Hidden gems of independent lenses.

Tamron, though they were a big name in lenses and I guess still are. Never met a Tarmon lens that I disliked. I bought quite a few about 15 years ago when the second hand market was flooded by lots of people ditching film in favour of that D-word. Silly prices like a near mint 70-210 Adaptall I for £5. and an optically mint but slightly dinted 38-105 for the same.

A big surprise in terms of quality was a Vivitar branded Nikon mount 70-210 3.5 with matched 2x teleconverter. I did not expect something of this quality with the Vivitar name on it.

Most of my lenses are Sigma, Tamron or Carl Zeiss Jena with a few Prakticars that came with Praktica cameras.

Has anyone mentioned the Tamron 80/210 Adaptall 2. With an almost constant apperture of F3.8-F4 and quite a bit cheaper than the SP version but almost a good. I am using one at present with a Minolta mount. I can get a sharp 12x16 print so long as I use an apperture of F5.6 and lower. I paid a measley £15 incl the mount for this gem and it has never let me down.

BMbikerider said:

Has anyone mentioned the Tamron 80/210 Adaptall 2. With an almost constant apperture of F3.8-F4 and quite a bit cheaper than the SP version but almost a good. I am using one at present with a Minolta mount. I can get a sharp 12x16 print so long as I use an apperture of F5.6 and lower. I paid a measley £15 incl the mount for this gem and it has never let me down.

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I remember that one was a good'un!

Cholentpot said:

Focal MC 135 2.8, I have it in K mount. Don't put it on a crop digi though, it only seems to be sharp on film or FF. It has a hint of swirlyness but not overdone. I think they were sold out of Sears or something.

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Focal was a K-Mart brand.

About the Tamron 80-210, I own one. Bought it with the C/FD mount for about $20 as I recall. It is an excellent lens. I bought it after seeing many outstanding images taken with it posted in another forum, figured it would be a worthwhile addition.

I own only a couple of non-SP Tamrons (the other one is a 24mm f/2.5) and I have found them to be excellent optically.

Cholentpot said:

Focal MC 135 2.8, I have it in K mount. Don't put it on a crop digi though, it only seems to be sharp on film or FF. It has a hint of swirlyness but not overdone. I think they were sold out of Sears or something.

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In the 70s most of Focal lens were Perti, either in the Petri Breech mount or M42, later they sold lens in K mount I think these were Cosina. What mount is your 135??

Pentax K mount. I picked it up for $10 and declicked it. I then reclicked it and have been using it since. It has a long long focus turn though.

flavio81 said:

Hahaha... i guess that's why 126 and 110 cameras were so popular? Easy loading.

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You remind me of a lady who was a member of my staff in the camera store I managed in the 1970's, she knew very little about photography but had worked in the photographic department of Boots the chemist chain of shops for about ten years since she had left school, we had to teach her how to load 35mm and 120 film when she came to work with us, but she was an expert on all the different types of Polaroid films and cartridge films and which cameras they worked in, which was invaluable because neither I nor any of my staff had much a clue about it, and we called her "Lynn the Mickey Mouse camera Lady".

benjiboy said:

You remind me of a lady who was a member of my staff in the camera store I managed in the 1970's, she knew very little about photography but had worked in the photographic department of Boots the chemist chain of shops for about ten years since she had left school, we had to teach her how to load 35mm and 120 film when she came to work with us, but she was an expert on all the different types of Polaroid films and cartridge films and which cameras they worked in, which was invaluable because neither I nor any of my staff had much a clue about it, and we called her "Lynn the Mickey Mouse camera Lady".

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For an engineer like me, there's nothing more sexy than a girl with good technical knowledge...

So I remind you of a lady? I'm a man actually, and I shoot meterless and occasionally use a Mamiya RB67 to support my manliness.

flavio81 said:

For an engineer like me, there's nothing more sexy than a girl with good technical knowledge...

So I remind you of a lady? I'm a man actually, and I shoot meterless and occasionally use a Mamiya RB67 to support my manliness.

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Sorry Flavio I should have written "this reminds me of a lady", no offence intended

benjiboy said:

Sorry Flavio I should have written "this reminds me of a lady", no offence intended

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Don't worry my dear comrade and Canon F-1N shooter...

I just picked up a lens last week that's turning out to be a nice shooter. It's a Tamron 28A, SP 28-135mm f/4-4.5. It came with a Nikon adaptall-2 mount and I bought it for less than what the mount typically sells for. Woot! And it's in very clean condition!

I already have a fairly large collection of Tamron SP lenses, but this one was notable by its absence, although I also have its little brother, the SP 28-85mm. It's nice having all that extra reach, though. It's max aperture is a little slow at 28mm, but the advantage to it is there's only a third of a stop difference in max apeture between 28mm and 135mm. I mounted it onto my Sony NEX 7 and took it out for some fairly close-in shots. Minimum focusing distance is a bit less than 7 feet, so I had to engage the macro mode -- really more of a cose-up mode since its maximum magnification ratio is 1:4 -- for many of the shots I took. I don't have any infinity shots to display here, but those I took displayed good sharpness, especially at 28mm.

Following are some shots and 100% crops of them:

A white rose bud:


A 100% crop of above:


One of those little green lizards:


And a 100% crop:


Another shot of the lizard:
+

And a 100% crop:


At these close focusing distances, the background blurs nicely, giving rather pleasing, soft bokeh.

In last three years I bought a lot of vintage cameras & lenses, from 35mm to LF but almost all lenses were original.
The only one "independent" was a Tokina SMC 24mm (OM Mount) and this performs really very well!

flavio81 said:

On topic:

I would guess that for a list of "hidden gems" we should include the endless number of Tomioka-made lenses that were released with other brand labeling. Tomioka, if anybody does not know, is the optical powerhouse of Yashica and an excellent lens maker in its own right.

The other gems would probably be the lenses made by Mamiya and labeled with different brands such as "Sears". Also the OSAWA lenses which i guess were made by Mamiya, although on the 'net somebody mentions Osawa was a manufacturer as well.

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High chance I can compare an 28-50mm Osawa zoom lens with my 28 and 50mm Zuiko lenses before the end of the year.... if my camera comes back from repair...