$40 for 5 lenses. The swap meet strikes again.

[haley]

I was complaining about needing a longer lens on the way to the swap meet this morning. About 3/4 of the way through, I ran into a Soligor 75-260 4.5. The seller wanted $40 for it with the camera. I put it on my 5D, played with it for a few minutes, and talked him into giving me just the lens for $20. He asked if I wanted to see more camera stuff and pulled out a bag, so I checked the mounts and told him I'd give him $5 for each of the lenses. There ended up being four m42s:

Auto Rikenon 50 1.7
Star-D 28 2.8
Soligor 135 3.5
Auto Mamiya/Sekor 50 2

I'm not expecting much from anything I picked up today, but for the price, who cares?

Off to clean them up and test them out...

[ManualFocus-G]

Nice haul! I have the Soligor 135/3.5 and it's excellent! If it's the same model you're in luck (silver ring towards the bottom).

I have the longer Soligor you mention too, but haven't tried it yet.

[NikonD]

sounds like a bargain

[Attila]

Sound good! On these prices I wouldn't care also, great fun too test them ! I look forward your samples! I know nothing about these lenses so I am very curious! I expect good results from 50mm lenses and acceptable one from 135mm , I believe zoom will be fine also.

[xjjohnno]

The Mamiya Sekor and Rikenon should provide pretty decent results. A good day's shopping by the sounds of things.

[haley]

Ok, not the best test in the world, but I was anxious as usual. Handheld in my front yard, wide open, 100% crop following each. I had to kick up the iso a little more in the last two b/c of the shade (it's too late in the day to get anything but spotty light).

Star-D



Mamiya



Rikenon



Soligor 135



Soligor 70-260 @ 260



And, just for fun, here are my favorite moments from the swap meet (Jupiter 9):

[Attila]

Wow! This was pretty fast , looks they are not bad at all. At better light condition some of them can be come as your favorite. Jupiter-9 sing in your hands I like last ones pretty much.

[soikka]

Rikenon is not bad att all. I have the impression that it is a great little lens.

[larsr]

Cool deal! Pity we don't run into bags like that here in Finland :/

Looks like the Soligor has a sweet bokeh, and at a quick glance the Mamiya looks to be the sharpest of the bunch? The others look pretty soft to me...

[haley]

Attila, I'm loving the Jupiter. We're a good fit.

I'm not terribly disappointed with any of the new lenses (how could I be at that price?), but I admit I wasn't expecting much in the first place. If I had to kick one out of bed, it would be the Star-D, but I'm going to do a better test later today when I have good light.

[Attila]

[estudleon]

I like my J-9 too.

At F/ 5,6-8 it's very, very sharp.

Very nice pics. All seems to be sharp lenses, the 28 mm too.

And the J-9 pics are beauties.

Rino.

[haley]

[Attila]

[SkedAddled]

The Soligor 75-260 is actually a very high-quality lens,
if it was manufactured by Tokina. The serial numbers tell all.

My copy begins the numbers with 17, which has been confirmed
as a Tokina-made lens. There's another number prefix which also
confirms Tokins manufacture, though I do not now recall what
the prefix is.

At any rate, that lens is of very high material quality and IQ.
While heavy, the integral tripod collar mount helps with usage,
and the lens itself is a delight to use on a tripod.

While I haven't used it as much as I'd like, it's certainly begging
to go to my local zoo, at least.

[larsr]

[Helios]

I have the Tokina 75-260 , original brand "Tokina RMC", an d it is a very good performer. However, I find it very prone to flare and , the telescopic original sunshade is not very efficient .
The Tamron 60-300 is not far better , but doesn't suffer so much from this flare issue .
I have 2 copies of the soligor 135 mm : 3,5/135 , 2,8/135 . f/3,5 copy is excellent , f/2,8 one is as good as the other third party lenses from that era (never bad , never "stellar")
$40 for that gear sounds "prices 5 years ago ..."

[Farside]

Heh. Husband and wife sniper team?

[copernicus]

Thanks, Shrek, for sorting out my sundial picture on the Tamron 300mm. page. As you will have guessed, I am new to this site. I have just stumbled upon your recent posting regarding the 135mm. f3.5 Soligor lens and could not agree more. I pick these up for under a tenner and my last ‘find’ was one for 99p. on eBay!!! It was in mint condition together with original box. The lens configuration has 4 elements against the 5 elements of my Pentax 135mm. f3.5 but in use, I cannot see the difference in results. I carry one everywhere and, as indicated, have several in reserve. Why more people do not know about this little gem is beyond me. That said, not all Soligor lenses score so highly with me. I have used the Soligor 250mm./ f4.5 on bird photographs many years ago and it was only an average performer.

The remarkable thing is that on my Pentax ist* DS, the sensor size means that one is only using two thirds of the field and in the case of my lions photograph, that is only the central half of the original digital image!

[FernandoB12]

haley,
I have the Soligor 135mm 2.8. I like it very much.

Sample

[haley]

I'm having a hard time picking one of my 135mm b/c I never use them. I keep meaning to take them out, but I always forget or leave them in favor of other lenses. I'm still wanting to pick up the Pentacon preset, but it's nice to see that people like the Soligar. The long one I picked up that day has impressed me.

[PaulC]

Lions and tuataras in Cumbria already? Damn! This global warming is kicking in faster than I expected!

Great shots. I love the lizard.

I would guess that this lens is overlooked because there are simply so many good 135 designs out there (and, of course, it hasn't been hyped here ... yet)

[cooltouch]

Can't comment directly on your lens finds, so I'll blather about other things.

Love your last two photos!

One of the things I miss the most about living in the Los Angeles area is the abundance of swap meets. Here in Houston, there is only one that I know of, and most of the stuff I've seen when I've gone there looks like it was pulled out of people's trash piles. Back when I was a camera dealer back in LA, I used to go to swap meets at least once a week, and regularly found stuff that I would usually be able to clean up and resell. Nowadays I don't do that anymore, and when I find something, it's to put into my own collection -- for a while at least. These days I go to garage/yard/moving/estate sales, where my batting average is probably about 1 out of 20 or so.

So anyway, I read through your posts with more than a small feeling of wistfulness and envy.

Oops, didn't realize there was another page of posts. Oh well. Nice looking shots with those old lenses. Once again.

[copernicus]

Thanks, PaulC, for identifying my lizard as a tutara. The lizard and bald eagle were photographed in Tenerife zoo parks. The lions were in the Serengeti. Goodness only knows why my wife keeps dragging me to such places when we have exotic animals in abundance a couple of miles down the road from here at the South Lakes Wild Animal Park, one of the county's main visitor attractions.

Your fears about global warming are ill-founded if the weather today in Cumbria is anything to go by.

[PaulC]