Soligor 350mm f/5.6

[FernandoB12]

Hi,
There is the result of the field test. f/5.6 and around 1/50.
The quality of the image was a good surprise to me.
I looked around but can't find any informations about this lens. If some one has, I will apreciate.
Regards.

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[ManualFocus-G]

I have one of these hugey lenses too! Mine is an M42 T-mount with pre-set aperture control. It produces good results but doesn't reach infinity for some reason. Not that it matters as most shots with a lens like this are focused on an object somewhere (certainly for me).

It would help to identify it if you posted up an image of the lens, as Soligor rebranded lenses from other manufacturers such as Tokina.

[FernandoB12]

Hi Shrek,

Mine has pre-set aperture too and is an M42 T-mount. I can focus infinite too, but I am using a Nikon D80.

[Xpres]

I had one just like that, although 400/6.3 - bought when I was at school. It was very good for it's type and I only sold it a couple of years ago.

[ManualFocus-G]

That's a newer version of the one I have I have the 180/3.5, 200/3.5 and 300/4.5 in that style though

[luisalegria]

There are at least three versions of this 350mm f/5.6 Soligor.

One (which I have) was made by Tamron. Its not hard to find.
Another maybe was made by Komine. This is more rare.
The one you have I don't know who made it, but it is quite common.

I suspect that Soligor asked the makers to build a whole line to Soligors specification, thats why you have so many versions of odd sizes. Soligor had huge market power in those days.

[SkedAddled]

This lens looks a lot like my 75-260mm zoom lens. The cosmetics are exactly in line with the zoom I own, making me think this is a Tokina-manufactured lens. When I first presented mine to this forum, the general concensus was that it's most likely to have come from Tokina. Mine was made in 1967, according to the inspection label still on it, and your 350mm model appears to be an exact cosmetic match.

[FernandoB12]

Hi Luis,
I was waiting for your coments!!! I know you are an expert in this matther. Thank you. I am post a front view, Look at the font (tipo de letra) of the name SOLIGOR.......An other detail, it has 12 blades diafragma.

Thanks Craig, if yours was made by Tokina, mine too.

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[luisalegria]

Hi Fernando,

I'll go with Craig here and say that my top suspect is Tokina, but I don't have proof beyond the style, and that may not mean that much.

Soligor had plenty of negotiating power in those days and they could get manufacturers to give all their lenses the Soligor style for that time, no matter who made them.

[SkedAddled]

[casualcollector]

I'll throw the curve ball into this discussion. The 350 sure has the Tokina look to it but the Soligor name in script, upper & lower case, has me scratching my head. So does the spanner notched retaining ring. Tokina made Soligors that I know best had the Soligor name in block letters, all capitalized. I have a Kino made Soligor 28 that uses the script style and spanner notches.

Skedaddled I'm fairly certain your 75-260 post dates your JCII sticker. I believe it was introduced in the '72-74 period.

[FernandoB12]

Yes, I agreed with you Luis no matter who made it. The most important is what I can get from.

SkedAddled and casualcollector, my 135mm has the script style too. So I supose that they were made in the same factory.....the style is completely diferent...take a look.

[luisalegria]

Hi Bill,

Those Soligor presets with the knurled "ears" on the aperture ring and the chrome setting ring all seem to have the italic style "Soligor".

The only thing that seems certain is that these of this style are all from one manufacturer.

If they were made by Tokina, there is no reason why there couldn't be mechanical differences between the presets and the auto's, as the presets were of very different design overall. The known preset Tokinas aren't much like the Auto Tokinas.

What bothers me is that the known preset Tokinas are very different from these Soligors. For one thing, the aperture rings and diaphragm on the Tokinas (in their many merchants brands) are all towards the front of the barrel, in front of the focusing mechanism and helical. These Soligors have the rings and presumably the diaphragm way back near the mount. Thats a rather fundamental design change.

I have seen and missed some of these preset Tokinas (in other brands) in the odd Soligor sizes like 180, 250 and 350 - they exist, but are rare. And they don't look like these either.

Interesting also is that this basic design of this Soligor series is not seen under any other brand, which is very odd. Usually one would see the same thing sold under other brands with cosmetic changes. This line seems unique to Soligor.

[casualcollector]

I think Miranda gets involved here, involuntarily. The "tabs" on a chrome setting ring are a Miranda characteristic (IMO). I have several different auto lenses of various brands, one with tabs, one with ears and one with neither. I believe they were all made by Kino.

The concave knurl on the focus grip is also in common with Miranda. The early Tokina-Soligor Auto lenses had the skip-knurl characterstic but the concave knurl as well as tabbed chrome setting ring were added later.

The upper-lower case script was common to lenses that bore the Miranda-Soligor imprint. When the supplier set up the engraver for these ID rings he just left off the Miranda template.

I'm fairly confident that Miranda went to Kino for lenses for a while and this 350 seems to have those Miranda characteristics. All conjecture, of course, but that's my hunch. I'll have to study some Miranda lenses as they pass by on e bay.

Now, that 135 with the 77xxxx serial is another headscratcher!

[FernandoB12]

Hi casualcollector,

Thanks for share your knowledge.
I don't know if this information will help or not....the 350 serial nº is 9693700....

[casualcollector]

I haven't been able to determine a manufacturers code in the Soligor serials with any certainty. Every example I've seen with 16 or 17 as the first two digits has been Tokina made. Other numbers I haven't made any sense of.

[SkedAddled]

[casualcollector]

Craig,

Your 75-260 and 400mm are Tokinas. Even with different names and styling variations, Tokinas from about 1968 to '74 or so have a strong family resemblance and your zoom has all of those characteristics.

Fernando's 350 has that Tokina family look, but there's a few small details that make me wonder.

[ManualFocus-G]

Thread from the dead!! I have the 350mm and 400mm version of lens the OP posted about and they have serials starting with '96' and '97' suggesting they were Kino made in the late 60s and early 70s.

I've also got the Komine version of the 350mm which looks a bit older (has orange numbers - the older Soligor style) but is sharper.

[walter g]

[walter g]

[walter g]

And this is the Tamron version, but it's not mine.

[FernandoB12]

[walter g]

I'm going to add one more pic to this thread. It's a Kawanon 350mm.
It's very likely there was a Soligor version of this lens. If you have one please post it.

[drfredc]

Opps. Bump...