Sun Opt Hi-Tele Zoom 5.8/190-430mm

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

Hi,

as I have written in my last post I found this lens and bought it today for 12,oo Euro. That´s approx. 6.oo Euro per Kilo material. It seems that it has an Exacta mount but I have no adapter at present.

Are there any additional information available ?

Many thanks for any comment

Rolf

ManualFocus-G · Expire: 2014-11-24

Where's Luis Algeria when you need him? Laughing

Nice looking lens! I always presume lenses with this look originated from Tokina, but I had no idea one of that focal range existed Shocked

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Someone called ?

No, thats a genuine rare version Sun Optics lens, which I badly want !
Sun made their own lenses (usually, I suspect some exceptions). Certainly they made this one.

Thats from their 1960's preset zoom series.

The common one is the 85-210/4.8, sold in plain and pistol-grip versions.

Another one to look out for is a very early 110-180/4.5 from @1962-63

Thanks for posting this, I'd heard of it but I expected it was so scarce it would remain mythical.

casualcollector · Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 11:48 pm Post subject:

A good friend of mine owns one of these baseball bats. He bought it new when he was in the armed forces. I'll see if he has any photos from it that he has scanned.

Bill

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

A GREAT purchase! I too, have read somewhere (photo.net I think) about the rare appearance of these lenses.

tomh · Joined: 06 May 2009 Posts: 7 Location: Southeastern Vermont

Amazing! Someone else on this planet has one of these lenses. Good on you, Rolf!

As casualcollector said, I bought one of these new in 1969. I used it quite a lot with a Minolta adapter to photograph mostly aviation subjects for about 10 years. I still have the lens, and the large Sun lens shade and cap that were part of the original purchase, and the illustrated manual for it as well. I have used an image of this publication on my homepage for years now.

Here are a few shots I happen to have on my hard drive that were taken with this lens. These are all hand-held, so they are submitted only as a rough guide. I have not performed an optical evaluation of this lens, which would of course involve different focal lengths and tripod mounting.
I don't recall the focal length on these shots. I often used f8 with B&W, and f5.8 or 1/2 f-stop down with ASA 64 Kodachrome. I have used the lens with ASA 25 Kodachrome II, but do not have any scans available at present.

F-84F Thunderstreak from around 1971

Volkswagons doing it in the dirt-Hinsdale, NH., 1970

Springfield, Massachusetts train station, 1977

tomh · Joined: 06 May 2009 Posts: 7 Location: Southeastern Vermont

H'mmm- I spent an hour trying to make the above post this morning. The connection seemed very glitchy (where is this site located?) and upon the third try, it seemed to work. Now, however, I do not see the photos I uploaded. I did see them on the preview, however. Any explanations?

tomh · Joined: 06 May 2009 Posts: 7 Location: Southeastern Vermont

Disregard my last, now the photos are back. Like I said, a bit glitchy.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Hi Tom,

Great results there, and great subjects.

The 1969 date seems right for that lens then. There was quite an explosion of zooms in the late 1960's. But yours is indeed a rare beast.

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

Hi Tom and all other fellows,

many thanks for the quick reply and the nice shots Tom. A special hobby of my son ( he is sitting in a wheelchair ) and myself is airplane spotting. So when we will be the next time at Düsseldorf International Airport I will give this lens a try. Cool

In the meantime I could turn off the Exakta mount and now I can use a T2>EOS adapter. Unfortunately the weather is very bad at the moment so I have to wait with testing.

I will show within the next days some actual shots.

Thanks again and greetings from Germany.

Rolf

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

@ Tom

it was a pleasure to look on your website. You have a lot of wonderful airplane pictures. Very fine and my respect.

If you like here the link to some of my pictures.

http://www.foto-bochum.net/gallery/5081453_B8t5K#369354691_QkAof

tomh · Joined: 06 May 2009 Posts: 7 Location: Southeastern Vermont

Excellent photographic work on your website, Rolf. I always enjoy seeing the work of others, and I'll be looking at yours again when time allows.
Tom

tomh · Joined: 06 May 2009 Posts: 7 Location: Southeastern Vermont

Here is another shot with the big Sun lens. Taken on ASA 64 Kodachrome-X, 21 November 1973, at Plattsburgh, NY

It is important to note that this shot above represents a significant crop, as can be seen from the original image below. A lens of poor quality would not have produced the quality you see above.

Farside,
Yes this is an FB-111A, the Strategic Bomber version of the type.

Farside · Expire: 2013-12-27

Is that an F111? Or am I thinking of something else with swing wings? Used to hear those things rev up at a maintenance airfield depot near my place - a spooky howl.

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

@Tom

Hallo Tom,

thanks for your kind words and a very nice shot of the F111.

I have a question and a please, is it possible that you can send me a copy of the lens manuel (PDF etc)?

You will find my email account under the photographer section within my smugmug site (see above). I would appreciate your assistance very much.

Thank you

Rolf

tomh · Joined: 06 May 2009 Posts: 7 Location: Southeastern Vermont

Rolf,
I will scan the lens manual as soon as possible.
Tom

tomh · Joined: 06 May 2009 Posts: 7 Location: Southeastern Vermont

Rolf,
I just got the lens manual out. I had forgotten that the entire manual is in Japanese only. My Epson 3170 scanner, which I use for pdf generation, is in storage in my basement. Sometime in the future I will bring it up and scan all my camera and lens manuals. I'll keep your request in mind, and make the manual available to you at that time.

In the meantime, here is a link to a scan from my available Canon 1220U scanner of what I think is the most important page, that with the cutaway drawing of the lens.

Regards,
Tom

BTW, when I purchased this lens, I did not hesitate to get a Sun product, as that name was quite popular in those days. I believe that I had borrowed a smaller sun zoom back then, perhaps an 80-230mm, and it worked quite well for me.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Very interesting manual, thank you.

It looks like a normal preset T2-mount zoom.

Of course, just a very big one.

The aperture rings are huge.

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

Tom James · Joined: 09 Apr 2010 Posts: 4 Location: Silver Bay, NY

I accidentally stumbled on this discussion about the 190 – 430 mm Sun Optics Zoom Lens. While in

Japan, in 1967,I bought one of these lenses with a "T" mount adapter for my Nikon F cameras. So

far as I know it was made for only one year – 1967. I never used it much. About three years ago, I

tried to sell it on E-Bay as a ‘mint condition lens. After listing it twice and not receiving even

one bid I decided to keep it.

When Nikon introduced the entry level D-40/60 and D-5000 cameras which accept non-AI 'F' mount

lens I was in hog heaven. My collection of 8 early Nikon Lenses, including the Sun Zoom, suddenly

became useful again.(Without converting them.)

I have enclosed pictures of the lens with a Nikon TC-200 2X teleconverter installed on a Nikon D-

5000. A few shots with and without the teleconverter are also included.

Mounted Lens:

Picture of a boat house accross the lake about a mile away. Taken from my kitchen window.
D-5000, F/8 1/200, ISO 200 zoom set at 190mm. [285mm DX equivalent]

Same scene with zoom set at 430mm.[645mm DX equivalent]

Scene with zoom set at 430mm and a 2X Teleconverter.

Zoom set at 430mm and a Kenko 3X AutoTeleconverter.

Image Quality is some what degraded at maximum zoom and it is not too sharp with the

teleconverters. Never-the-less I'll enjoy the 190-430 lens for birding and airplane pictures.

Tom James

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

Hi Tom,

thanks for sharing your pictures and the infos. Was one of my first MF lenses I bought last year. Never used it again but it has a place of honor within my collection. Very Happy

Zemmix · Joined: 11 Sep 2011 Posts: 2 Location: Japan

I happened onto one of these lenses at the local used electronics shop recently. Ever since I bought my Sony Nex-5 a year ago I've been wanting a big zoom lens to play around with.

For 3000yen (about $40) it was too good to pass up. It must have been really well cared for (or it sat in a cabinet forgotten for the past 40 years) and hardly used because it looks brand new with nary a scratch on it. It had a Minolta MD mount and came with the original 'Sun' cap but there was no hood or case. Picked up a MD-Nex adapter on ebay.

Here it is attached with the Nex 18-55 sitting next to it for size comparison.

I took both lenses out on the balcony of our house and took some comparison pictures. I confess I don't own a tripod so all of these pics are hand-held. The 190-430 lens is not easy to take pictures with while holding! Let alone trying to focus the thing. It's a pretty hefty lens. But this is the best I could do.

First from the Nex 18-55 lens

18:

55:

Switching to the Sun-Optics 190-430

190:

430:

Now to buy a tripod...

fuzzywuzzy · Expire: 2013-11-30

Zemmix · Joined: 11 Sep 2011 Posts: 2 Location: Japan

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

Wow, what an old thread.

Congrats for your find. It looks really like new. Have a lot of fun with this lens.

Wink