Soligor auto 100/2.8 M42 lens

[Eugen Mezei]

Well... some time ago I aquired this lens. Found nothing about it. Made some photos with the digital camera to ask you people. Now I can't donwload them from the camera. (That is the service Canon offers, they repair one fault of the camera and introduce two new ones.) So I remade them with the cellphone in bad light conditions. Bad quality, I appologize.


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The lens is compact, not much bigger than a luminous 50 mm. It has an integrated hood. 52 mm filter thread. Shortest focusing distance: 1,2m/4 feet indicated by scale but it goes a bit nearer, I would say 1,1 m. Appertures 2.8 to 22, clickstops at every half stop except between 16 and 22. Coating is brownish.

Would be glad if somebody could identify this lens or even better has it in use.

Greetings,
Eugen

[walter g]

Nice lens. I haven't tried one, but it was made by Sun Optical in 1977.

[luisalegria]

Quite an uncommon lens, at least in the US.

It may well be made in 1977, but the cosmetics are from an earlier generation.
By 1977 one would expect a rubber covered focus grip, not a knurled one.

[walter g]

[Eugen Mezei]

Tried a search for Sun but found also nothing. Do you have any review of it? Where do you know it is Sun made? (Serial number, form?)

The lens looks a lot better than in the photos I posted. In fact it is in almost pristine condition. Some very little dust between the lens unfortunately and it almost got me a heart attack. When I bought it (from a photographic shop dealing in used gear too from Budapest) I first screw it on to an Edixa. Edixas have the plate that presses the auto pin of the lens shaped differently than other cameras. (That is what I learned wit the occasion of this accident.) That did bend the auto pin of the lens and blocked the shutter of the camera. Maybe this is also the reason why Edixas are known to have a sensible shutter. (Just guessing, never had any issue with my Edixa besides this one.) It was not simple at all to unmount the lens from the camera. After I managed that I had to bend the pin back. I could do it without breaking it but now it is not chromed anymore, it is blank brass. Works again but in time I guess the pin will corode to green oxyde.

[luisalegria]

Walter says its Sun because of the serial number code.

Walter and other fellows at mflenses made an analysis of all known Soligor lenses the members had and did a correspondence of serial numbers to find out which numbers matched known makers - they reverse engineered Soligors serial number system.

I don't think there is a review of this lens, because it is uncommon. It may be the same as some other 100mm lens under another name.

Don't worry about minor problems like the M42 pin. Soligors in general are not high priced, even if they are rare.

[Eugen Mezei]

Luis,
thought it was the serial number but hoped some documents, tehnical data or a section would surface.
Seems I have to review this lens. Let's see which camera I put film in.

About price, unfortunately all teles except 135 and 200 mm are pretty expensive. This is a 100 mm and wasn't really cheap either.

[walter g]

The lens has a few typical Sun Optics features. Built in Hood, aperture markings, chrome ring,and aperture ring.Sun optics used a few different aperture rings. One even has the knurling like the lens body has.
I would like to see some samples after you get your camera back.

[luisalegria]

There is not much information online on Sun, so most of what we know is empirical.

[dimitrygo]

Search for a Pentor 100mm lens on this forum. This is the same lens optically despite some obvious cosmetic differences.
I saw very similar lens under Vivitar name, also with some cosmetic differences, and lenses similar to Pentor under Porst, Beroflex, Argus and other names.

[Eugen Mezei]

They all focus in the other direction.
At least on the Porst (the only one I can see this detail) the rear element is similar to mine.

[dimitrygo]