Soligor CD 200mm f/2.8 @ 2.8

Neil Grant · Apr 12, 2016

I took and chance on this vintage lens. Here's what it does.

Ian Grant · Apr 12, 2016

That's not bad, a good buy

I seem to remember this being Soligors upmarket range, they used to be quite well known here in the UK for 3rd party lenses but fell back when Vivitar and Lleter Tamrom bought out there S1 & SP ranges. Soligor's CD range was a response.

Ian

Neil Grant · Apr 12, 2016

Ian Grant said:
That's not bad, a good buy

I seem to remember this being Soligors upmarket range, they used to be quite well known here in the UK for 3rd party lenses but fell back when Vivitar and Lleter Tamrom bought out there S1 & SP ranges.
It' built very much like an early V S1- glossy barrel, green and white numerals. Doesn't feel like a budget lens at all. It focuses smoothly, without a trace of binding, down to a modest 2.2 m and has the dinkiest little lens hood you ever did see. Soligor were obviously very confident in their anti reflection coating. Never knew there was a 200mm CD, only remember the 135 and 35 f/2.

Ian Grant · Apr 12, 2016

I don't think the Soligor CD lenses were marketed well, I do remember the 3mm f2 was supposed to be very good. I bought a Soligor 135mm F3.5 in the very early 1970's and it was excellent, my late uncle was still using it about 5 years ago. However Soligor left things to late Sigma, Hoya and others had stolen their market with very poor quality lenses, by the time they brought out the CD range the were almost has beens.

Hoya's lenses were so poor that whole range and lens brad disappeared, the lenses themselves were excellent even the zooms, they were supposedly Multi Coated but in practice not every air glass surface, flare was horrific, the whole range went and then a new range under the Tokina brand replaced them, (there was a very secretive dual ownership of Hoya and Tokina).

Ian

Paul Howell · Apr 12, 2016

Soligor was owned by AIC who also owned Miranda. CD stood for computer designed was a competitor to Vivitar S 1 lens. The lens were designed to meet AIC specs by a third party design firm, I think the design company was a US firm who designed lens for NASA and the military. I may the name squirreled away somewhere, then made by a 4th party. I have a couple of CD lens in Konica mount, a 100 F2 and a 35 to 70 3.5 2 touch zoom. Both are all metal and heavy, I do not use the zoom very often as it just too heavy. The 100 is very sharp, excellent contrast, almost as good as my Konica 100 2.8 or is it 105 2.8. When AIC bellied up in the late 70s Soligor was a casualty. The standard non CD Soligor lens varied in quality, some were rebranded Miranda lens designed in house by Miranda, the 135 2.8 and 105 2.8 were Miranda lens and were quite good others were just rebanded lens and likely the same as sold under others brands, Sears, Penny, Vivitar. BTW it was the Miranda DX that killed Miranda and AIC.

Ian Grant · Apr 13, 2016

Paul Howell said:
Soligor was owned by AIC who also owned Miranda. CD stood for computer designed was a competitor to Vivitar S 1 lens. The lens were designed to meet AIC specs by a third party design firm, I think the design company was a US firm who designed lens for NASA and the military. I may the name squirreled away somewhere, then made by a 4th party. I have a couple of CD lens in Konica mount, a 100 F2 and a 35 to 70 3.5 2 touch zoom. Both are all metal and heavy, I do not use the zoom very often as it just too heavy. The 100 is very sharp, excellent contrast, almost as good as my Konica 100 2.8 or is it 105 2.8. When AIC bellied up in the late 70s Soligor was a casualty. The standard non CD Soligor lens varied in quality, some were rebranded Miranda lens designed in house by Miranda, the 135 2.8 and 105 2.8 were Miranda lens and were quite good others were just rebanded lens and likely the same as sold under others brands, Sears, Penny, Vivitar. BTW it was the Miranda DX that killed Miranda and AIC.

You're mixing up Soligor with Vivitar who were the spin off from a US design company who'd worked for NASA and the Military.

Ian

Paul Howell · Apr 13, 2016

Sorry, I don't believe I am, Soligor stated in Japan and made lens for Miranda, later Miranda bought Soligor. Miranda did not make lens, but designed in house and had made or bought from 3rd party makers. AIC an American Company based in New York acquired Miranda and Soligor in the 60s.

Vivitar was founded in the late 30s by Ponder and Best, they imported German photo equipment then after the war Japanese equipment. In the 60's Ponder and Best created the Vivitar line of lens, the Series 1 lens line up came in the 70s. It my understanding that both Pounder and Best and AIC had their Series 1 and CD lens designed by US optic design companies using computer aided designs which were then produced in Japan. Vivitar was not a spin off of NASA or the US Military and as I far know did not have a in house engineering department. Vivitar's history is somewhat well documented, there is very little information about Soligor on line, at least on English web sites, but I have seen adds from the 50s and 60 for Soligor lens made for the Argus C 33 and other cameras.

Ian Grant · Apr 13, 2016

I'm right Paul, but so are you.

Here in the UK the Vivitar S1 lenses were launched making a lot of reference to the NASA Optical links, the 135mm f1.5 (pre SI) was designed for NASA and later sold under the Vivitar brand name. The S1 series were designed by people who'd worked on optics for NASA at Perkin-Elmer.

It was the S1 range that took Vivitar into the International market.

Ian

Paul Howell · Apr 13, 2016

Thanks for the name Perkin-Elmer is the name I was looking for, I just need to find a print outs, Perkin Elmer also designed lens for AIC, but as AIC left the market in 1977 their CD line of lens never matched the Pound and Best line up in the number of lens. PerkinElmer is still in business but I cant find a link to an optical lab, they screwed up the mirror on the Hubbell and had to pay a fine.

Ian Grant · Apr 13, 2016

Paul Howell said:
Thanks for the name Perkin-Elmer is the name I was looking for, I just need to find a print outs, Perkin Elmer also designed lens for AIC, but as AIC left the market in 1977 their CD line of lens never matched the Pound and Best line up in the number of lens. PerkinElmer is still in business but I cant find a link to an optical lab, they screwed up the mirror on the Hubbell and had to pay a fine.

Vivitar under Ponder & Best got into a lot of legal issues by out-sourcing their own designs over re-badging and slight modifications, they were also selling designs to other companies. The problem is companies like Vivitar and Soligor were out-sourcing manufacture to the same sub-contractors. The 70's was a period of rapid expansion in the SLR market and in particular 3rd party lenses. It's about a smallish (in global terms) US company coming up against far bigger global lens manufacturers and distributors and naivety in not keep a tight control of their intellectual rights.

Ian

Paul Howell · Apr 13, 2016

There are couple of web sites that list the varies makers of Vivitar lens by serial numbers, I don't know who made Soligor CD lens. All in all if you find one at a good price I would take a flyer. The 200 2.8 OP listed seems to be a fine performer, and if the build is as good as the 2 I have will stand up to hard use.

Neil Grant · Apr 13, 2016

The lens is in very good shape with little sign of use. It's quite tricky to focus on a Nikon D4, but very easy on my F2 with all-over micro prism screen. Idle web browsing turned it up. Wasn't even looking for a 200 - but remembered reviews of the CD 135mm f/2 from the early 80's. I've tried some film photos using it with a 12mm tube to allow closer focus - but not developed yet.

Soligor CD 200mm f/2.8 @ 2.8

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