[PenPen]

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!
I find myself in possession of two Spiratones: One is a WA converter,and the other is a TC. They look brand new and are in a very spiffy leather case,Old School.
My question,since I can't remember ever using a TC,what kind of adapter(s) do I need for them? (I like to mess around with camera gear.)
Please and thank you.
And if I have provided a few chuckles and eye-rollings,you're welcome!
Happy shooting!!
Annie the Not Banned

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!
I find myself in possession of two Spiratones: One is a WA converter,and the other is a TC. They look brand new and are in a very spiffy leather case,Old School.
My question,since I can't remember ever using a TC,what kind of adapter(s) do I need for them? (I like to mess around with camera gear.)
Please and thank you.
And if I have provided a few chuckles and eye-rollings,you're welcome!
Happy shooting!!
Annie the Not Banned

The WA converter probably mounts on the filter ring of a lens, so you need to figure out its filter size and then you can use it with any lens having smaller or equal filter size (if it's smaller, you'll use some step up rings). If you really want to, you can also use it with step down rings on lenses with larger filter size and suffer vignetting.

As for the TC, if it also gets mounted over the filter ring, you have the same story, but if it's mounted between the camera and the lens, then you'll need to identify its mount.

[PenPen]

Thank you.Once again,I have learned something new.

[DSims]

The only chuckle you may have produced here is from the fact that you actually have some Spiratone gear. I got a few of their zooms plus a few converters when I picked up my two K2 film cameras about a year ago. I got them along with two Pentax 50's (M50/1.4 and K50/1.2) that are actually worth something.

You may indeed be missing the adapter for the TC. I'll have to check whether the TCs I got were actually Spiratone or another brand, but as I recall the Spiratone zooms had to have adapters to fit K-mount.


In any case, they're probably worth almost nothing today, as are my Spiratone zoom lenses. I packed them away because I was too embarrassed to try to sell them to someone - if you can't even fetch $30 on eBay, then what good are they?

[RioRico]

Ah, Spiratone! Fred Spira imported whatever would sell, including front-mount optical adapters. If you have a set marked Wide+Tele / WA+TC, they're front-loaders -- I call them strap-ons. The matched-set packaging was common. If meant for a 35mm still camera, their rear threads are probably around 52-55-58mm, maybe as small as 46mm or as big as 62mm, maybe. They never mount directly on a camera, just onto the front of a lens, with whatever step-rings might be appropriate. Newer front optics have ring sets included; back in the day, we had to buy our own a la carte. Old Fred Spira didn't get rich by giving stuff away, eh?

Front-mount / strap-on optics are a mixed bag. Newer ones with rear threads of 46mm or smaller, made for vid.cams, generally suck on still cameras. But weren't no vid.cams in Fred Spira's day, just cine with SMALL lenses, MF TLRs with fairly small threads or bayonets, and 35mm cameras with usually wider threads. Still cameras require better strap-on optics than do cine|video cameras. If your adapters have threads 49mm or larger, they're probably at least fair optically, although the WA may still be weak.

Can you tell the rear thread diameter? Use a ruler if necessary. That'll give us an idea of their type. Or is there any other info on them, like "FOR whatever"? I'll guess that they're not meant for TLRs or you'd have four optics, not just two. They may be intended for 35mm rangefinders or SLRs.

As for value: I haven't checked eBay COMPLETED LISTINGS but I do know that some pervs collect vintage strap-ons. If these are immaculate, a collector may drool. I've had ordinary adapters and extensions bid-up to premium prices just because they're complete and are marked Spiratone or Sears. If these were no-name, you might be lucky to fetch US$5 for the pair. But branded, they may sell for +10x that. It all depends.

Anyway, get the diameters and any other info. Cheers!

[The Jannie]

RioRico's right about prices. I've been amazed at the prices fetched by lenses I know to be crap. I know that because I avoided them thirty years ago in their first existence as cheap and nasty film kit. It seems that as long as you shout loudly that it will adapt to a C*n*n EOS they'll queue up at your door!

BFN
David