Originally posted by danielausparis Albinar: worst lenses ever made.
Not necessarily. Besides, Albinar was a distributer like Vivitar or Porst or Hanimex, not a lensmaker.
Besides the 24/2.8 Albinar I mentioned above, I have an interesting set of 3 one-touch push-pull manual MC 'macro' zooms with 55mm threads, each of which cost me US$9:
Sears (KR) 070-210/4.0 --- # 860424148 -- Korea 7377600 Mod # 202
Albinar (NI) 080-200/3.9 -- # 87151623 ---- Korea 214833
Sears (M42) 080-200/4.0 - # 840830082 -- Korea 737010 Mod # 202
All three appear to come from the same lens foundry. The builds are identical; the two 80-200's are distinguishable only by having different bases and front inscriptions; the two Sears are labeled as being the same model. Performance is as close to identical as I can see. (Note: the M42 is labeled PU which I guess means Pentax Universal.) And all three garner good comments on their quality.
Because the 70-210 has a KR (Pentax-Ricoh) mount, I suspected at first that all these were made by Ricoh, but now I'm not sure. Sears-branded lenses have a decent reputation (and some were made by Pentax). Does anyone here know who Sears' Korean supplier was? Samyang, maybe? I've read that Samyang made some Rikenons, so there is a tie-in.
Anyway, it looks like Fred Albu bought lenses from the same varied sources as many other marketers of the 70's-80's. I've seen the exact same 21/3.8 (probably made by Tokina) badged as Lentar, Albinar, Vivitar, Soligor, and Tokina, just as I've seen the same 135/2.8 badged as Sears, Focal (K-Mart), Vivitar, Opticam, and Hanimar. All these brands have their good and bad models and copies (and so does Pentax). Some brands just had low standards. (Can you say Porst?)