Is this T3?

[casualcollector]

I've been watching this lens for months as it was relisted and relisted, waiting for the seller to lower his expectations. He dropped the opening bid five bucks and still I resisted. Finally, I sold a few things and said, "what the heck"!

Lentar Automount 200mm f-3.5. It should look familiar. It's another set of clothes on a Tokina automatic lens. The double aperture scale made me think it was a third distributor for the T4 line of lenses. It's not.

The lens is designed for automatic, meter coupled, user interchangeable adapters. The interface is the same as T4 as you can see from the rear face of the lens. The fastening system is different. No three lug breech lock fitting like T4 and TX. The fastening ring on the lens screws down onto threads on the adapter. The reverse of the Tamron Adapt A Matic system.

The lens shows what I consider early Tokina cosmetics. Sears/Ricoh style knurling on the focus ring and no slide out lens hood like most, if not all T4 lenses. The styling leads me to believe this was a T4 predecessor, but it could also have been a concurrent system for another distributor.

If any of you has or knows of another, I'd like to know about it.

Bill


Lentar Automount 200/3.5


Soligor T4 on left, Lentar Automount on right.


Aperture and securing rings


Mount interface


Mounts: Automount top, T4 below

[luisalegria]

Wow !

Bill,

That is a collecting coup ! Well spotted.

You have found a new thing under the sun (or rather an old thing, but anyway).

Yes it does look like Tokina went in some other direction with T4's. I suspect this was a very limited run. I have been ignoring the third-party brand Tokina Automatics (like the Lentars, Vemars, Hanimex, etc.) because I assumed they were just the same old stuff, but no, strangeness can happen anywhere.

[casualcollector]

I've found no meaningful information about them on the web. All that's come up is mention of a 135/2.8 Automount.