Vernon Edonar: The Sequel

[Univer]

Hi All,

I thought it might be fun to have a peek at the sort of packaging (and collateral materials) a lens buyer might have expected to take home from the camera store circa 1966. For the old folks like me, a stroll down memory lane!

This is a NOS Vernon Edonar lens I acquired recently: a 135mm/f2.8. (You can see a few of its cousins in this thread.)



As you can see, the lens came with a polishing cloth, a cloth packet of desiccant, a yellow product registration card, and a rather grand certificate evidencing the five-year product warranty. To my mind, the most interesting item is the actual negative stapled to that card: an image taken through this specific lens, showing that it was individually tested and approved. I have heard that Kilfitt tested at least some of its lenses, prior to shipment, by shooting images on glass plates with them, and that the original plates were then packed along with the lenses. I find it remarkable that this photo retailer took similar pains with its own house-branded lenses.

The lens itself is in flawless condition, as one might expect; but "flawless", here, does not mean "usable". The focusing ring was frozen when the lens arrived, and while I have managed to free it, the lens will not be fit for duty until it has received a thorough relubrication.

As we now know, Vernon (Vernon Photographic Corp, Mt. Vernon, NY) sourced its lenses from various manufacturers, including Tamron and Kyoei. The lenses shown in the linked thread are a mixed bag; at least two of them are certainly Kyoeis; a third may or may not be; and the fourth (the 105mm) seems to be of different parentage. (Even the group photograph on the box appears to show a diversity of design and styling among Edonars.) When I received this lens, my initial impression was that it wasn't a Kyoei. The design is clearly different, in several respects, from that of the Kyoei Edonars shown in the other thread; and I had never heard of a Kyoei 135/2.8. After handling this lens, however, I'm not so sure. It uses the unusual (among Japanese lenses, anyway) "pull-back" aperture presetting mechanism (the 105mm doesn't), and I tend to associate that feature with Kyoei. So who knows?

(Note, also, that this isn't a T-mount lens, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. The mount - which doesn't screw off - is secured by three silver grub screws, but there are no screw heads: just odd flanges that look like they were formed in the manufacturing process. If you can manage to get hold of those flanges with a needlenose pliers, it's possible, painstakingly, to back out the screws; but it seems doubtful that they were intended to be removed.)

Anyway - a very nice overall presentation, I think, for a third-party retailer-brand lens. And, just possibly, a heretofore unknown Kyoei.

Cheers,

Jon

[indianadinos]

Hi,

Congrats for the nice find ... The only lens i have been able to find in such conditions is my Pentax-K 135/2.5 ...

Hopefully, you will post soon some sample pictures taken with it ...

Cheers

[Univer]

Hi,

Many thanks! The "K" 135/2.5 is a lovely lens. A NOS example is a splendid find indeed.

It may be a while before I have samples to share, though. This one has been added to the overhaul queue, but there are a few lenses ahead of it.

Cheers,

Jon

[mo]

Nice presentation Jon

[Attila]

Beautiful lens! Who care how good or not, I expect good result around f5.6, special thanks for nice presentation!

[luisalegria]

Thank you Jon, interesting and strange indeed.

Vernon must have been a very odd distributor. They certainly had things nobody else did.

For what its worth, these are the Kyoei models cataloged by the people at Ihagee.org - http://www.ihagee.org/vimlens20100404.pdf

Kyoei Optical 35 3,5 W. Acall PS Kine FM -1960
Kyoei Optical 80 3,5 Acall ? Kine EM
Kyoei Optical 105 2,8 Acall ? Kine EM
Kyoei Optical 105 3,5 Acall ? Kine EM
Kyoei Optical 135 2,8 Acall PS Kine FM
Kyoei Optical 135 3,5 Acall PS Kine EM
Kyoei Optical 150 4,5 Acall ? Kine EM
Kyoei Optical 180 3,5 Acall PS Kine EM
Kyoei Optical 250 4,0 Acall ? Kine EM
Kyoei Optical 500 8,0 Acall ? Kine EM

So there was a 135/2.8 Kyoei Acall in Exakta mount that was owned or spotted by a contributor to Ihagee.org. I think its very likely yours is a later version of this.

Of these I have or have seen, besides yours -

35/3.5 - Petri and Acall
105/3.5 - Petri, Soligor and Acall
135/3.5 - Petri and Acall
180/3.5 - Petri, Aetna/Coligon, Acall
250/4 - Tekkor (!) and Acall
500/8 - Petri

[Univer]

Hi,

Thanks, all, for the kind words!

Luis: not to forget that Yashinon-R, in Pentamatic mount, currently on eBay:

Click here to see on Ebay

(Another incarnation of the Kyoei 180/3.5; I wonder if any other Yashinon-Rs were Kyoeis)

Cheers,

Jon

PS As regards those Petri Kyoeis: I recently picked up a Petri Penta with the proper preset Orikkor 50/2 (that's an interesting lens!) and the original manual; and I was interested to see that the additional lenses listed there don't look much like the Petri Kyoeis we know (the focal lengths don't seem to match up, either). A subject for another thread!