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Tokina Auto Tele 300mm 1:5.5
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2024 6:05 pm    Post subject: Tokina Auto Tele 300mm 1:5.5 Reply with quote
I got this lens - recently bought on a local website - for next to nothing. Well, it's well built, seems to be a [4/3] construction and has a ridiculously large MFD of 6m / 20ft (!). In addition there's a tripod mount (quite reasonable given that ISO 100 was "high speed" back in the eraly 1970s), and this one came with a Canon FD mount plus a Chinese Canon FD => Nikon FX adapter. All for a whooping CHF 1.--!

Judging from the outer design, my lens seems to be about 60 years old. First indoor tests indicate some rather pronounced CAs (not surprising), but a surprisingly good center and (!) corner resolution at f11 and even wide open.

Here's the lens:



Here's an image from an Italian Deruta plate, taken near MFD (at about 8m distance), and wide open:



And here's a 100% crop from near the center (camera 24 MP Sony A7II), developed with photoshop using sharpening "45", detail "45", and a final sharpening of "200" at a radius of "0.5 px". Not bad at all, given that the image was taken wide open:


Here's another one, a detail from a Tibetan monastic cloth for ritual dances - a 100% crop from the center as well, taklen wide open with the 24 MP FF Sony A7II:



A similar 100%, taken from the extreme corners, and also wide open, show impressive detail resolution and (at least in this image) well controlled CAs (given that's a "non-ED" lens):


I wonder how it will permorm for landscapes indeed.

S


EDIT: Errorenous "Tamron" in the title replaced by the correct "Tokina"!

Last edited by stevemark on Sat Oct 19, 2024 11:21 pm; edited 4 times in total


PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2024 9:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I would never have thought that's a tamron Steve - looks just like a tokina.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2024 11:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
SORRY - of course it is a TOKINA! It's late (or even early now) and I'm prone to stupid mistakes.

Corrected! - thanks for point out to the mistake!

S


PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2024 10:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
While you've got a fixed mount version labelled Tokina, the same lens existed as well with removable T4 mount and labelled either Vivitar or Soligor. I've got the Soligor 300 mm f/5.5 manufactured by Tokina in 1975 (175xxxxx) and it shares the good sharpness and rather well mastered CA found by Steve. On the other hand, contrast is quite low and the course of the focusing ring quite long (about 180° between Infinity and 6 m), making the precise focusing quite a chore.

All in all, the T4 lens line made by Tokina for Soligor and Vivitar includes quite a number of good lenses, especially the 35 mm f/2.8, 105 mm f/2.8, 135 mm f/3.5 and 200 mm f/3.5 optics.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2024 11:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Alsatian2017 wrote:
While you've got a fixed mount version labelled Tokina, the same lens existed as well with removable T4 mount and labelled either Vivitar or Soligor.

Ah, that's why I thought "I have this lens already ..." when I bought it, knowing that I would't have the Tokina labelled one ... Yep, I got the Soligor version about eight years ago!

Alsatian2017 wrote:
I've got the Soligor 300 mm f/5.5 manufactured by Tokina in 1975 (175xxxxx) and it shares the good sharpness and rather well mastered CA found by Steve. On the other hand, contrast is quite low and the course of the focusing ring quite long (about 180° between Infinity and 6 m), making the precise focusing quite a chore.

A few first outdoor images reveal prety strong CAs, as I would have expected - and they are difficult to correct in post processing with Photoshop. Detail resolution, even in the corners and wide open, remains surprisingly good though: Counting the reflexes, we obviously have a dublet plus single lens in the front, and a single negative lens at the rear acting as field flattener. I'm always wondering what Novoflex could have achieved with their latest Noflexar T 5.6/400mm which has an extraordinarily good CA correction (MUCH better than the Canon nFD / EF 2.8/400mm L!), but sadly a lot of field curvature (and no field flattener of course).

Alsatian2017 wrote:
All in all, the T4 lens line made by Tokina for Soligor and Vivitar includes quite a number of good lenses, especially the 35 mm f/2.8, 105 mm f/2.8, 135 mm f/3.5 and 200 mm f/3.5 optics.

The seller of my Soligor 5.6/300mm - a well known elderly known guy from the Zurich photography business - told me that the Soligor lenses were pretty respected back in their days (early to mid 1970s?). And aren't some of the (similarly loking) Miranda lenses basically the same Tokina lenses too??

S


PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2024 7:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
stevemark wrote:
Alsatian2017 wrote:
While you've got a fixed mount version labelled Tokina, the same lens existed as well with removable T4 mount and labelled either Vivitar or Soligor.

Ah, that's why I thought "I have this lens already ..." when I bought it, knowing that I would't have the Tokina labelled one ... Yep, I got the Soligor version about eight years ago!


Alsatian2017 wrote:
I've got the Soligor 300 mm f/5.5 manufactured by Tokina in 1975 (175xxxxx) and it shares the good sharpness and rather well mastered CA found by Steve. On the other hand, contrast is quite low and the course of the focusing ring quite long (about 180° between Infinity and 6 m), making the precise focusing quite a chore.
A few first outdoor images reveal prety strong CAs, as I would have expected - and they are difficult to correct in post processing with Photoshop. Detail resolution, even in the corners and wide open, remains surprisingly good though: Counting the reflexes, we obviously have a dublet plus single lens in the front, and a single negative lens at the rear acting as field flattener. I'm always wondering what Novoflex could have achieved with their latest Noflexar T 5.6/400mm which has an extraordinarily good CA correction (MUCH better than the Canon nFD / EF 2.8/400mm L!), but sadly a lot of field curvature (and no field flattener of course).


After having recently cleaned the front lens elements, I can confirm the optical construction of the lens : 3 elements in two groups in the front and a single element in the back.

Alsatian2017 wrote:
All in all, the T4 lens line made by Tokina for Soligor and Vivitar includes quite a number of good lenses, especially the 35 mm f/2.8, 105 mm f/2.8, 135 mm f/3.5 and 200 mm f/3.5 optics.

stevemark wrote:
The seller of my Soligor 5.6/300mm - a well known elderly known guy from the Zurich photography business - told me that the Soligor lenses were pretty respected back in their days (early to mid 1970s?). And aren't some of the (similarly loking) Miranda lenses basically the same Tokina lenses too??S


A least, the few Miranda lenses I own don't seem to have anything in common with the Tokina/T4 squad. But I know that at some period of time, Miranda sourced a part of their lens portfolio from the Soligor line. Furthermore, Miranda was owned by AIC, distributor of Soligor products.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2024 9:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have the SUN version of this Soligor lens, which is very 'average' indeed, maybe even 'poor'. It makes you wonder how Soligor, Vivitar and the other retailers who used this model of sourcing the same spec' lenses from different sources survived as long as they did? But I guess there wasn't social media, just a very few people who could be bothered to write into magazines and complain that their lens was vastly different to the one tested by the magazine.

I've got a few old Soligors, and the Tokina's are good.
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