Soligor(Komine) 180/3.5

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Hi Eagle,

Nice looking lens !

The good news is that that s a T-mount, I'm almost certain. You should be able to just unscrew that and put in a T-mount for your DSLR.

I don't know if its a Komine, it could be. I am not sure about the size of the objective vs the lens barrel, yours seems to flare out to a larger size than mine, but I'll have to check that.

There were several other makers of 180/3.5 presets like this. Vivitar sold one from an unknown maker (I have that) but its rather different. Others were Kyoei (I have one) and Tamron (I have that too). Both are also different.

Tokina had one, which seems to be quite rare as I've never seen it. Yours may be one, Hanimex did sell the common Tokinas (as well as a lot of others). Cosina also had one, never seen that either.

eagle_ · Joined: 16 Jan 2009 Posts: 9

horvlas · Joined: 30 Dec 2008 Posts: 202 Location: Budapest, Hungary

WOW. What a sharpness! It's sharper than takumar!

eagle_ · Joined: 16 Jan 2009 Posts: 9

Luis, You were right! It is an adapter, the lens has a screw mount that i can't identify (it's not M42), maybe it's T-mount has you said. I'll measure it and find an adapter.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Hi Eagle,

T-thread is 42mm but the thread pitch is .75mm instead of 1mm with regular M42. And of course the back-focus without an adapter is much longer than with M42.

You should be able to measure it, the outside diameter of the male thread should be 42mm (or close to it).

I am certain this is a t-mount.

eagle_ · Joined: 16 Jan 2009 Posts: 9

Hi,

i measured it today and it's about 46mm. I didn't take pics yet. Is this any known mount?

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Are you measuring the thread on the lens ? That should be 42mm or very close.

Or are you measuring the inner ring of the T-mount ? That can be left on if the T-mount is removed improperly, and it could be 46mm, although there is no standard for that, T-mount makers make their inner ring design as they like.

The T-mount comes in two parts - the inner ring with 42x.75 female thread and the knurled outer ring with the lens-mount. They are held together with three set-screws. But the way to remove the T-mount is just to unscrew the whole thing from the lens. The set-screws are just there to adjust the T-mount so the lens alignment is correct - the top is on the top.

eagle_ · Joined: 16 Jan 2009 Posts: 9

Hi,

i'm not sure i understood.

I saw that it has an inner "adapter" - a 42x0,75 male ring that was completelly attached. I unscrewed it a bit, it looked like this:

And here it is off the lens:

So the lens itself has a 42x0,75 female thread. This means that the T-mount->EOS adapter has a male thread?

Can you show some pictures of yours and the adapter you use?

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

You have an odd one ! Thats not a T-mount if the outside male thread is 46mm.

The outside male thread on the lens should be 42mmx0.75

I suspect you have a dedicated lens mount then, and things won't be so simple. You may be able to adapt a T-mount to fit by removing the inner ring and fitting it on with the set-screws (I do that a lot).
There may be issues with back focus, as the adapter distance won't be standard. The lens will either overshoot or come short of infinity. And it won't be as strong and stable a mount.

I will take pictures of a typical T-mount lens and adapter and post them.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

This is a typical T-mount lens (Lentar 135/3.5 preset) and a standard T-mount -

The lens has 42mmx.75 Male thread and the mount has a female threaded inner ring, held on the mount by three setscrews.

tkbslc · Joined: 02 Jul 2009 Posts: 194 Location: Utah, USA

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I just found one of theses lenses too. I found a poorly worded auction offering this 180mm f3.5 along with a Soligor 200mm f3.5 as well. Got them both for the starting price of 99 cents (+$16 shipping!) Unfortunately I do not have an SLR with me for a few days to test it out, but it looks very promising from the samples in this thread. My biggest surprise was the FIFTEEN aperture blades. I also like the smooth continuous preset aperture motion. It is like I have infinite aperture stops.

Sorry for the bad pics, but as I said, I don't have my SLR with me today.

Look at all those blades! Smile

The Soligor 200 3.5 seems pretty ordinary and looks brand new.

Edit: ODD my pictures work in a preview, but not in the final post
??

Farside · Expire: 2013-12-27

Aykman · Joined: 29 Mar 2009 Posts: 57

this message is outdated and deleted!

tkbslc · Joined: 02 Jul 2009 Posts: 194 Location: Utah, USA

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Hi tkbslc,

I am guessing its a Komine because I have seen a Kominar (house trademark of Komine brand, actual company was Nittoh Kogaku, still in existence) that was very very similar in design details. Many makers products were sold under the Soligor brand, even the early Tamron line.

"Soligor" was in the beginning a brand name used by Allied Impex Co., a US photo products distributor in New York, founded by a group of German Jewish refugees. I believe they began their company in the 1940's. In the 1950's they became large-scale importers of Japanese made lenses, and they purchased the Japanese Miranda camera company. By the 1960's Allied Impex, using the Soligor brand, was the biggest international distributor of Japanese lenses. Vivitar (a brand of Ponder&Best, another photo distributior) followed them into the lens business later, and took their market.

Allied Impex went bankrupt in the late 1970's, and the Soligor brand seems to have been picked up by their European branch in Germany, which reorganized themselves under the Soligor name.

This Soligor lens is from the 1960's, from an earlier generation than the Vivitar and Panagor-branded auto lenses you are referring to, which are from 5-15 years later. The design is typical of 1960's presets. They are all rip-offs of old German designs of course. Sometimes they are excellent rip-offs though, like this one. There are Komine lenses even in the 1970's that were excellent in all respects.

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

see my Tele-Kominar 135mm f3.5 for comparison:

ChrisBee · Joined: 30 Jan 2010 Posts: 2

Hi there

Sorry for again warming up this threat.

I took over an old Leica III and a couple of corresponding lenses, including a "dissimilar" Soligor 180 mm 1:3.5. And of course, I am now curious about the quality of this Soligor. Comparing with the pictures from kuuan, my Soligor looks very similar, see

(the lens is shown with its mount to the Leica camera [I dont know whats wrong but when publishing, I can't see my two pictures]). And that would be good news, following the discussion.

estudleon · Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 3754 Location: Argentina

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

ChrisBee · Joined: 30 Jan 2010 Posts: 2

Gerbermiester · Joined: 27 Nov 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Canada

Hello all,

I just picked up a Hanimex 180mm f3.5 Serial number serial no. H50905. It displays all the properties of the other Hanimex lenses displayed on the site.

I'd just like to ad that when I purchased this lens, it came with an Exacta KE mount adapter. This adapter had a plastic rear cap which reads 'Tokyo Kogaku Japan'. So, there you have it. Unless this lens somehow managed to end up with a Japanese made KE mount cap from another lens, it looks like it was made in the Tokyo Kogaku plant.

As an added note, I adapted the Hanimex lens to Pentax K mount. It was a destructive process mind you. After playing around with it hand held onto an old Pentax MG body I discovered that, pressed up right onto the body of the camera, the lens would focus past infinity. Minimum focus distance was ~4 meters. Awesome, eh? I then proceeded to commit MF lens heresy by JB welding the lens to the outside of a M42-Pentax K adapter. Embarassed

The result: a functional K mount Hanimex 180mm f3.5 lens that will focus to infinity... albeit one that will forever be Pentax K mount. Rolling Eyes

I'll post pics by this time next week.

casualcollector · Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:13 pm Post subject:

Tokyo Kogaku was the maker of Topcon brand cameras. Their "serious" cameras used a modified version of the Kine Exakta mount. Topcon rear caps will fit Exakta mount lenses. Can't tell without a photo but your lens was most likely made by Tokina or Nittoh (Komine).

Gerbermiester · Joined: 27 Nov 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Canada

Hmmm, Komura came up with something called a unidapter way back when which I believe was similar in concept to T mount. I've read that there was a threaded ring that could be adapted to fit other camera mounts. This might be barking up the wrong tree, but the adaptable 46mm diameter threaded rear mount on my hanimex 180mm f3.5 has made me curious.

It would make sense for this lens to be a Topcon, being that it came with a KE adapter and was made (probably) by Tokyo Kogaku. But Komura also produced lenses in KE mount and are a known 'rebrander'.

Does anyone know the rear diameter of a unidaptor mount would be? I've done some googling, but come up dry.

Gerbermiester · Joined: 27 Nov 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Canada

As promised, here are the pics of the Hanimex 180mm f3.5 Lens.

You can see that I've JB welded a pentax K mount to the rear end of this lens.

As I stated before, it will reach infinity, and a little past.

After taking this lens out for a shoot, I'm really impressed with the sharpness at f3.5. The lens does suffer from a little bit of Red CA, but nothing PP can't fix.