Pentaxian Registered: March, 2010 Location: Chiang Mai, Bologna, Amsterdam Posts: 1,198 | | Review Date: November 30, 2023 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: N/A |
| Pros: | very solid construction | | Cons: | It can be found under other brands | |
I just discovered that there are no reviews of this lens, so I decided to post the first part of my own review.
For the moment I can only write about the build quality, and what I found (with some difficulties) about the genealogy of this interesting, not so common lens.
The zoom is a dual ring construction, which is a great thing in itself. I hate pump-style zooms.
The build is definitely good. Not something that can be taken for granted. There are zooms of the same vintage and with similar origin that are not as good.
I am currently abroad and I don't have the lens with me. I will try to test it in a proper way in a few months, when I will be back home.
This Ricoh zoom came to me via my wife. It was a possession of her late father, who died long before I met her.
When my wife had to go through everything that was still stored in the house of her childhood, she decided to bring to me a lens that nobody else seemed to want.
Instead of being donated or given to another family member, the lens found its way to me.
I'm not a huge fan of vintage zooms, I madly love old primes though. In this case there was something personal about this objective, and I decided to investigate.
Here is my Lens:
My research found that there is a striking resemblance between the Auto Rikenon 4.5/70-230mm and three other lenses:
Hexanon ARP 4.5/70-230 preset
Yashinon Auto 4.5/75-230
Accura Diamatic 4.5/70-230mm
The aesthetic can be slightly different, but they look very similar. I spare you too*many pictures, I just add two cut-outs of the optical diagram that look identical to the scheme of the Auto Rikenon:
Yashinon 75-230mm
Hexanon 70-230mm
Putting all the info together, I ended up believing that the original maker was actually Sankor. Which is, by the way, the maker of some of my favorite short tele portrait lenses
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