Vernon Edonar 200mm f/3.5 (or Tamron Model 870Au)

[marbert]

Hi All!

If anyone know, help me understand the intricacies of the Japanese marketing of 70s years

So, you can see on the pictures the Vernon Edonar Auto 200mm f3.5 lens:

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/6/0/1/6/2/4/webimg/594969395_o.jpg
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/6/0/1/6/2/4/webimg/594969518_o.jpg
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/6/0/1/6/2/4/webimg/594969536_o.jpg

It is obvious that it is model Tamron Adapt-A-Matic 200mm f3.5 Model 870Au:

http://www.adaptall-2.org/lenses/images/Adapt-A-Matic/200F3dot5_870Au.jpg
http://www.photographyobsession.co.uk/gallery3/var/albums/photo-equip/tamron/tamron-200mm/tamron-200mm-6556.JPG?m=1306601565
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5164/5364457383_57185b6e80_b.jpg

But if it is a Model 870Au, why then Vernon Edonar:

1. has no Adapt-A-Matic? (Or I don't know how it remove? I think he has a non-removable mount M42.)
2. why he has 8 aperture blades, but not 9 as the Model 870Au?
3. why written Taisei Kogaku and not just a brand name (Vernon Edonar)?

And who know when the brand Vernon Edonar ceased to exist?

[Attila]

Taisei Kogaku is maker name (Tamron, Tokina ? ) those times same lenses were marketed under many names , many company did import lenses from Japan and did use well known names or own brands. Like almost any zoom lens what wear Carl Zeiss Jena name made in Japan by different makers, Sigma , Tokina.

[luisalegria]

Some Adaptamatic lenses were made in fixed mount.
Most of those that were rebranded were fixed mount versions. The most common I have seen of these is the 80-250 zoom, but there were some others including your 200mm.

The only ones with true Adaptamatic mounts that were sold rebranded were labelled by Bushnell.

The other Tamron/Taisei lenses sold under the Vernon label also say Taisei Kogaku. I don't know why, maybe it was because of some deal with the importer. Other Tamron/Taisei lenses sold by others in the 1960's, like Soligor, Aetna/Rokunar, etc. don't have the Taisei label.

The Vernon brand seems to have disappeared in the late 1960's.

I don't know why there are different aperture blades. Tamron made several changes in the Adaptamatic lenses during the production run and its possible this was one of the variants of the 200mm lens.

[marbert]

[luisalegria]

Vernon (Vernon Photographic Corp., Mt Vernon, NY) was a US importer that sold all sorts of miscellaneous photo accessories under its own brand.

Look in ebay now and you will see things like 8mm film editing equipment, projectors, etc. under that brand.
Also the usual sorts of minor stuff like filters, brackets, flash equipment, teleconverters, slide projectors, bags, etc.
They seem to have sold rather few lenses as lenses under this brand are pretty scarce.
Vernon also rebranded non-Taisei/Tamron lenses, so whatever deal they had with Taisei/Tamron was not exclusive.

I am only guessing when they went out of business. All the Vernon stuff I have seen on ebay doesn't look like it came from after 1970. They could have actually gone out of business in 1975 for all I know, its just a guess made by interpreting the evidence.

I doubt very much that Vernon was owned by Taisei/Tamron. Anything is possible, but this does not seem to fit with the other product lines also sold by Vernon.

Don't accept whats in the Adaptall site as complete information. There are a lot of lenses missing from that, including adaptamatic and adaptall models, and almost all the fixed mount lenses sold under importers brands.
For instance, there is a 135/3.5 Adaptamatic. I have one. Its not listed there.
There are transitional lenses between the adaptamatic and adaptall also not listed, with lens designs the same as the adaptamatic types but with adaptall mountings. Several members here have examples.
Dates are also likely to be off. The 200/3.5 Adaptamatic sold under the Tamron brand is listed as 1971-73, but it doesn't mean that the same design wasn't made earlier in a fixed mount and sold under other brands. This was the case for the 80-250/3.8 zoom, there were versions of that listed as made in 1967, and I know were sold under other brands, and was only later also made with an adaptamatic mount and sold as a Tamron in 1972 (according to the adaptall-2 site).

We are using the term "adaptamatic" to mean two things - one is the lens mounting system, and the other the range of lens designs posted in the adaptall site in that section. So we have the "adaptamatic" 300/5.6 design, which was actually also made in fixed mount and also with adaptall mount system, besides the adaptamatic model listed.

[marbert]

Luis, thanks a lot for such a detailed reply. This is very interesting information.

Hmm, the situation with the Adapt-A-Matic is a strange...