| Author: | | Forum Member Registered: June, 2014 Posts: 58 | | Review Date: January 4, 2023 | Not Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | design and build quality | | Cons: | very soft wide open, low contrast and clarity | | Sharpness: 6
Aberrations: 5
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 6
Value: 5
Camera Used: Samsung NX30
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I guess I am the only reviewer here whose lens looks exactly as the one in the picture. I received it as a gift for my vintage camera collection, together with the original caps made of machined aluminum and a nice velvet-lined box.
The lens is very beautiful and looks fantastic on my Exakta VX IIa! However, does its optical quality match its looks? Unfortunately, not. This lens probably comes from that period in time when Japanese lensmakers had already perfected the exterior but hadn't mastered the optical quality yet.
I tried the lens on my Samsung NX30 mirrorless, so my impressions about its image quality are based on APSC digital. Wide open, the lens is very soft with a strong glow, and the photos look like paintings of a myopic impressionist who lost his glasses. Unusable unless you are looking for extreme soft focus effect. By F5.6, the glow disappears and the centre becomes pretty sharp. The corners become decently sharp by F8-11. Due to 20 aperture blades, the bokeh is nice even at smaller apertures. However, to my disappointment, contrast and clarity don't improve much no matter how I stop the lens down.
I can't recommend this lens for general photography, however it can be used for special effects like filming a dream sequence and will certainly look great in somebody's vintage lens collection 
A few examples shot wide open and at F5.6.
F2.8
F5.6
F2.8
F5.6
 | | | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: March, 2008 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 6 | | Review Date: May 5, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $5.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | Relatively sharp, metal parts, f2.8, built-in lens hood. | | Cons: | Heavy, no Auto aperture or Auto-focus, low contrast | |
My lens is also completely different in appearance than the silver one.
Mine has the K mount, and looks slimmer.
Some might argue that having no auto aperture or auto focus is not a con. I personally find the K-7 AF to be quite accurate so for me it is a con.
This lens has a very nice feel to the action. The aperture ring is easy to turn with a nice positive click on each setting. The focus ring is surprisingly smooth.
Maybe the built-in lens hood is not the best. It slides a little too easily.
This lens wide open is somewhat soft, and has very low contrast. Even at 3.2 the pictures improve noticeably. Contrast does improve somewhat, but still never really gets good. Fortunately it is easy to improve contrast with software.
This lens is sharper than my DA 50-300 is at 135, whatever that is worth.
The lens gives my K-7 a very unique, old-fashioned appearance that I really like. It is also quite compact. It is much lighter and smaller than my DA 50-300 as well, which is to be expected I suppose.
My lens has 6 aperture blades and a 55mm filter thread. The aperture blades are not any more jagged than my FA35mm which has great bokeh so maybe my lens is a different one than the reviewer with jagged blades.
There are definitely better lenses out there as far as IQ, but it's hard to beat the price of this lens.
EDIT:
Here are some comparison shots;
At f2.8 1"
Crop:
At f5.6 4"
Crop:
At f8 8"
Crop:
 | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: September, 2009 Location: SoCal Posts: 1,292 | | Review Date: April 20, 2010 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: N/A |
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From Wiki:
Soligor was originally the trade mark for the American Allied Impex Corporation, used from 1956 for lenses and later cameras imported from Japan. It imported cameras from Japan and also took control of companies in Japan. Among the first products was Miranda T camera and Soligor lenses.
Soligor GmbH is a German manufacturer of photographic equipment, optics, video surveillance equipment, and personal electronics. Founded in Stuttgart in 1968 as A.I.C. Phototechnik GmbH by Allied Impex Corporation (USA), the company changed its official name in 1993 to match the brand name used on its optical products.
Most commonly encountered products were manufactured in Japan, (to quite a reasonable standard-many by Tokina,) under the Soligor brand, as well as Miranda, (which was acquired by Allied Impex in the 1960's.) The company also seems to have had an association with Vivitar, (the T4 interchangeable mount, for instance.)
The company is currently located in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, just outside Stuttgart, in Baden-Württemberg
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2009 Location: Georgia, VT Posts: 1,657 | | Review Date: January 23, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | Relatively small, excellent build quality | | Cons: | BAD chromatic aberration, annoying auto-aperture setup | |
My lens looks nothing like the one pictured above. It also appears to be nothing like the previous reviewer's. However, it IS clearly marked as a Soligor 135mm F2.8, so I'll post my review here anyways. Mine is also an M42 mount lens, and it has a T4 interchangeable mount bracket so it can be used with other brands of cameras just by switching mounts.
I acquired this lens while buying out an older gentleman's old Spotmatic kit. I mostly got the kit for the Super Takumar 50mm F1.4, but it was such a good price for everything, I just grabbed it all.
It's a very interesting lens, although it doesn't really seem to fit anywhere in my current collection. I already own a DA* 50-135mm, which tends to give me outstanding results at 135mm. I have noticed that the Soligor is slightly faster than the DA* at F2.8, this may be due to the lack of coating on the Soligor. However, at F2.8, the pictures from the Soligor are very soft while the DA* produces much sharper results.
The build quality is outstanding. They really knew how to build lenses back then. The focus ring is incredibly smooth and has no play in it. It has a super-long 270 degree throw, so getting the perfect focus couldn't be easier. The aperture ring turns easily, but has positive stops. Everything oozes quality.
My biggest issue is with the auto-aperture feature. The aperture is always wide open, regardless of the position of the aperture ring. There's a Preview button on the lens to close the aperture to the proper setting, but it's a momentary button. The aperture opens up again as soon as I let it go. So I have to hold it down while taking the picture if I want an aperture smaller than F2.8. Since this is a 135mm lens, holding down the Preview button introduces all kinds of camera shake, even when it's sitting on a tripod. I far prefer the setup on my Super Takumar 50mm F1.4, which has a switch for changing between "Auto" and "Manual".
There are 8 aperture blades on this lens. At F4, they form a horrible opening full of protruding edges. It's pretty bad. The results at F4 aren't really any better than at F2.8 as far as sharpness goes, and the bokeh suffers from the crazy aperture shape too. However at F5.6, the image sharpens considerably and becomes impressive. From F5.6 to F16, the aperture opening remains regular and smooth, and the image quality remains pretty much the same. At F22, I need to use such a slow shutter speed that getting a sharp image becomes an exercise in futility.
Colors are always faithful, good saturation all around. However chromatic aberration is always strongly present, regardless of aperture. Flare hasn't been much of an issue so far.
It's hard to justify this lens in my kit. It's smaller than my DA* 135mm, but not much lighter. The auto aperture thing is especially annoying. And the chromatic aberration gets distracting. I suppose if the SDM ever fails on my DA* 50-135mm, then I'll have a backup telephoto lens.
| | | | | | | Junior Member Registered: August, 2009 Location: Lexington, KY Posts: 30 | | Review Date: September 23, 2009 | Not Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 3 |
| Pros: | Very retro look, feel, and IQ | | Cons: | Funky IQ issues | |
This is a very bad lens, but not by being cheaply made. It is solid and huge for a 135mm f/2.8. Everything works smoothly on my copy, although the resistance of the focus and preset rings suggests it is time to disassemble and re-lubricate.
Image quality wide open can only be described as exceptionally soft, but oddly colors are very well saturated. Bokeh are very smooth. It is a very flattering long portrait lens. Stopped down, sharpness actually becomes quite reasonable, but saturation drops dramatically. You'd swear it was an entirely different lens. This is such a strange lens, a few images taken with it will help clarify what I'm talking about. Here's an example of the soft and glowing incredibly smooth transition to out-of-focus at f/2.8:
And here's a 1:1 crop (at 14MP APS-C) that proves detail and color are there, but with halos and low contrast:
Here's another soft and rich f/2.8 that's somewhat nice:
And here is the obnoxious mess you get when stopped down to what should have been an optimal aperture. It is bitingly sharp, but with washed-out colors, lousy contrast, and tons of flare:
Stopped down, I think there is little to recommend this lens over any other 135mm alternative... or even over a normal lens + 2X-3X tele converter. However, the wide-open behavior, while technically inferior to just about any lens I've seen, still has some merit for making dreamy portraits.
In summary, if somebody gives you one of these, try taking some portraits. If you like soft focus and smooth bokeh, you will be very happy. The retro styling and soft portrait imaging are a good match. For anything else, forget it. Lens IQ is really 1, but I gave it a 3 for style. I can't recommend such a poor optic, but I'm keeping my copy because the weirdness has grown on me; there definitely are circumstances where this lens will make images that none of my other lenses can.
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