Is this Soligor a Tamron ?

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Among my horde of 135's, I have a Soligor 135/2.8 preset. Its a nice, heavy thing, and I've always liked its looks. Its also always shot well for me. The only problem it has is a nasty scrape on the rear element (It came that way, thats not my fault). I suspect thats the cause of some flaring/low contrast wide open. And now that I've tried it recently it occurs to me that maybe thats the reason for some odd bokeh.

I recently ran across a lens that looked almost exactly like this, linked off the Adaptall Tamron collectors page, in the Japanese Tamron site -

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.tamron.co.jp/data/old-lens/olm135f2_8.htm

With the exception of the labels of the f's, this thing looks just like a Tamron model 680. There are other Soligors that definitely were Tamrons, like the 250mm FG-45, and I'm sure that a lot of the Tamron line of the 1960's was sold by Soligor.

Samples from the Soligor/Tamron -

Now, this is weird bokeh - mine don't usually turn out like this -

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Don't think so , I never seen similar Tamron finish.

aoleg · Joined: 22 Feb 2008 Posts: 1387 Location: Berlin, DE

This one looks very similar: Juplen 135/2.8

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260226981590

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Typical Japanese pre-set finish, my Komura looking very similar.

Farside · Expire: 2013-12-27

Looking at that Juplens on ebay reminded me of the Tair-11A. Apart from detail differences, like the aperture and preset rings being spaced closer, the construction is almost identical internally, from what I can see. The shot of the ebay lens showing the iris blades reveals a startling similarity with the Tair.

Quite who copied who, we will never know; in the 135 size, they probably all copied each other.