The Telelumax 200mm F/4

Found in a charity shop yesterday - a Telelumax Pentax-K T-Mount 200mm F/4 prime telephoto lens with a 12 blade preset aperture. It's a very substantial metal bodied lens made in Japan, it seems to be quite rare, I've not found any reference to it online. There may be some connection to the Tele-Lumax lenses made for Corfield cameras. It's similar in form and function to the Meyer-Optik Görlitz Orestegor / Pentacon 200mm F4, but with the addition of a tripod bush.

 

 

Here's the front showing the aperture blades:

 

I put it on my KM DSLR and took it to Saddington Reservoir. These were shot at F/8. I've adjusted the levels as the camera had to be in manual mode and the light was changing all the time.

 

 

Here's a couple of closer shots. I wondered if anyone else had come across one of these, or knows anything about them.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

A good find and nice results from the old lens, John. I wouldn't be surprised to encounter the same lens under several different names; it's typical of it's era and somewhere I have a Soligor that looks remarkably similar. I guess they were simple and easy to construct, probably with four elements. The redeeming feature was the multi-bladed iris, which contributes to the beautiful smooth bokeh the lenses create; this feature disappeared when the pre-set configuration was abandoned in favour of the "auto" mechanism that was spring-driven and necessitated fewer moving parts. Thanks for an interesting post.

Thanks for the comment Rick, yes, thinking about it, it does look like some Soligors I've had. Although weren't Soligor another brand name like Vivitar which had its lenses made by others? I don't suppose the full story will ever be told.

I don't think there's any connection to the Corfield Tele-Lumax lenses, nor to Yashica's Lumaxar. I think Rick has it right with the Soligor/Hanimex 'pedigree'.

 

The IQ doesn't look at all bad. Much better than a Kiev-made 200mm f/4 that I picked up a few years ago. (Must dispose of that piece of junk somehow!)

Thanks for the comment Rick, yes, thinking about it, it does look like some Soligors I've had. Although weren't Soligor another brand name like Vivitar which had its lenses made by others? I don't suppose the full story will ever be told.

 

Yes, Soligor was just a brand owned by the US company American Allied Impex Corporation, who imported lenses from a variety of (mainly unknown) Japanese manufacturers, rather after the style of Ponder and Best with the Vivitar brand. Countless hours have been spent in attempts to assign individual lenses to the scores of Japanese manufacturers, now mainly defunct. Many of these lenses also appeared under a variety of in-house brands created by big retail outlets in the US and Europe. Tables of lens serial numbers have been compiled in attempt to assign both Soligor and Vivitar lenses to various sources. You'd like a new investigative hobby?

Edited August 24, 2018 by rick_drawbridge

The house brands are often very hard to track down to the original maker, and the "Telelumax" is not listed under that marque in Kadlubeks Objectiv-Katalog.

 

However a 1961 interchangeable lens list in Modern Photography did list a

 

240mm f/4.5 Tele-Lumax. Corfield, Germany. LP-EX-PC, $139.50

 

Kenneth Corfield was a British camera manufacturer, Maybe he offered this one?

 

 

In the days of this lens, even K-Mart was selling their own line of lenses, etc.

I guess the lenses made for Corfield cameras were 39mm screw fit. This one has a T mount. The similar names probably are just coincidental, or perhaps "accidentally on purpose".

 

And many thanks for your new hobby suggestion, Rick, but as my wife often reminds me, "life's too short".

 

I think many of us (me included) are all too quick to poo-poo those, lets say, lesser lenses often badged up so as not to reveal their true identity. This looks like a keeper for sure. Spill the beans - what d'you pay for it??

The house brands are often very hard to track down to the original maker, and the "Telelumax" is not listed under that marque in Kadlubeks Objectiv-Katalog.

 

However a 1961 interchangeable lens list in Modern Photography did list a

 

240mm f/4.5 Tele-Lumax. Corfield, Germany. LP-EX-PC, $139.50

 

Kenneth Corfield was a British camera manufacturer, Maybe he offered this one?

 

 

In the days of this lens, even K-Mart was selling their own line of lenses, etc.

Um, JDM, the Corfield Periflex and derivatives used lenses in Leica thread mount. The Corfield 66 used lenses in a proprietary breech-lock mount.

 

According to Corfield Cameras Corfield offered a 240/4.5 Lumar and a 400/4.5 Tele-Lumax, both for the Periflex. As far as I know Corfield sourced their lenses from German, not Japanese, makers.

Five pounds.