Hello and lens I.D.?

[Feldar]

I came across this forum whislt trying to find out about a couple of MF lenses I have just received.

About me - from Australia, and use a pentax K20D, which I have been enjoying using for the last 6 months or so.

Anyway the two lenses that I have are a Vivitar Auto 200mm f3.5 (will this actually autofocus?) and the other one which I can not find any reference for is a Seriese 105mm f2.5 (could this be series e?), both are screw mount lenses, and both are made in Japan. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
I now have to get myself a couple of adaptor rings - are the ebay rings o.k. or is it best to use genuine Pentax ones?

Cheers

Matt

Vivitar


Seriese

[Spotmatic]

[Screamin Scott]

Matt,
Neither lens will auto focus. Auto on the lens means auto aperture, staying open until you trip the shutter,then it stops down to the pre-selected aperture automatically. The 200mm looks as though it was made fro Vivitar by Kino (aka Kiron) as the serial # appears to start with 22. No idea as to who made the 2nd lens but many lens makers made lenses for others , they simply re-labeled their lenses or made lenses according to others specifications. The adapters from China should be OK, but if the price difference between them & the OEM isn't too great, I'd go with the OEM adapters...

[hk300]

I heard that the OEM M42 lens to PK camera mount is not that expensive.

I also heard that installing the non-Pentax version M42-to-PK may be a little more difficult to use, and that the Pentax adapter is not expensive. So i would explore that option first.

[casualcollector]

Judging the "left handed" focusing and E in the serial, I guess that your Seriese lens was manufactured by Sigma in the mid to late '60s. Luisalegria should be able to determine with more certainty.

Bill

[Attila]

Nice to see you here ! I never hear series lens , but look beautiful! Congrats!
I have a Vivitar 3.5/200mm lens I think a very good lens even if lack a bit details it is sharp with nice color rendering.
http://www.mflenses.com/gallery/v/japenese/vivitar/vivitar_200mm_f3_5_tx/

[Feldar]

Thanks for the replies guys - much appreciated. I will have a look at the genuine Pentax adapters today .

Matt

[hk300]

[themoleman342]

The seriese is really interesting! The 100-105mm focal length is my favorite for a full frame camera (I still shoot film). Don't see to many f2.5s out there, outside of nikon of course. Good luck with it!

~Marc

[Feldar]

Marc - you are right about it being interesting - it has 3 adjustable rings, one to set aperture, one to quickly adjust apeture from set point to a larger aperture, and one for focus - never seen that sort of configuration before.
I am picking up an adapter tomorrow, so I will post some shots taken with the lens as soon as I can.

Cheers,

Matt

[luisalegria]

Bill may be right. I can't ID early Sigmas as I haven't seen enough of them, but his reasoning is good. I have long had a 135/2.8 that seems to be from the same series as this, sold under the Accura brand, quite a nice lens, one of my favorites in fact. It may indeed be a Sigma also.

I have seen a 35/2.8 preset with the Sigma trademark but sold by Sears with what I think were very similar markings; this was at one time being sold by Pacific Rim cameras, I should have picked it up.

The ring configuration is pretty standard for preset lenses, the double rings were standard on Japanese presets (German ones often had a single ring with a push-in mechanism), this was very common in the 1950's-1960's, and you will see it even today on some Russian-made lenses.

Your 105 probably dates from sometime in the 1960's, I will guess 1962-1966 or so based on the style.