Lentar Snake's belly?

[guardian]

I was always under the impression Lentar lenses are the snake's belly of MF lenses in terms of quality, IOW, lowest of the low.

I do own a few, bought in a moment of weakness and because they are brand new, an inadequate purchase excuse I concede.

However

I ran across this (now closed) auction earlier this week:

Click here to see on Ebay then click "see original listing"

Upon revisiting it today, and noting the "H" prefix in the serial number:

Is it possible this lens, in reality, was made by Tokina??!!

[dimitrygo]

[elliott]

My Super Lentar 21mm f3.8 is definitely a Tokina.

[guardian]

[elliott]

No different from Vivitars or Soligors of the time. You'll find Tokinas under the Bushnell name too.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Tokina lenses were no better or worse than other third party brads of the time. I've seen lots of them in various brand names and often with the H prefix. The 2.8/35, 2.8/100 and 4/100 are all common and all are so-so, sharp enough but lacking in contrast and colour saturation so the images are flat and lifeless even if acceptably sharp.

[guardian]

Live and learn!!

I had always placed the Lentars a notch or two below the Vivitars and Soligars.

[iangreenhalgh1]

[elliott]

These were taken with the Bushnell 35mm f2.8, you can find it under Lentar as well. They were from a long time ago, so post processing was minimal, they might have been straight JPGs from the K100D. My only gripe with it is the weird flares due to the circular saw shaped aperture when stopped down.

[guardian]