Manual Focus Lenses Forum

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

I had this in Soligor brand, but the Tamron original is interestingly different -

L- Tamron R - Soligor

Note that focus works in opposite directions ! But the Soligor is otherwise mechanically and optically identical internally and externally. Perhaps Soligor had a standard focus direction and had the market power (at the time, they were the biggest distributor) to get significant product changes from Tamron ?

Note the Soligor has the "T" serial number which I think identifies a Tamron-made lens. And I do need to fix the diaphragm on that Soligor, it seems to have popped loose.

The Tamron was originally sold as a kit with a matched multiplier, hence the "Converto" name and the dual aperture scale, for use with and without the TC. This is the same idea as the very first Tamron product, the 135/4.5 Duo-Tamron/Converto-Tamron/Twin-tele of 1958. This is in fact the successor to that first Tamron lens. Unfortunately this one does not have any part of the original kit, which also included a hood I believe.

The finish on the original Tamrons was better I think than the Soligors, with the very nice gloss enamel and chrome. The Aetna brand Tamrons are also finished like the Tamron-Tamrons.

As for the lens, well, its a very standard 135 preset, focuses down to 5 ft/1.5m, works just fine in every way that a preset should.

Performance is very good by my standards. Its sharp enough wide open, and gets as sharp as anyone would want at 5.6 or so. You want bokeh ? Its got bokeh.

Some shots used an extension ring for closeups.

The bird -

crop -

casualcollector · Wed May 20, 2009 10:30 am

Interesting comparison. I start thinking everytime I see a string of consecutive zeros in a serial! Excellent pictures, too. The bird is a good combination of form, color and fine detail. Great subject for comparisons. You are sorely tempting me to pull the trigger on a Digi Rebel or one of the Pentaxes!

voytek · Joined: 24 Nov 2009 Posts: 892

Luis, as usually yous samples are very impressive. Sometimes I am thinking about it his how M42 lenses (or converted to) perform on different systems cameras.

gil · Thu May 21, 2009 12:19 am

Was that a stuffed gull by any means Very Happy

. Good work as usual Luis. Will you be using some of your manual lenses in the SF Carnival this Sunday? I have commitments (actually my wife's) and thus I will just depend on the shots of others. More power to your lens adventure.
cheers,
gil