Soligor (maker unknown) preset 135/2.8

[luisalegria]

I mentioned this interesting lens a few days ago -



It is I believe one of the earliest products sold by Allied Impex (the marketing company that created the Soligor brand). Allied Impex of course didn't actually make lenses, they sold various makers products under their label. Some quite similar lenses were made for Miranda (Japanese camera manufacturer) in the late 1950's, but Miranda didn't make lenses either. Soligor and Miranda had a long relationship. None of this identifies the maker. Any information would be appreciated.

This particular lens came with an Exakta mount. It looks like it was designed to accept various mounts easily, but its not a T-mount, it must predate the rise of the T-mounts. Other makers came up with their own standardized mechanical arrangements to easily substitute camera mounts. I changed the Exakta mount with my own contraption to turn it into M42.

This is, as usual with lenses from that era, extremely well made, heavy and precise in workmanship. The glass is clean and clear without apparent haze, fungus or other problems.

Its performance, however, is not particularly good. It flares much worse than average, and at f/2.8 its extremely soft and full of aberrations. These clear up at f/5.6 or so. It would make an interesting "pictorial" portrait lens perhaps.

It was a foggy day, anything at a distance tends to get a degraded image (usual summer weather here).

At f/2.8 -



f/4 I think -



Other apertures -









The bird -



crop -

[themoleman342]

[Attila]

Very nice samples from a handsome lens.