Expert MC Auto 135mm f/2.8 (M42)

[BKSPicture]

Did a review of the Expert MC Auto 135mm f/2.8 on my blog.
Here are some of the test shots.
B&W shots are analog and are taken with a Chinon CEII Memotron and AGFA CINEREX (X-ray film)
Color shots are digital and are taken with a Canon 500D.


My review has more and hires images which can be found on my blog: [url]http://www.blog.bkspicture.com/review_Expert_MC_Auto_135mm_f2.8_M42.html[/URL]








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[Derrel]

It looks like multiple, other 1980's-era 135mm f/2.8 lenses. The image quality looks pretty nice though. I think it was pretty difficult to build a "bad" 135mm f/2.8 lens! Today, I think of these as, "Twenty dollar pawnshop lenses".

 

[cgw]

Given the rampant re-branding of the 70s-80s, it's a safe bet that many were made by quality makers like Kiron and Cosina. Friends who shoot m4/3 and APS-C MILCs find the adapters are usually pricier than the lenses. Still, there are off-brand gems out there as well as orphan mounts like Canon FD and Minolta MC/MD optics.

 

[Derrel]

Given the rampant re-branding of the 70s-80s, it's a safe bet that many were made by quality makers like Kiron and Cosina. Friends who shoot m4/3 and APS-C MILCs find the adapters are usually pricier than the lenses. Still, there are off-brand gems out there as well as orphan mounts like Canon FD and Minolta MC/MD optics.

Yeah...the whole era was built upon independent lens makers making lenses to be "house-branded". Kino Precision (later renamed Kiron), Komine, Makinon, Asanuma, Tokina, Chinon, Hoya, Cosina, and other companies built tens of millions of lenses that were branded by whoever payed money to have them built. For people who are interested in how that worked, look into the Vivitar "brand" of lenses! Vivitar NEVER BUILT a single lens--they were a "name"...a marketing company...and they earned quite a name by marketing a range of products made for them by multiple manufacturers.

My first telephoto lens was a dreadful uncoated 135mm f/3.5 with the antiquated pre-set diaphragm system, in m42 mount....OMG...it was drecky as heck. I still have it! When I bought it in 1977 I guess it was, it was already a 15 year-out-of date, ultra-cheapie design; the OP's 135mm f/2.8 with AUTO-diaphragm is a much,much better-made and more modern design. Kind of a shame that, as cgw has pointed out before, 135mm lenses like the OP's were sort of killed off by all the zooms that began to proliferate during that long-ago time; everybody wanted zoom lenses, and nice, compact, lightweight, sharp, affordable $79 135/2.8 third-party primes were supplanted by a flood of $159-$189 70-200 zooms.