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The big Soligor thread!
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow, another Soligor 50mm, and this time f/1.7! Have you tested the lens?


PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 5:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nordentro wrote:
Have you tested the lens?


No, not yet! Will do when i get the time... lot's of work until saturday afternoon....


PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 4:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My latest acquisition: uncommon 450mm f8, T xxxxxx serial.



T serial marks this down as a Tamron, which is why I was interested to check it out. Not had much luck with previous f8's of this type - dogs! grey day so just snapped a couple of test pics of the neighbours chimney on the K5. Looks promising: good resolution and little fringing straight from f8. 100% crops, f8, f11.




PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 1:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

marcusBMG wrote:
My latest acquisition: uncommon 450mm f8, T xxxxxx serial.
T serial marks this down as a Tamron, which is why I was interested to check it out.


here infos :
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.tamron.co.jp/data/old-lens/olm450f8.htm


PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for that PBFACTS I did google tamron 450mm but didn't find anything.


PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2015 8:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have a couple of Soligor lenses I haven't seen in this thread. A 400/6.3 and a 135/2.8. My apologies if they've had a mention and I missed it.





An image from each:
A crop from the full frame of the moon with the 400
.


I want to reshoot the moon with a Helios 3X teleconverter but so far I've not had the combination of clear sky and visible moon.

A crop from the centre of the full frame taken with the 135



PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2015 9:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My 135 is slightly different - M163**** serial number with different style engraving, I think yours is newer? It's a great lens, one of the first MF lenses I bought and one I won't sell, it's plenty sharp and has great character.
Your 400 is the same as mine, very similar serial number, and is another good lens. I have to say that my Vivitar 400 / 5.6 is a sharper, but that doesn't make the Soligor a bad lens, because it isn't.


PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2015 9:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lloydy wrote:
My 135 is slightly different - M163**** serial number with different style engraving, I think yours is newer? It's a great lens, one of the first MF lenses I bought and one I won't sell, it's plenty sharp and has great character.
Your 400 is the same as mine, very similar serial number, and is another good lens. I have to say that my Vivitar 400 / 5.6 is a sharper, but that doesn't make the Soligor a bad lens, because it isn't.


If I've understood what been in previous posts and in the 28mm thread my 135 was made by Sun in 1986. I only got it today in a charity shop. The 400 I picked up again in a charity shop last September, pictures taken with it on its first outing were chosen for publication over ones taken with a lens costing 100 times as much.


PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2015 10:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

See post above re soligor (tamron) 450mm + pics

Now my question is: is this H-xxxxxx serial soligor 450mm the same lens?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351402691205?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

UPDATE and this one is clearly different. 2xxxxx serial = ? sun



Last edited by marcusBMG on Tue May 26, 2015 10:43 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2015 11:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'd say the 450 is the same series as the 400.


PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lloydy wrote:
I'd say the 450 is the same series as the 400.

sorry lloydy I don't follow. Anyway there are at least 3 versions (see updated post above): T-xxxxxx (tamron); Hxxxxxx (?tokina); 27xxxxx (? sun).


PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 11:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The moon taken with Soligor 400/6.3 and Helios 3x teleconverter.



PostPosted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 7:50 pm    Post subject: 2xxxxxx soligors Reply with quote

By coincidence, both opportunistically purchased soligors arrived today, and both are classic style chrome eared t-mount 2xxxxx serials. Does that indicate Sun?

35mm f2.8


300mm f5.5


PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 11:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Your serial numbers on both lenses begin with 2 which I believe indicate they are Sun made. Very Happy

They should do well for you.

Regards,

Gavin


PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 12:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Got my 1st Soligor, and it's the MC 300mm f/4.5.

From what I can gather about this model, it's sourced from Cimko due to the 'diamond arrow'. EDIT: I believe it's actually made by Sun Optics.

f/4.5 isn't usable, lacking sharpness. The next stop on the ring is f/8! (Maybe they should have labeled this a 300mm f/8!)
Here's where results are sharp, and good to f/13.
Pleasantly surprised how light it is, and how good the image is once stopped down. No aberrations, or heavy fringing detected.
It has a pretty deep built-in lens hood. Only detraction is it has no tripod collar.


Last edited by WNG555 on Thu Sep 17, 2015 2:34 am; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Soligor C/D 35-105mm f3.5 macro

all @f3.5






PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 7:35 pm    Post subject: soligor (tamron) 350mm f5.6 Reply with quote

I wasn't impressed with a chrome eared 9xxxx one, but this T-xxxxx tamron made one is good!



f8, samsung NX20.


PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Someone has loved that lens in the past, looks well used but not abused. I think I'm begining to prefer lenses that look like that as opposed to mint.


PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 7:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

bychance wrote:
Someone has loved that lens in the past, looks well used but not abused. I think I'm begining to prefer lenses that look like that as opposed to mint.

+100 ! Smile

I have some looking like that and they're all very good.


PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 9:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Tamron made Soligors are in general good lenses. I have the 250mm f/4.5 which I love Like 1 small


PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 1:49 pm    Post subject: The Soligor Dualfocals Reply with quote

Preparing to throw away my collection of 1980s "Darkroom Photography" magazines, I found in the issue for December 1981 (volume 3, number 8) a full page advertisement headed "The Soligor Dualfocals" with a subheading "two lenses in one...for the price of one", advertising a 28+35 f/5.5/5.8 and an 85+135 f/4 lens.

I was struck by that advertisement, as I don't remember seeing advertisements for Soligor Dualfocals anywhere else. Googling soligor dualfocals advertisement gives no joy. I am aware that there were earlier twin-focal-length lenses, such as the successful Tamron Twin-Tele, as discussed here at http://forum.mflenses.com/tamron-twin-tele-135mm-great-fun-small-package-t33955.html and elsewhere.

Having read these discussions:-
http://forum.mflenses.com/soligor-c-d-28-35mm-dualfocal-lens-t59738.html
http://forum.mflenses.com/soligor-c-d-dualfocal-3-5-28-and-3-8-35-sold-t69714.html
http://forum.mflenses.com/soligor-dualfocal-85mm-135mm-t35156.html
it would seem that those Soligor lenses were poor value even at their low price, were not produced for long, and are not worth seeking out except as curiosities!

By the way, my interest in Soligor lenses started when I was thinking about buying a Miranda SLR; I later bought a Miranda F with a Soligor 50mm f/1.9 lens. (It seemed to me to give a plastic image, full of detail edge to edge, that I considered very different from that of the Taron Unique CRF I'd used before, and the Olympus 35RC and OM-1 I replaced them with.)


PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 2:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Chris

I've just realised my photos were missing from my post re the Soligor dual focus lens. I have reinserted them.


PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 4:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This 400mm f6.3 has a galaxy nameplate but I am 99% sure I have seen it as a soligor too. That ribbed focus ring is pure soligor.



It's distinctive because the focus is at the mount end, and also the operation of the focus is just extension of the lens from the camera. Most other 400mm f6.3's are varying the separation of the two optical groups.
I shall see what sort of pics it takes.


PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 6:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think that's an Ittoh made lens. I had the 135 and 200mm versions. The 135 was not bad, a Sonnar copy; the 200 was a dog that I took apart to use the aperture in a project.


PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 7:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Itoh ? Mmmmm interesting suggestion. Diamonds, pentax direction focus and opposite to normal rotation of the aperture rings all indicative. There is a previous thread:

http://forum.mflenses.com/itohkogaku-higon-135-3-5-preset-samples-t19061.html

diyarcade on flickr suggests:

I think Soligor lenses were made by 3 companies :
- T code Tamron
- Y code Komura
- R code Itoh

However this has Hxxxx serial

And I have now found a reference to an Itoh Higon Kogaku 400mm f6.3, looks the same.