[adrianpglover]

Does anyone know of a fairly comprehensive list of lenses with 15+ aperture blades? The old Asahi Takumar Kogaku lenses have caught my eye recently. I know that they're M37 mount, but I work with a machinist who thinks it'd be fairly simple for him to make the adapter for me.

I guess it also helps that I'm very interested in the look of an all chrome lens on my K-7.

If anyone knows of a list please let me know.

[Zav]

Some Pentacon 135 and 200 have more than 15 aperture blade.

[aurele]

the jupiter 9 85mm f2 has 15 or 16 blades (as far as i remember). But the optical quality is a lottery : some are very good, some are crap...

[Lowell Goudge]

Look at the "definitely not the flat earth society" thread, I started it to have a place for users of preset aperture and round at all aperture lenses.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/87425-definite...h-society.html

[RioRico]

I thought we'd had at least one older thread with posts listing mega-blade lenses but I can't find it right now. Oh bother. And I can't find any canonical lists of such lenses. Maybe there's something over at the Manual Focus Lenses Forum site?

But the basics are: Many mega-bladers are old 2-ring preset lenses. (Some clever 1-ring presets also exist.) These lenses lack aperture automation mechanisms; auto lenses tend to have the apertures placed near the rear of the lens, to keep the mechanical linkage short, while presets tend to have the iris more towards the middle of the lens body. Presets are also less likely to have modern coatings. Together, the blade count, iris placement, and coatings (or lack thereof) give these presets their appealing bokeh and renderings. And such lenses are likely to be European rather than Japanese. I have my suspicions as to why...

I know I've posted lists of my mega-iris / preset collection before, somewhere. Here is my current accumulation. I generally set my cutoff at 10 blades, not 15, because I can include Takumars in this list. But I'll go even lower to include all 2-ring presets. All lenses listed are mountable on my K20D and K1000. Exakta and Argus mounts need slight adaptation. Columns are blades, rings, origin, mount, lens; silver unless noted; ordered by blades and focal length:

8 blades, 2 rings, Soviet, M42: ZOMZ Mir-1 37/2.8 (black)
8 blades, 2 rings, Japan, M42: Asahi Macro-Takumar 50/4 (1:1, black)

10 blades, 1 ring, Germany, Argus: Enna Sandmar 35/4.5
10 blades, 1 ring, Germany, Exakta: Meyer Primagon 35/4.5
10 blades, 1 ring, Germany, Argus: Enna Tele-Sandmar 100/4.5
10 blades, 1 ring, Germany, Exakta: Isco Westar 100/4.5
10 blades, 2 rings, Japan, T2: Opticam 135/2.8 (black)
10 blades, 2 rings, Japan, M42: Asahi Tele-Takumar 200/5.6 (black)
10 blades, 1 ring, Germany, M42: Enna Tele-Ennalyt 240/4.5 (black)

12 blades, 1 ring, Germany, Exakta: Meyer Helioplan 40/4.5
12? blades, 1 ring, Lichtenstein, Exakta: Kilfitt Makro Kilar E 40/3.5
12 blades, 1 ring preset, Germany, Exakta: CZJ Tessar 50/2.8 (black M42 version has only 5 blades)
12 blades, 1 ring, Germany, Argus: Argus-Steinheil Cintagon 100/3.5

13 blades, 1 ring, Germany, M42: Isco Westron 35/2.8 (black)
13 blades, 1 ring, Germany, M42: Enna Tele-Ennalyt 135/3.5
13 blades, 2 rings, Japan, M42: Hanimar Preset 135/3.5 (black)
13 blades, 2 rings, Soviet, M39: KMZ Jupiter-11 135/4
13 blades, 2 rings, Japan, T2: Spiratone Telephoto 400/6.3 (black)

15 blades, 2 rings, Soviet, M39: KMZ Jupiter-9 85/2
15 blades, 1 ring, Germany, M42: Meyer Trioplan 100/2.8
15 blades, 1 ring, Germany, M42: Meyer Telemegor 180/5.5

18 blades, 1 ring, Japan, T2: Vivitar-Komine Tele 200/3.5 (black)

If you're looking for silver lenses, some Soviet-made Industar and Jupiter fifties qualify, but I'm not sure of the blade counts of any except the 7-blade 1-ring M39 Industar-50/3.5 (not the black M42 Industar-50-2).
___________________________________________________________

EDIT-Addendum: A couple notes. Mega-blade zooms are rare in my inventory, but zooms are only a small fraction of what I have anyway. The most blades are 9, on the Takumar-A 70-200/4, and the Lil'Bigma 170-500/4-5.6.

Being stuck near the USA West Coast, I don't see the variety of European lenses to which folks in other parts of the world have access -- nothing from France, UK, Italy, Poland, former Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, etc. I need to travel more, eh?

Also, I'm an enlarger-lens (EL) junkie, and I have a few medium format (MF) lenses I can somehow mount on my Pentax SLRs. Many of these have many blades. Here's my megablade EL/MFL list. (ELs unless noted. Rings, mounts, color are irrelevant. Question marks mean I can't count the blades accurately.)

10 blades, Soviet: Arsenal Vega-11U 50/2.8
10 blades, Germany: Agfa Apotar 85/4.5 (MF)
10 blades, Soviet: KMZ Industar-100U 110/4
10 blades, USA: Rochester Optical 162/5.6 (MF)

12 blades, Germany: Ernst Leitz Varob 50/3.5
12 blades, Germany: Carl Zeiss Tessar 80/2.8 (MF)

15? blades, Germany: Schneider Comporon 50/4
15 blades, Germany: Schneider Componar 75/4.5
15 blades, USA: Apos Elgeet Colorstigmat 90/4.5
15 blades, Germany: Novoflex Noflexar 105/3.5
15? blades, USA: Ilex Optical Dejur 110/4.5
15? blades, USA: Ilex Anastigmat 110/6.3
15 blades, USA: Ilex Solar Anastigmat 140/4.5
15 blades, USA: Wollensak Enlarging Raptar 162/4.5
15 blades, USA: Wollensak Enlarging Velostigmat 182/4.5
15 blades, USA: Eastman Projection Anastigmat 190/4.5
15? blades, USA: Beattie-Coleman Navitar 254/4.5 (MF)

16 blades, Germany: Steinheil Culminar VL 105/4.5
16 blades, Germany: Steinheil Culminar VL 135/4.5

Of course these all differ from both presets and auto-aperture lenses because the irises are positioned way up front, not in the the middle nor rear of a lens body. Yes, iris position seems to affect bokeh and rendering.

[panoguy]

Meyer Orestegor 300mm f/4 is a 19-bladed beast!

[drougge]

Early copies of the Helios 44 (M39 mount only, I think) have 13 blades, and are silver. (Most copies have 8 blades, the newest have 6.)

I also have:
12 blades, 2 rings, Japan, Unidapter, Tokyo Koki TOKINA 135/3.5 (mostly black)
12 blades, 2 rings, Japan, T2, TAMRON 400/6.9 (black)

Edit: Oh yeah, I also have this:
24 blades(!), 1 ring, Germany, unknown with M42 adapter, Novoflex various.

It can take several different heads. I have one 400/5.6 and one 640/9. The 400 is badly damaged though.

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Last edited by drougge; 12-04-2011 at 04:10 PM. Reason: Forgot one

[kenafein]

The tair 11a, 135mm/2.8 has 20 blades.

[Lloydy]

A. Schacht Travegar 100 / 3.3 - 16 blades, as best I can count, and my Tair 300 has something like 22.

[thoughton]

I've had the M42 Pentacon 135 f2.8 with 15 blades. Nice lens, although flares a bit and very heavy for its size.

[Lowell Goudge]

I guess it also helps that I'm very interested in the look of an all chrome lens on my K-7.

If you are looking for chrome (really aluminum) then consider looking at origonal CZ Jena lenses, and the early russian lenses which are largely copies of the CZ lenses, as well as other German lenses like the Meyer-Optik, many of these came out in a silver finish, black came about in the late 1950's and early 1960's

[RioRico]

If you are looking for chrome (really aluminum) then consider looking at origonal CZ Jena lenses, and the early russian lenses which are largely copies of the CZ lenses, as well as other German lenses like the Meyer-Optik, many of these came out in a silver finish, black came about in the late 1950's and early 1960's

Yes, CZJ and the Russians and Meyer -- and Steinheil, Schacht, Enna, Kilfit, many Exakta mounts (very easily and non-destructively adapted to PK), all that sexy shiny stuff. But especially the presets.

[VisualDarkness]

My Tokyo Koki Tele-Tokina 135mm 1:2.8 got something like 15 blades. It's pretty close to perfect circle at least!

[hoanpham]

Update to the list:

15 blades - Soligor 350mm f5.6, T mount (use with T2/T4 to K mount adapter)

[DirkG]

One more addition to the list:
Zeiss Biotar f2 with 17 blades (the common version has 12).