Old beast lens info (300/5.5 prime)

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Hey all... I recently got an old Sears-branded 300mm f/5.5 screwmount
telephoto. From the looks of it, it seems to be identical to a vivitar on ebay like
this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d [...] eName=WDVW

From the S/N, its alegedly Tokina-built if it's a Vivitar model. Looks a lot
like the second from the right in the back of this pile:
http://www.vermontel.net/~wsalati/ [...] or_two.htm

Does anyone know of this sort of beast? I know a lot of the Vivitars are cult
classic enough to have lots of info on them, but off-off-brand (like the Sears) are
tough to find info on. It seems to take pretty good shots on my *ist-DS, with a bit
of CA on the edges. It doesn't say multicoated on it anywhere, but is it possible it
is, anyway?

Just looking to know if there are any thoughts on an old clunker like this.

Thanks,
-Cory


--

*************************************************************************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
*************************************************************************

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

: I found a Sears-branded K-mount 80-200mm/4 zoom at a thrift store
: recently. I've been trying to find any information about it since then,
: myself. There's not a lot out there. They switched manufacturers a lot,
: and apparently no one deems it worthy to track this info down. :-)

: That said: I figure this 80-200 is a Ricoh, because I had to modify it
: to use with my *ist DS, and a few Google results warn that Ricoh lenses
: need this kind of modification. (There's an electrical contact pin that
: pokes down into a screw hole on the camera body, making it impossible to
: lock the mount closed, and also very difficult to get the lens back
: off.)

I thought that Ricoh lenses were typically made by a 3rd party, too? WRT your
modification, I've run into that with a Vivitar 28-105 PK/A-R lens from my old P-30T.
I had to file down the flange on it, and while I had the mount off I removed the Ricoh
pin. Now no jamming on the AF hole.

I'm almost sure that the 300mm Sears is a circa 1980 Tokina. It doesn't say
multicoated on it and doesn't have the "rainbow" while looking at an angle, so I
suspect it's not. Still, for free it's not bad...

-Cory

*************************************************************************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
*************************************************************************

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

PhotoMan <photoman@wfeca.net> wrote:

> "Paul Mitchum" <usenet@mile23.c0m> wrote in message
> news:1guupaf.923uaqxovgwwN%usenet@mile23.c0m...
>
> > I found a Sears-branded K-mount 80-200mm/4 zoom at a thrift store
> > recently. I've been trying to find any information about it since then,
> > myself. There's not a lot out there. They switched manufacturers a lot,
>
> Sears, JC Penney, K-Mart, et al were supplied by whatever company would
> make them cheapest. Don't expect anything of value image-wise.

True, they were manufactured by the lowest bidder. And they're not that
great, as lenses go. But in my case, the lens had a one-digit dollar
value on the price tag.