Optomax 135mm 1:2.8 M42 lens... or is it?

splosher · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 3

Hi

First post here, so hope you'll go easy on me and thank God for a site like MF Lenses!

Right, just received an Optomax 135mm 1:2.8 lens with a M42 mount through from eBay (£11 in total) to use on an Olympus E-P1. Slapped the lens on this morning, shot a few pics off and it seems alright (remember, £11!) but I noticed that all the screw heads had been 'drivered at some point, so I've had a closer look at it.

Now I'm coming from Canon EF/ EF-S so I may be wrong, but this lens looks a little 'cobbled together' and I hope with the pictures below, someone who has a lot more knowledge than I will be able to tell me more.

Firstly, I cannot find an Optomax 135mm 1:2.8 lens with this silver collar above the aperture dial;

The front element lettering though states all the details;

A closer look at the silver collar shows " C ----> O " which appears to stop-down the aperature when turned, but leaves it stopped down;

Lastly, there's a gap between the front element and the readout collar, something I've never seen before (although I may be too used to Canon lenses to know better)! I've whizzed the front section off - 3 tiny grub screws just pinching without any holes to hold onto - and it looks to me like the front section with the "Optomax" collar down to the little leatherette facus grip that popped off is from another lens entirely...

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Looks fine to me, many of these 50s and 60s Japanese third party lenses look quite unusual and cobbled together.

I had an Optomax 2.8/135, different to this one though. It was actually pretty good.

splosher · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 3

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

To prevent spam, your first post can't contain pics, so I just quoted it to make them appear.

I think the different between DS and DSB is just the mount - DS are M42 screw, DSB have the Contax/Yashica bayonet mount, both can be adapted to EOS.

The DS and DSB were the budget range, the better M42 ones were DX and the better C/Y bayonet ones were ML. I had a couple of DSB lenses, they weren't great, but the MLs are pretty good.

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 960 Location: Austin

It may be more likely that somebody attempted to take it apart, but didn't know what they were doing.

I've come across a few lenses lately that show signs of amateur ham-handedness and attempted cleaning/repair/who knows what.

edit: Here's one just like yours:

Zenit E 135mm by tomroyal, on Flickr

Lloydy · Expire: 2022-01-01

It looks as thought the lens is a T2 mount - with a T2 to M42 adapter, there's three screws around the black knurled ring that when loosened will allow the lens to rotate, and put it right if the index marks are in the wrong place. It's a common set up on many older lenses, and T2 mounts to many cameras are available as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-mount

That's a nice looking lens.

splosher · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 3