My favorite gear: Vintage lens Minolta Rokkor 58mm f/1.4

Minolta Rokkor 58mm f/1.4—my first and most used manual lens. I bought it back in early 2024 at an auction in Stockholm, Sweden, and have used it on nearly all my projects since then.

What makes this lens so unique, yet so versatile, is its vintage, cinematic, and film-inspired character. When shot wide open, it creates dreamy, shallow, and slightly hazy images—the very look I seek in my work. I have to say, there is something so special about shooting with manual focus. Every frame feels more intentional, and I feel way more connected to the pictures I take when I am using manual focus and camera settings.

Having done a wide variety of different photoshoots with this lens—indoors and outdoors, in natural and artificial light, for portraits and beyond—I would say that its absolute prime time is shooting in low light conditions, with the aperture wide open. This is exactly when the lens’ features become most prominent, thus, assisting you in creating rather ethereal and definitely memorable visuals.

The Minolta Rokkor 58mm f/1.4 is a manual focus lens made in Japan about 50 years ago. It can be used with modern digital cameras through an adapter. All the images in this post were taken by Alina Veksler (VEKSALINA Photography) using the Minolta Rokkor 58mm f/1.4 with an adapter (MD-NEX) to the Sony a7iii.

Models: Viktoriia Beskina, Gabby @canadapanda, Nat Pavlova, Ariel Lin @arielllinnn, Viktoriia Kleiko, Kylie Ferguson @kylieferguson_, Natalia Hani, Ann Silyukova, Lena @ray4ik, Daria Isenova

// photographer Alina Veksler, VEKSALINA photography, creative portrait photographer, vintage lens, manual lens, cinematic portraits, film look, retro, vintage, elegant, cinematic, Pacific Northwest photographer, Portland photographer, California photographer, Washington photographer, Mt. Hood photographer