What can you tell me about this Soligor zoom lens?

JJB · Joined: 02 Oct 2014 Posts: 424 Location: USA

I recently picked up this Soligor which looks very distinctive with its zebra stripe detailing. It is a 100-200 push/pull zoom, preset, f. 5.6. It has a serial number beginning with H37 which has been associated with a possible manufacture by Kowanon according to the big Soligor thread. The 1967 ad that is reproduced below also suggests that possible connection. It also bears a strong resemblance to an Itoh Kogaku that I saw on ebay (but with no zebra stripes). The only other lenses I have seen in 100-200mm 5.6 configuration are from Canon and Minolta and they don't look anything like this. I'm also including a photo of the aperture shape.

I have not yet used it as it was advertised as having a M42 mount but it's slightly larger so I'm guessing it's Miranda and I don't yet have an adapter. I will share images after I get one.

If anybody knows anything more about it, I'd welcome the information.

Oldhand · Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 11:17 pm Post subject:

Ever so slightly larger could be a T-mount thread, so possibly it might take a T-mount adapter
OH

JJB · Joined: 02 Oct 2014 Posts: 424 Location: USA

My T-mount adapter didn't work either, I tried.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Curiously, I have one of these too, in somewhat different knurling and Kaligar brand.
Its in my lineup for doing a portfolio. Casual shooting indicates less than impressive performance, and this is compared to some very early zooms indeed, the Tamron presets.
Its got a lot of strange features as you say.
The interchangeable lens mount is weird. Its not a T-mount and its not a Tokina 47mm, it seems to be a 44mm lens side thread or around there. Its its own thing with a different back focus. Kaligar had a line of "Auto T" type interchangable auto mounts with a 44mm thread, though thicker than this one.

A real mystery.

JJB · Joined: 02 Oct 2014 Posts: 424 Location: USA

Luis, thanks for the tip on the mount. You just saved me from buying a Miranda adapter that I would then have to return. Or keep, thus sending me on a downward spiral of buying Miranda lenses. Rolling Eyes

nandakoryaaa · Joined: 07 Sep 2014 Posts: 95

M44 is a Miranda thread mount.

I have a Tamron 860 135/3.5 lens which has M44 mount, and good thing is that mount can be detached. But bad thing is that no other mount can be attached because the lens has M37x0.75 screw which could be an early Asahiflex mount. I searched for an M37-M42 adapter but found nothing.

I tried to use a regular filter step ring 37-42mm with a T-mount adapter and it joined nicely but the registration distance was way wrong so even adjusting the helicoid wouldn't help.

So I ended up making a custom step ring M37-M42 and attaching it with a T-mount to M42 adapter.

At first I thought that I need the registration distance of a T-mount but due to my mistake I made the ring too thin and the lens goes deeper into the mount. As I discovered later, I was lucky with that mistake because the normal registration distance of a lens was too short for M42 and too long for T-mount, so I just got it more or less right after all. I also had to adjust the helicoid for exact infinity mark.

The lens now looks like this

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

That Tamron has the original Tamron interchangeable mount system used only on this lens and the 135/4.5 Converto or Twin Tele (went by many names). Its a 37mm thread indeed but not meant for Asahiflex or anything else other than a way to attach mounts. Tamron shortly replaced it with the T mount and the rest is history. The change makes sense as these original mounts were too small in diameter and too thin to make things like Canon breechlock mechanisms or indeed to handle deeper register mounts like Nikon.

As for the OPs lens and mine I checked it vs Miranda thread and with calipers. It seems to be 43mm, something else again. Yet another attempt at interchangeable mounts.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

I measured the thread and compared vs Miranda. Its actually about 43mm, not 44mm, so yet another interchangeable mount system.

The old Tamron interchangeable mount system was 37mm but not meant for Asahiflex. The register would be off. These 37mm mounts were only used on this and the 135/4.5 Converto series. Later replaced as the standard mount system by the T mount.

nandakoryaaa · Joined: 07 Sep 2014 Posts: 95

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Your old Tamron is a collectible lens though not valuable. Sill, its an interesting lens.
The interchangeable mount (this one is for Miranda) is part of this so it is also collectible. If you were to resell it you would want to offer it in original condition. Miranda collectors may want it; this is a contemporary of several Miranda camera models of 1959-1961.

Jeffrey Felton · Joined: 06 Apr 2021 Posts: 3 Location: California

This Soligor Zoom zebra 100-200mm f/5.6 lens has interchangeable camera adapters that screw onto a male thread on the rear end of the lens. This male thread is 43mm (exactly) and fine threaded. It is not the customary Soligor T-2 threads. My lens has serial number H.371417. Another lens that uses this same adapter is the Itoh Kogaku Higon Zoom 100-200 5.6. The adapter is a lot thinner than a usual T-2 adapter. It predates the T-adapter system. Also, it is not the early Taisei/Tamron 37mm mini-T adapter system.

I would like to know of any other Soligor lenses or other brand lenses that use this early interchangeable adapter system, and what camera bodies the adapters are available to fit. My adapter is in Pentax 42mm mount.

There are other, later Soligor zoom non-zebra 100-200 5.6 lenses that use the regular T-2 adapters, but that is not what I am looking for.

I forgot to mention that I also have a Vemar Tele-Zoom lens exactly like the Higon with that 43mm interchangeable lens mount.

Thank you. Jeffrey Felton

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Hi Jeff,

Yes it is yet another interchangeable mount system.
It may have been limited to Itoh, at some early point in its evolution prior to the popularity of the T mount as a universal standard. Thats just my speculation. Several other third party makers adopted their own in-house interchangable mounts at that time, such as the Tokyo Koki (Tokina) 47mm, the Komura 44mm (not the same as Miranda), the Tamron 37mm, the mysterious Kaligar mount, etc.

Some of these others changed to T-mounts, Komura kept theirs, for a few more years anyway, before switching to automatic mounts, which are a whole different kettle of fish.

Just looking at it from the outside it makes sense from a lens manufacturers point of view, even if its only an in-house expedient. There is no need to design and manufacture a specific lens barrel component for each lens/camera mount combination.

We dont have much visibility into the inner workings of those Japanese lens manufacturers of the 1950s-60s.