Sakari 80-210mm f4.5?

<p>Hi guys. I bought a Sakari 80-210mm f4.5 (constant) from a certain well-known auction site for £12 (~$17) in Minolta MD/SR mount. Here's the original listing: <a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161960613859?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT">http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161960613859?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT</a></p>

<p>I asked about it in the Minolta forum - they said I should ask here as they didn't have any ideas about it. My X300 to mount it to hasn't arrived yet so I've not had a chance to do anything with it yet; does anyone have any ideas about what I can expect from it? It's all metal (so I'm guessing it's an older lens) and also (weirdly) zooms in as you pull the barrel towards you? It feels really solid and well-made, the focus is smooth, iris is snappy and the zoom doesn't trombone either - it's even got a built-in sliding lens hood!</p>

<p>I couldn't find anything at all about it on Google so I thought asking here would be a decent place to start.</p>

<p>Cheers,<br>

Dan</p>

Not a familiar brand but it could have been made whoever made Vivitar/Kiron or maybe Samyang? Hard to tell.

<p>By the era of that lens, there were <em>lots</em> of manufacturers of perfectly decent 80-210mm zoom lenses. You got a perfectly good deal.</p>

<p>From the looks of it I would say late seventies to early eighties. It looks fairly compact. I have some earlier zooms in this range and they are longer.<br>

<br /> It looks similar to the Komuranon that Modern tested in 1977. That lens had good sharpness but the contrast was a little low.</p>

<p>You will have to try it and show us the results.</p>

<p>If it's Sakar rather than Sakari, I think they got their lenses from multiple OEM's. More recent AF lenses are apparently made by Samyang. It seems to have been a company similar to Vivitar, which sourced its lenses in various places. They bought the Vivitar brand name a few years ago, but at the time of this lens they were apparently not connected.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>(weirdly) zooms in as you pull the barrel towards you?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I wouldn't call this weird. Nikon manual focus tele-zooms were all like that. Makes for better balancing with the body.</p>

I had a Soligor 80-200 f 4.5 that zoomed the same way.