Sears 200/3.5 - Department store value !

[luisalegria]

I have this from member f16sunshine (thank you !) in order to complete my Auto-Sears lens collection.



Sears (a US department store and catalog seller) specialized in re-branding good-quality but low-cost merchandise. At one time they sold products by Pentax, Ricoh, Mamiya and other Japanese manufacturers under their labels.

This lens dates to the early to mid-1970's. It is very similar in detail to my Sears 300/5.5, which in a Vivitar label seems to have been made by Tokina according to the serial number, so I think this one might be a Tokina also. The rest of this Auto-Sears series shares a very strong family resemblance, they may all be Tokina, but who knows. I have seen very similar lenses sold under the Soligor and Mamiya brands as well.

Its a big lens for a 200mm, very heavy and solid, and it even takes a larger filter than its 300mm big brother, 67mm vs 62mm. I have even been using the lens hood from my Komura 400mm with it !.

All shots at f/3.5 - I wanted to test the quality of this thing, and wide-open performance is a good test. I could have had better results on several shots stopped down, no doubt. Its very good indeed at f/5.6, the best of my 200mm's I think, though my collection is pretty plebian.






100% crop from above -

The bird -

100% crop -

[Katastrofo]

Looks like one sweet lens! I have an Auto Sears 55/1.4 made by
Tomioka, one of my faves!

[F16SUNSHINE]

Nice Luis
You really show us how to get value out of that Sears branded gear. All of the Sears lens shots you have posted have been great, this one in particular. It would be great if someone dug deeper about the manufacturer. As I said in another post I think all the Sears lenses look like Tomioka. The build is near identical to Yashica of the same vintage.

@ Bill
I also have the 55 1.4 it's a great lens and a pleasure to use. The 135 2.8 is a fun lens to use as well. It may not be optically as good as other 135's from the era. It is sure a smooth focusing and solid lens however with very reasonably performance for the cost.

[Katastrofo]

Thanks, Andy, dunno if I need yet another 135, but I really like the Tomioka
55/1.4 lens and it is great to use with extension tubes. They are the company
Zeiss hooked-up with for their Japanese operations. I think they were already
absorbed/assimilated into the BORG Kyocera conglomerate by then.

[poilu]

Nice shots Luis, you could sell any lens with samples like that
This lens look quite good wide open and I don't see any CA

[Katastrofo]

[poilu]

You are right Bill! Those shots are full of CA

[Orio]

[Attila]

Very nice lens, I guess equal with my Vivitar Tx mount lens. I was also satisfied with it's performance.

[Katastrofo]

[Orio]

[Katastrofo]

Glad to help, Orio! Bob (bob955i) has been posting over on the APF forum
and we might be getting some new members from there. The membership
is over 6200 at APF and Bob's work has been very well-received! Anyhoo,
I posted www.mflenses.com to one of my threads.

Bill