Kuribayashi C.C. Petri 1:3.5 f=135mm

Alun Thomas · Joined: 20 Aug 2018 Posts: 631 Location: New Zealand

A slightly unusual lens I haven't seen marked as Kuribayashi, although it does seem to exist under various other badges from the era. It must have been sold perhaps the following season after they stopped selling the Kyoei/Orikkor 135/3.5 lenses. It has an M42 mount, so was probably still sold while the original penta camera was current.
I have 3 other lenses from near that period, a 300/5.5, a 200/3.5 and a 135/2.8. They all have the matching green marker on the preset, the same as the first generation of Orikkor marked lenses. I'm not at home currently so can't confirm whether they were marked with Kuribayashi on the name ring or not. All three of them are actually M42 mount lenses (but not with any kind of threaded adapter i.e. T2 or other) and all came with an M42-Petri mount adapter, making me think they were sold during the period when the first generation of Petri mount cameras went on sale, to enable use with either of the two cameras Petri owners might have.
I think it was shortly after that, when Petri stopped marking their interchangeable lenses with the Kuribayashi and Orikkor names. The second Petri 50/2 lens (Petri mount) was marked with Kuribayashi but not Orikkor, then the subsequent Petri 'normal' lens, the 55/1.8, was marked Petri Camera Co.

Blazer0ne · Expire: 2024-12-07

Alun Thomas · Joined: 20 Aug 2018 Posts: 631 Location: New Zealand

The Kyoei lenses were very distinctive in that they had the depth of focus guide 'above' the focus ring on the lens. If I had to guess, I would think your lens is an early Tokina, based mainly on the markings, particularly the IR mark, of the depth of focus scale. They seem to have been using the same optical formula for the 135/3.5 right up until at least the T4 lenses in the early 70s. Having said that, I've also seen the exact same depth of focus scale, on lenses I was certain were made by a different manufacturer. For instance: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Galaxy-Telephoto-Lens-f-135mm-1-3-5/143521001077?hash=item216a84ae75:g:xYgAAOSwCXVeNaHt

The lens at that link I would normally assume to have been made by Itoh. Things like that make it near impossible sometimes to really pin down the maker of a lens.

Blazer0ne · Expire: 2024-12-07

Blazer0ne · Expire: 2024-12-07

Alun Thomas · Joined: 20 Aug 2018 Posts: 631 Location: New Zealand

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Here's a couple of pictures of the versions I have. None of these ones have 'Kuribayashi' written on them. The only common design feature is the green alignment arrow on the preset aperture. They don't share a common focus mark, focus scale colour, or even focus direction. They are probably from a period after your lens, but perhaps before Petri introduced their 135/3.8, 135/3.5 and 200/4 automatic lenses. The 135 has an M42-Petri adapter, and a T2-M42 adapter as well. The 200 and 300 lenses have the same style T2-Petri adapter.