MD W. Rokkor 24mm f2.8
Technical data
Angle of view: 84 degrees
Min. focus distance: 0,3m
Floating element focusing
Filter thread: 55mm
Diaphgram: f2.8 - f22
Weight 275g
My personal experiences
I bought this lens quite late, to replace the 28/2.8 which was a bit too close to my 35mm lens, and had served as my standard wideangle (first a Tamron, later a "plain" MD Minolta) since the very beginning of my photography hobby. I had looked after this lens for years but never saw it for sale at the Finnish used equipment market, so I bought it from Sweden. It immediately became one of my favourite lenses, that I carried with me, no matter what else I took into my camera bag: 24 + 35-70 + 135, 24 + 50 + 100 macro + 300, 24 + 35 + 85 + 135 + 200... it seemed to fit in every setup. It is also the widest MF Minolta lens I have owned. My example is the early MD Rokkor type lens, so it fits neatly to almost any Minolta MF camera body, and works perfectly in all exposure modes, too. One of the first lenses I included into my Nikon AF setup was the AF 24/2.8, because I had used this lens so much.Optically, this lens is one of the best Rokkors I have ever used. It has amazingly low distortions, although you can see some barrel distortion in the interior shot below, and the sharpness is fine at all shooting distances and apertures. Of course the lens gets better when stopped down, but you can safely use it at f2.8, if you need a softer background. The bokeh has also always been pleasing to my eyes. The colour rendition is typical for the late Rokkor lenses, a bit warm but not overwhelmingly saturated - you can photograph natural colours with this lens! I find the colour rendition of this lens better than the AF Nikkor 24mm f2.8D, which gives a lot more saturated colours, and also better than the MD 28mm f2.8 and MC W.Rokkor 28mm f3.5 -lenses, that I have used with my Minolta. The Tamron 28mm, well, not from the same planet.
Estate of Söderlångvik
Minolta X-700
MD W. Rokkor 24mm f2.8
1/60 sec. at f5.6
Polarizing filter
Kodachrome 64
17.6.2001 Söderlångvik, Finland
The mechanical quality is practically the best you can get, with all-metal construction. There is, however, one drawback, namely rotating front element. This makes the use of a polarizer a bit difficult, and forces you to use a round hood, which is practically useless. The lens also wignettes very easily with hoods, so I ended up to use this lens mostly without hood - or the hood, if used, gave no protection. Although this lens has a more advanced coating than the older MC Rokkors, it still is a bit flare prone, and I have lost some photos because I had no way to use a good hood. In this respect the Nikkor with its non-rotating filter ring is definitely a better lens!
Do I recommend this lens? Absolutely! If you need a 24mm, then this is definitely a good choise. The MC version is obviously the same (there may be difference in coatings), and the "plain" MD version also has excellent reputation - I don't know if it has a non-frotating front element. The question is, if you need the 24mm - if you already have a 20mm or 28mm, then there is not much sense to get a 24 (Well, I bought it anyway, and never looked back). But if your other wideangle is 35mm, or a zoom starting from 35mm, then this is definitely the lens to get. If you are going to live with only one wideangle, then I would choose between this and the 28mm f2 - both have the floating element focusing (and rotating front!), so it is a choise between wider coverage of the 24 and faster f-stop pf the 28mm f2.8. The problem is, that both are rare and expensive - at least here in Finland!
Interior shot from Söderlångvik
Minolta X-700
MD W. Rokkor 24mm f2.8
1/30 sec. at f2.8
Kodachrome 64
Handheld
17.6.2001 Söderlångvik, Finland