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Need help identifying lens "Dimension 135mm f3.5"
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Pancolart wrote:
Nice samples. I had this lens open & apart. It's Sonnar (Zeiss) copy with thick large chunk of glass inside
that can rarely be found in third party lenses. (sorry to steal your topic a bit):


Hey no problem at all... Feel free to post whatever you want but which one did you took apart? Silver one above? So far I really like this lens especially that I paid 11.30$ and got also 3 months warranty. Got it at retail store... and it is like new condition or maybe it is new, who knows!

and if it is Tomioka, he had produced lenses for Carl Zeiss too and it is good possibility that you have something there or we have... Laughing


PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Pancolart wrote:
dimitrygo wrote:
The lens in this thread indeed shares some details with other Sun made lenses but on the other hand has some obvious differences with other Sun lens I saw before. For example I never saw Sun lens with exposed retaining ring like this lens has on its front.

Dimitry would you please share some info on your SUN references. It's quite a discovery. There are a lot of lenses that could now be distinguished as SUN. And if i may say these are mostly good to very good lenses.


I don't have references, only observations and logical conclusions. Here we go:

1. In the Soligor thread http://forum.mflenses.com/soligor-12-8-f28mm-21and-versions-t30866.html lenses with serial numbers starting with 27 and 7 were recognized as Sun made. I can confirm this since I have 28mm F2.8 Sun lens and they share a lot of details.

2. I have/had these 2 135mm F2.8 Soligor lenses with s/n 782864 and 2763333:






In all these pictures the lens with s/n 782864 is on the left. As you can see these lenses indeed share many common properties and most chances both are made by Sun. I saw in that Soligor thread that you have 2 28mm Soligor with s/n starting from 27 and 7 and they are also similar to these lenses above so you can confirm their similarity.

3. I have this 100mm F2.8 Soligor lens:





Here you can see its comparison to the above 135mm lens s/n 782864:





And all 3 lenses' reflections. In the real life the reflections are even more similar, almost identical:


I think it is safe to say that all these 3 lenses share many common properties so the 100mm also is made by Sun.

4. Now compare this Soligor 100mm lens to the Chinonflex and Pentor lenses in this thread http://forum.mflenses.com/chinonflex-100mm-f-2-8-in-m42-mount-t18348.html and Porst, Berolina etc. lenses in this thread http://forum.mflenses.com/tomioka-t41307,start,15.html

5. Compare it also to this Hanimar http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic.php?t=16881 and this Vivitar


6. Compare it also to this Vivitar lens






7. As to other focal length lenses - many 28mm F2.8 lenses are made by Sun since they are similar to the Soligor lenses. Compare your lenses to this Soligor taken from that Soligor thread


I think now you will be able to recognize that many 28mm F2.8 lenses found under different names are made by the same maker.

8. In the same Soligor thread lenses with s/n starting with 4 are also recognized as made by Sun. Compare again your lenses to this newer MC Soligors



The last one has a rubber grip. Now compare your lenses and these MC Soligors to this Porst 35mm F2.8 http://forum.mflenses.com/porst-weitwinkel-35mm-f-2-8-auto-t50153.html

I think now you agree that it is also made by Sun. And if the comparison to 28mm is not enough here is Porst 135mm F2.8 from almost the same line as the above 35mm. Compare it to the above 135mm Soligors:



The only things that spoils the picture is that some lenses seem to have the same A/M switch as Sun made lenses. For instance Korean lenses in your thread http://forum.mflenses.com/porst-weitwinkel-35mm-f-2-8-auto-t50153.html. Or the lens below - I don't think it is made by Sun but may be I am wrong:





I can only guess that either Sun has sold their facilities to a Korean maker or both has sourced their parts from the same maker.

Last edited by dimitrygo on Thu Oct 25, 2012 5:55 pm; edited 6 times in total


PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
at Dimitry:

and what do you think the lens I have "Dimension" is it made by Sun?


PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
RAART wrote:
at Dimitry:

and what do you think the lens I have "Dimension" is it made by Sun?


Yes I think it is made by Sun. Try to compare the reflections of your lens and the pictures I have posted above.


PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
dimitrygo wrote:

And all 3 lenses' reflections. In the real life the reflections are even more similar, almost identical:



here are some pictures where you can see the reflections however they do not look similar to me, but I am no expert and do not know where to look or for what. Strange that none of those lenses have a built-in collapsible hood that this one does and it does have auto/man switch.






PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
RAART wrote:

here are some pictures where you can see the reflections however they do not look similar to me, but I am no expert and do not know where to look or for what. Strange that none of those lenses have a built-in collapsible hood that this one does and it does have auto/man switch.


Sorry I didn't show this on the pictures but both 135mm and 100mm lenses do have build-in hood. I've added a picture now.

Hard to tell about reflections from your pictures. Try to see yourself in daylight. Try to compare also the rear lens. It could be though that since this is F3.5 and not F2.8 the optical formula is different and the coating as well.


PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 5:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have added some new pictures to my post.


PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
to be honest, the test photos look better than the lens itself. Hope you didnt pay much for it
because it wont have much resale value. Rolling Eyes


PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I didn't pay too much... Whole 11.30$! Probably while no one knew what it is...

Just to add something that might ID the manufacturer is that the back element of this lens is perfectly flat what wonders me while mostly other lenses have a concave element at the back. I still tend too think that Cosina is manufacturer and not the Sun. Also under the collapsible hood when fully extended (manually slides out) I have two screws, facing each other at 180 degrees and I do not see it anywhere on the other lenses similar looking.

Here are some more reflections for Dimitry...







PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Have added some reflections for Dimitry (taken in daylight)


PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
RAART wrote:
Just to add something that might ID the manufacturer is that the back element of this lens is perfectly flat what wonders me while mostly other lenses have a concave element at the back. I still tend too think that Cosina is manufacturer and not the Sun. Also under the collapsible hood when fully extended (manually slides out) I have two screws, facing each other at 180 degrees and I do not see it anywhere on the other lenses similar looking.


There is only one screw under the hood on my lenses but I don't think this is very significant. Rear element and reflection are different due to a different optical scheme - after all this is F3.5 lens and mine is F2.8. I still think they share many common properties.

Last edited by dimitrygo on Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:29 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Some more test pictures... I am just wondering if it is Olympus magic trick or the lens itself... I like the performance so far.

If anyone wants some 1:1 crop please let me know...










PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
It's definitely a razor sharp 135 f3.5 lens!

This is an absolutely great lens

I am interested to see all crops but it's more than clear that the lens is a hidden gem

Or am I wrong?

tf


PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Here you go... just a few crops but I can upload on Monday more after I am back at my home computer.






PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 8:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
hmm - CA seems to be well controlled ...

Thanks!

tf


PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 10:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well controlled at perfect focus. Look at the background, tons of threading out and spherochromatism. Common with older lens designs, it's irrelevant for most birding, but can be a major hassle with some full-frame artsy composition tasks. Same with C/D 60-300 4-5.6


PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
buerokratiehasser wrote:
Well controlled at perfect focus. Look at the background, tons of threading out and spherochromatism. Common with older lens designs, it's irrelevant for most birding, but can be a major hassle with some full-frame artsy composition tasks. Same with C/D 60-300 4-5.6


That is the reason I got the picture of the red leafs... Focusing is critical too, then red color and very bright sunny day do the work. I think that almost every lens will have trouble there and wanted to find out how this will do. Unfortunately hurricane Sandy is closing by and I think even In Ontario we will get heavy winds and some heavy rain (around 100mm) and I can not take more pictures with some other lenses of the same subject. Anyway for this inexpensive lens I was very surprised...

and here are missing crops.






This last picture was taken over the distance of around 300-500m


PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2012 3:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
It looks quite good. Have to say, a lot of these third party 135mms are good, I had an Optomax that was good and two or three copies under different names of the Samyang 2.8/135 which is also good.


PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 2:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Just to bump a years old thread, but I too found this lens today at a thrift store, for the princely sum of $8. I have zero experience in MF photography beyond flipping the switch on my DSLR when I need to hard focus on something not obvious, so please bear with me.

Has anyone found anything conclusive on it? I'm also in Canada like the OP, so the idea that it was a Canada build may have some credence. My SN is 711475. Finally the camera side cap says "Minolta" so not sure if it was a build for them, or if it was just a convenient cap.

The reason I bought it was simply because it was cheap, and felt heavy so presumably was of half decent quality, and am wanting to learn more about optics in general, so was planning on tearing it down just to see what's inside, but at the same time, if it is a decent lens, I would prefer not to potentially destroy something useful.

The other thing I noticed, was that in spinning the aperture ring doesn't seem to change the aperture. On every other lens I've seen in my life, it normally has blades which open and close. Is some other mechanism in play with this manual lens? Or perhaps after years in a closet they got stuck at wide open?


PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 7:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well, certainly not made in Canada, but the importer-distributor could have been Canadian. In those days hundreds of importers around the world put their own brands on lenses made by a dozen or so Japanese lens makers (and later a couple of Korean ones too). This is one of those lenses.

Those importers were all kinds, large marketing outfits like Vivitar (originally Ponder&Best of Los Angeles) to smaller ones, department store chains, camera store chains, etc. Some of this is still going on.

An importer, over time, could have sold products from all the known Japanese makers (Allied Impex aka Soligor probably managed to do that), and likewise the Japanese makers sold their stuff, rebranded, to any number of importers. And there were Japanese merchants as well acting as another layer of middlemen.

It could be in Minolta mount, cant say without seeing the mount end.
The aperture certainly could be stuck, thats a common fault, or the mount could be one of those where it needs pressure on some doodad to stop it down to the indicated aperture. Pictures would help.
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