Minolta MD W.ROKKOR 35mm f/1.8
Here you can see the Minolta MD W.ROKKOR 35mm f/1.8 lens mounted on a Sony A7II camera with a K&F Concept adapter.
The MD 35mm f/1.8 is very compact by today's standards… it weighs a mere 233 grams and takes compact 49mm filters. As soon as I bought this lens it immediately became a firm favourite and you'll find this lens sitting on my Sony A7II more often than any other. It is a fairly rare lens and not particularly cheap (I paid £180 for my copy), but for me the results make it fantastic value for money and well worth looking out for.
I always say that if you're buying a classic manual focus lens in the hope of getting a bargain basement way of beating a modern lens in the sharpness stakes you going to be sorely disappointed. Instead you should be buying a classic lens to get a unique way of rendering a scene that is quite different to the the sharp, if somewhat clinical, rendering a modern lens will typically give you. But this is one of those cases where your getting the best of all worlds: this lens is both beautifully sharp and, particularly when it comes to the bokeh (or out-of-focus parts of the images) quite unique. This is especially so when it comes to close focus images (see the flower photographs below).
Would I recommend this lens as a practical day-to-day alternative a modern autofocus 35mm f/1.8 lens? If you're happy with manual focus… yeah… I think (unusually) I would! Expect to pay £150-250 for an example in good condition from a respectable dealer.
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