Spiratone (Sankor?) 300/4.5 preset T-mount

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Bill (casualcollector) got this for me in a Florida thrift shop. Thanks Bill !

Its a fairly rare lens, certainly not available very often on ebay. There is quite a lot of documentation in the way of old catalogs and etc. on this, but not many seem to have been sold.

This one came with a small chip on the front element, and it wasn't focusing to infinity. The first doesn't seem to affect anything, the second was easily fixed by adjusting the helical.

I tentatively want to call this a Sankor because of the stylistic clues that are similar to other Sankor-labelled lenses I've spotted, in particular the design of the tripod mount. And Spiratone certainly did sell other Sankor-made lenses, along with many other makes of course. My second guess would be Cosina, again because of some style similarities with an early preset product line Cosina made to compete with the ubiquitous Tokina, but thats just a guess.

Whoever made it, this is quite a production, a huge, heavy, solid thing. In terms of bulk and weight its up there with the Meyer Telemegor 300/4.5. It was not a cheap thing back in those days, it is not at all like the famous Spiratone 400/6.3's, which were actually lightly built and sold cheaply.

In every way its a standard preset lens, with the typical Japanese 2-ring design. In this case the preset ring does not set very firmly and is easily displaced, which is a common fault. Its minimum focus is 15ft/5m, which is quite good for its kind.

Performance is not very good, unfortunately. Wide open in bright light it has bad CA and other faults, and is quite soft. It gets decently sharp by f/8. It flares more than I would like. I find its best used, oddly enough, in subdued light. If I were to compare it to anything I have, I would say its much like the Meyer Telemegor 400/5.5; the Telemegor 300/4.5 is sharper wide open and has less CA problems.

Given that, it can be a quite competent picture-taker, and someone who has a subject within its capacities could probably get excellent results. Portraits would be a natural fit for it.

Some pictures taken with extension rings. Some others were taken through chain-link fencing, so there are some odd bokeh effects that aren't the fault of the lens.

The bird -

crop -

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

wow!

my_photography · Expire: 2016-12-25

Definitely a winner lens and you photos with this lens are great.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

spb37 · Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 8

LA's incredible skills notwithstanding that lens scored well in a 1972 lens test he referenced in an earlier thread.

http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic.php?t=14940&view=previous

http://medfmt.8k.com/third/preset.htmlphotographic

Test is interesting in that it claims the lens wide open is better at the edges than center.

I have a soft spot for Spiratone and have that lens but have not used it much. Have wondered whether it is (Russian-like) good at rendering colors. Looking at the most recent 300mm thread compared (unscientifically) to the earlier thread I am wondering even more. Off to the rose garden. Will return in a few days.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

I didn't edit colors as such, but I had to pop up the contrast on most of these, though just a little on some. The Pelican and the Owl are pretty much out of the camera, the lions/lioness were quite muddy and underexposed.