RARE TOKINA 80-250mm 4.5

[PBFACTS]

Tokina 75/260 first version sold as Soligor, Vivitar T4.... is very common but that lens : 80-250mm seems much more rare

https://www.catawiki.com/pt/l/36918223-tokina-auto-zoom-80-250-f-1-4-5-m42
https://allegrolokalnie.pl/oferta/tokina-rmc-8025045-bagnet-md
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/355035082966?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m43.l1120&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=5fd2f181adaf484eb8631c817f69ea81&bu=43199308081&ut=RU&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20230914051301&segname=11021


It seems to have been produced beetween 1975-1977 (see sn) and it's size is beetween 75-260 1st version (t4...) and 75-260 second version (tx...)
Both the old version (mat) of Tokina's om mount and md mount version confirms the manufacturing dates

The review seems good but someone does know it ??

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#4

[D1N0]

Probably largely or entirely the same as the Soligor, maybe it is really a 77.5 to 255 and they just rounded it more conservatively.

[PBFACTS]

[D1N0]

This is my Soligor. I don't see a difference apart from the ultimate digits on the zoom scale

[PBFACTS]

[D1N0]

Here I have put the 1 of the 150mm marking on the zoom ring exactly at the 75mm marking of the red scale.

I measured the scale, it seems to be exactly 15.5mm wide


With my caliper in the grooves of the red 75-85mm marks I measure a distance of about 3.6mm

[Doc Sharptail]

I have the same lens:



Marketed as Bell and Howell Lumina.



It lacks the A/M switch, and the T adapter mount.
My copy is in Nikon F mount (pre A/I).
One of the center elements is quite badly fungused.
I still have not test shot it. It needs to be dismantled and cleaned, and needs a tab added to the too narrow aperture ring for A/I conversion.
I picked mine up somewhere for $5.00.
Had no idea it would be a Tokina.

-D.S.

[D1N0]

It is a good lens (at least the almost identical 75-260 variant) Just a bit large and heavy compared to 70/80-200/210mm alternatives. Here is a shot of the moon with it (100% crop 260mm/5.6)



And a lens test in Dutch for de Vivitar Version

[Lloydy]

I've often wondered about the amount of zoom lenses in this range - and I'm ignoring the ubiquitous 70-210 that everyone made. I've looked at my list and I have ( or have had ) thirteen 70-210 lenses. But there are sixteen zooms in the range of 70 -
to 95 at the short end to 200 to 260 at the long end on the list, four from Tamron.

Did the designers come up with a design, make a prototype, and then measure the focal lengths? or did they set out to design something that was so close to the 70-210 with a difference that is barely discernable?
I know that it was the case that lenses made by a bigger third party manufacturer and sold to different retailers like Vivitar, Soligor and store brands would often be optically identical, but sold with a slightly different focal length and sometimes a marginally different apeture, but those differences are usually slight and done to differentiate between the retailers products. So why did the manufactureres make so many lenses in this range?

The result of this seems to be that today we look at the classic 70-210's from the manufacturers like Minolta, Canon, Pentax etc and the likes of Tokina, Sigma and Tamron, and of course the retailers like Soligor and Vivitar, as being the best in the range and ignore the others. And we miss the good stuff like this Tokina 80-250 / 4.5.

I've got a Vivitar CF. 90-230 / 4.5 which is also a Tokina, and a very respectable lens. I read somewhere it was the most popular lens ever made in this range? But I don't use it, I use my 70-210's. I've tried selling it and nobody even looks at it. Am I missing something?

[Doc Sharptail]

[kiddo]

There's a kiron 70-210 macro f4 for sale 20€ , it's been there for months and nobody is buying it , so I guess most of these zoom won't sell unfortunately.
There are only very few zoom I would buy myself,mamiya 70-150mm EF is one of them !my copy has a little bit if separation ,only affecting bubble balls in bokeh ,but I would still buy another copy for good money (this one cost me 15€). Many canon nFD 70-150mm aren't selling for 30-40€ so there's definitely little interest in these zoom.

[Lloydy]

[D1N0]

These lenses are really a steal. Build quality is really good, much better than most stuff from the eighties or the plastic AF that came after that. For twenty quid you get something that cost the larger part of a monthly salary in the seventies.

[pandreas68]

Hi,

does anybody have all kind of three versions in order to make a picture of them side by side? And maybe even a comparision how they perform in comparison?

I've looked in ebay.com, and found some offers of the 75-260 versions from Soligor and Vivitar showing boxes with optical formulae; intererestingly different even of the 67mm filter thread versions. Just fantasy drawings or real differences?

Best regards
Andreas