Soligor 4.5/250 T mount M42

[mo]

I was not expecting much from this lens,judging it by its looks and name... A simple lens you can unscrew the front end which reveals the Aperture blades/ back of the front glass and you can remove the T mount to reach the back end.I did not unscrew any further as I was just seeing how far apart I could pull this lens.I think it is a preset judging by the two aperture rings however one (top ring) seems to be jammed at F16 it goes up to 32.I can move the 2nd bottom ring through all F stops.Once again I am embarrassed by my lack of knowledge of these preset lenses...you pull the top ring down towards the camera to set the desired F stop!
These are straight from the camera no PP...it seems a sharp lens plus nice bokeh.

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#4 Just woke up!

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[mo]

A few more samples

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[Jesito]

Interesting results, Mo, the lens seems to be not bad at all!.

Regards.
Jes.

[hoanpham]

Did you step down the lens in second set (flowers)?
How many blades has it? Looks nice.

[mo]

[ManualFocus-G]

Nice results! I also have this lens (I think, although I'd need to know what your serial is) as well as the T4 version. The preset isn't as sharp, but has far less purple fringing that the more modern auto T4 model. Well, that's what I've seen from my copies so far.

[mo]

Hi Graham
This is what it looks like HERE,I agree about the lack of purple fringing would it have to do with the front and back lens coating?

[ManualFocus-G]

Woah, you have the original Tamron one! Great stuff Mine is the newer Kino made model.

[mo]

[kyonthinh]

I also have one of this, serial number starts with H3. I dont know who made it, but it has 15 blades aperture. Got it very cheap last month at flea market, and I cant afford the lens adapter for it, so it's still sitting on my table.

[luisalegria]

Hi Mo,

I meant that there were at least 5 250/4.5 preset lenses with a Soligor brand.

They were, as far as I can tell, each made by a different manufacturer. Allied Impex, the US distributor that used the Soligor brand,
contracted with many Japanese manufacturers. With some of them, like Taisei/Tamron, it was a case of selling nearly the whole of a manufacturers product line - a series of 8 or more focal lengths from wide angle to long tele. I know for certain that there are the following Tamron-made preset T-mount Soligor lenses - 35/2.8, 135/2.8, 180/3.5, 200/3.5, 250/4.5, 300/5.6, 350/5.6, 400/6.9, 450/8
Perhaps there are others too, but I don't recall seeing them.

There are of course also Soligor-branded Tarmon-made non-t-mount lenses like the 135/227 converto's and a 135/3.5, but these seem to have come out earlier.

I believe that the first such case where Allied Impex/Soligor bought a whole product line from a manufacturer was in fact with Taisei/Tamron in the early 1960's. This was probably facilitated by Tamrons T-mount which was introduced very shortly before. Soligor then switched, apparently, from one maker to another for this complete T-mount preset lens line, through the rest of the 60's and into the early 1970's.

These lenses from the various makers were not identical, each manufacturer had its own ideas as to optics and mechanics, etc. So the Nittoh/Komine 250/4.5 looks quite different from the Taisei/Tamron 250/4.5. I suspect though that Allied Impex/Soligor, being the largest such distributor in the world at the time, had considerable input into product specifications and of course in style and appearance.

Your lens, that you also posted in the Equipment Gallery, was the Taisei/Tamron made model of the 250/4.5. This was the only 250/4.5 preset that Taisei/Tamron ever made I think.

All the Soligor presets from Taisei/Tamron I have seen have the "T" serial number, and I haven't seen any lenses not obviously from Taisei/Tamron with the "T". The "T" seems to be a unique identifier for Taisei/Tamron.

Soligor lenses with the "H" serial number came from other makers, some are obviously Nittoh/Komine, some are Tokyo Koki/Tokina, but others most likely aren't.

[mo]

Thanks, Luis for clearing that up....sorry for confusing the issue which seems so easy to do with the Soligor brand.