[littledrawe]

nib M42 ALPEX 135mm f 2.8 LENS for CANON NIKON PENTAX

that is the title on the ebay listing. I've never heard of alpex. A 135mm with f.28 seems good for portraiture. M42 is not really convenient but the price offsets this.
Does anybody have any experience with it?

[Steinback]

Never heard of that particular lens or manufacturer before. There is a huge variety of 3rd party 135mm f/2.8 glass out there in M42 and K mount as 135mm was one of the more popular "standard" focal lengths on 35mm film. New-old stock doesn't mean much if the lens turns out to be mediocre.

You might be better off with something used that you can try in person. Somewhere around $20 (or less) would be more reasonable for a used 135mm M42 lens from an unknown manufacturer and at least then you would have some idea of the image quality. You could probably pick up a clean 135mm f/3.5 SMC Takumar for somewhere around $40.

[RioRico]

My rule-of-thumb for such unknown lenses is: If it costs less than a sandwich or hamburger, buy it. If it costs more than a pizza, don't. And now I have 100 such lenses and I haven't eaten 100 hamburgers, so it's good for my health, eh?

Seriously, I am suspicious of lenses with names that are slight variants of Famous Brands like Pantex, Conan, Zeus, Nigon, etc. There was and is a famous Swiss camera maker named Alpa. (That's Alpa as in Alps, not Alpo as in dogfood.) Lenses branded as Alpa, some made by the most prestigious European glass foundries, are quite valuable. A later generation of Alpa gear was made by Chinon, and it's not bad -- I have an M42 Alpa-Chinon 300/5.6 that is quite sharp. But Alpex? It sounds like an attempt to exploit a once-famous name.

Consider the lens. Consider a hamburger. Which is worth more?

[littledrawe]

Since I don't have to pay shipping and handling on any hamburges I think I will go that route!!

[Gerbermiester]

I know this is digging up an old thread, but its worth mentioning for anyone who's looking for a pseudo lens review.

I own a copy of the Alpex 135mm f2.8 in Pentax screw mount. It has an Automatic aperture / Manual aperture switch that works faultlessly with my old Spotmatic and is handy when it's mounted on my dSLR.

There are a couple of neat quirks to this lens, the most notable of which is the shape of the aperture blades when stopped down. Instead of forming an octagon with its eight aperture blades. It makes a 'tear-drop' shape. I thought this was a fault of my lens, but after a quick e-bay search, I found that all of them had this shape. When stopped down to f/8 or so, this characteristic of the lens can create interesting bokeh.

Sharpness:
f/2.8 is fairly soft and prone to purple aberrations.
f/4 is less soft, and less prone to CA
f/5.6+ produces decent image quality, but nothing to call home about.

If anyone cares enough to see some sample shots, let me know.

[Lowell Goudge]

I know this is digging up an old thread, but its worth mentioning for anyone who's looking for a pseudo lens review.

I own a copy of the Alpex 135mm f2.8 in Pentax screw mount. It has an Automatic aperture / Manual aperture switch that works faultlessly with my old Spotmatic and is handy when it's mounted on my dSLR.

There are a couple of neat quirks to this lens, the most notable of which is the shape of the aperture blades when stopped down. Instead of forming an octagon with its eight aperture blades. It makes a 'tear-drop' shape. I thought this was a fault of my lens, but after a quick e-bay search, I found that all of them had this shape. When stopped down to f/8 or so, this characteristic of the lens can create interesting bokeh.

Sharpness:
f/2.8 is fairly soft and prone to purple aberrations.
f/4 is less soft, and less prone to CA
f/5.6+ produces decent image quality, but nothing to call home about.

If anyone cares enough to see some sample shots, let me know.

as a strong supporter of the forum i suggest you post the photos in the sample photo archive, and do a review in the lens review section.

[lytrytyr]

Seriously, I am suspicious of lenses with names that are slight variants of Famous Brands like Pantex, Conan, Zeus, Nigon, etc.

On those grounds, the Germans used to be suspicious of "Nikon,"
because it sounded too much like "Zeiss Ikon."
For a while there, Nikon had to be marketed as "Nikkor."
If you read German, check out
Nikon-Story: Der Beginn

[mike7fa]

I know this is digging up an old thread, but its worth mentioning for anyone who's looking for a pseudo lens review.

I own a copy of the Alpex 135mm f2.8 in Pentax screw mount. It has an Automatic aperture / Manual aperture switch that works faultlessly with my old Spotmatic and is handy when it's mounted on my dSLR.

There are a couple of neat quirks to this lens, the most notable of which is the shape of the aperture blades when stopped down. Instead of forming an octagon with its eight aperture blades. It makes a 'tear-drop' shape. I thought this was a fault of my lens, but after a quick e-bay search, I found that all of them had this shape. When stopped down to f/8 or so, this characteristic of the lens can create interesting bokeh.

Sharpness:
f/2.8 is fairly soft and prone to purple aberrations.
f/4 is less soft, and less prone to CA
f/5.6+ produces decent image quality, but nothing to call home about.

If anyone cares enough to see some sample shots, let me know.

Gerbermeister is correct regarding his assessment of performance. I used this lens today on my Pentax K10d with an adapter for some outdoor scenic photos. However, I do know (based on a flicker post regarding this lens and a wide-angle Alpex) that it was manufactured in Japan. The lens build quality is excellent with very clear etched markings, and movements are as smooth as any I have used. Probably not multi-coated which is a pity as great care was taken by the machine shop that produced it. Looks great on my camera though!