Soligor (Tokina) 250/4.5 T4 - the rarest T4 ?

[luisalegria]

I've been looking for this lens for nine months, just to complete a collection, and a couple of weeks ago, Bill (member casualcollector) spotted one, and shortly after I spotted another. When it rains it pours I suppose. Naturally I picked up both, to be sure of getting one. If anyone wants my spare to complete a T4/Tokina collection, let me know ! Mine is complete at last.



This is of course one of that early Tokina automatic lens series of 1967-@1976, which were sold under many brands, but in the interchangeable T4 mount only by Soligor and Vivitar. The 250/4.5 was probably the rarest of the series.

Bill has written a wonderful, classic article on the series here -

http://www.vermontel.net/~wsalati/CasualCollector/t4_for_two.htm

Its certainly one of the last of the 250mm prime lenses, once a standard length for 35mm cameras. They went out of favor in the 1970's, and this model may have been the last in production.

It is a very conventional T4-Soligor/Tokina lens, well made and heavy, with the characteristic dual aperture scale. It has an excellent built-in hood, like several others in the series. It is old-fashioned in another way though, as it is very long for its focal length - its longer than the 300mm in the series in fact -



L-R - 300/5.5 Sears, 250/4.5 Soligor, 200/3.5 Sears, 200/3.5 Soligor

Theres no advanced optical formulas here !

Performance is, in a word, excellent. This is a sharp lens wide-open, and very good in every respect to the limit of my ability to test it, plenty of contrast and no flare or fringing I could see. Focusing is precise and crisp, snapping into focus without error or fuss. I did "the bird" in two shots, where I often take 12 or more. The only problem is another old-fashioned characteristic, a long minimum focus of 15ft/5m. Overall, its one of the better Tokinas in that line.















The bird -



crop -

[Martin]

Hi Luis, very nice pictures and interesting collection!

I'm another Soligo-holic...
The left one might be the supposably earlier version of the Soligor 250/4.5, with T2 mount and preset aperture. (No. 9711762)
The lens at the right is Soligor 200/3.5, M42 mount.


Another nice one stayed in the shelf when this picture was taken, the 135/2.8, T4->M42 mount. I'm curious about the 105mm, but it seems to be quite scarce here in Europe.

[mjkerpan]

Sweet... Results like this just go to show that Prime lens designs haven't changed much in the last 40 years, when even a cheap 3rd party zoom can create such amazing results.

I'd be interested in the spare, btw, though I could only pay cost of shipping...

[Orio]

Amazing samples from a great lens!!

[luisalegria]

Hi Martin,

I like the old Soligor presets a lot. The quality is usually very good. The Soligor brand gives a good selection of the major Japanese manufacturers of the 1960's, as there are several series of these.

I have identified five different types of Soligor 250/4.5 preset - made by Tamron (I have one), Komine (I have one), Tokina and two others.

The 105mm T4 is not common. I have a Vivitar that is very nice, so I can recommend it if you find one.

Your 200mm is yet another version that was not made for T4. Mamiya seems to have sold all three Tokina 200mm's. Whats the filter size on yours ?

Hi Mjkerpan,

I'll mail you privately.

[Martin]

Hi Luis,

[Oldhand]

Was lucky enough to recently stumble upon this lens for very little.
I haven't used it as yet but will give it a go when it stops raining here - yes, it's raining here at long last YAY!
No caps of course but not a mark on it and the glass is a clean as a whistle.

[luisalegria]

I do need to retry mine.
I now have a 16mp sensor vs the 6mp I was using for these.
Its probably not going to look as good in pixel peeping.

[Oldhand]

OK, I have been into town and back and it is still sprinkling but overcast outside.
Minimum focus distance is around 13 feet - so not too flash in that department.
Here are some quick images from my verandah on K-10D (10Mp)
Looks promising
OH





100% crop of number 3 above:



and one more with colour:

[luisalegria]

Pretty decent.

Weirdly enough it was raining hard in San Francisco as well, and us with our drought.

[Oldhand]

[pdccameras]

[luisalegria]

All the lenses made with the T4 mount.
These range from 21mm to 400mm primes and three zooms.

[pdccameras]

Thank you Louis! Quite the collection - Congratulations on a significant achievement. I just found a working link to Bill's (casual collector) site - going to check that out now!

All the best,


Paul

[guardian]

I keep tripping over these T4 lenses when I'm on the prowl for Noritar (Vivitar) 250 lenses.

Here is one, for example:

Click here to see on Ebay

I think that lens is overpriced and has less character than luisalegria's Soligar 250 T4 version, which I like. The seller has been trying to get rid of that thing for quite a long while, with no takers so far. Just sayin'.

[casualcollector]

[pdccameras]

Thank you for re-posting - wonderful portrait!

[stevemark]

I just got an "AUTO SOLIGOR 1:4.5 250mm" - I have no idea whether it's a Tokina-made lens or something else. Counting the reflections before and after the aperture, I'm pretty sure it's a [4/2] construction - a cemented doublet in front, acting as the master lens, and an equally cemented doublet at the rear, acting as field flattener. Interestingly, for focusing only the front doublet is moved; the rear doublet doesn't move. The MFD is 3.0m / 10ft which is much better than the Tamron version (4.5m).



Again, the performance seems to be surprisingly good for such an old and simple design.
Here's a 100% crop from the center, taken wide open (f4.5) with the 24MP FF Sony A7II:


The same subject, but this thime a 100% crop from the extreme corner (f4.5 / wide open):


And finally a 100% crop from the extreme corners (24 MP FF, again) at f11:


Not bad at all, and certainly better than expected!

S

[casualcollector]

Interesting find! The "aperture in a window" makes me think Tamron.