Photax-Paragon 100mm f2.8. Any info?

[EdH]

Hi All,

This is my first post – I've been lurking for a while. I've recently got back into photography with an Olympus E-PM1 and I'm loving using it with my old manual lenses and now seem to be building a small collection.

Just bought this M42-fit lens off ebay but I can't find any information about it. Googling gives results for several other Photax-Paragons, including 28mm f2.8, 35mm f2.8, 35mm f3.5, 135mm f2.8, 200mm f3.5, 300m f5, among others, but no mention of this lens apart from the ebay results for the one I bought.

Has anyone heard of it or have any idea who made it?

PB215163 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

PB215165 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

[Lloydy]

Photax was a UK photographic retailer, and they sold lenses with the names Super Paragon and Paragon. The lenses were bought in from Japanese manufacturers and certainly not made by Photax. A lot of store brand lenses are poor, bought at the cheapest possible price and resold for maximum profit, but I think Photax were a cut above that and actually sold decent lenses. I've had a few and they have all been good, maybe not the very best, but certainly way better than most of the crap budget lenses.
That's a nice looking lens, and a great focal length, but I have no idea who made that - but I'm sure some educated opinions will follow.

[Pancolart]

Fits right in: http://forum.mflenses.com/the-story-of-mitake-t64648.html
Sadly photos are vanishing fast.

[EdH]

Thanks for the information chaps. Having had a bit more of a look around, I was wondering if could have been Tomioka.

This link...

http://forum.mflenses.com/tomioka-100mm-f2-8-t49746,highlight,%2Btomioka+%2B100mm.html

...shows a very similar lens.

A relation?