mount is perfect. These lenses are used on a camera or bellows with the use of a Minolta M, M1, or M2 adapter.
  

You can use any Minolta SLR lens from an earlier series on any later camera but you will lack the features of the later lens series that were designed for that later camera.  Likewise, you can use any lens from a later series on an earlier camera but you will lose the new features of the later lens series.  These tables will help you determine which features, in any, you will lose.  

WHICH LENSES HAVE WHICH LENS MOUNTS?

                                Minolta Camera Mounts

LENS SERIES	SR	SR2	SR3	SRT	SRX	SRD	SRM	SRL	SRB
ROKKOR	X	-	-	-	-	-	-	X	-
AUTO-ROKKOR	-	X	X	-	-	-	-	-	-
MC ROKKOR	X	-	X	X	-	-	-	-	-
MC ROKKOR-X	X	-	X	-	X	-	-	-	X
MD ROKKOR-X	X	-	X	-	X	X	-	-	X
MD MINOLTA	X	-	X	-	X	X	X	-	X
MC CELTIC	-	-	-	-	X	-	-	-	-
MD CELTIC	-	-	-	-	-	X	-	-	-

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