Robert Monaghan's "Third Party Lenses Resource Megasite" can be retrieved

<p>(When I started typing this, it was to be a follow-up post to the March 31 thread "Pentax Spotmatic actual zoom lens...options?" But now it seems likely to do more good as a stand-alone thread, so here it is.)</p>

<p>About 10 years ago, Robert Monaghan compiled a truly voluminous, online reference resource--a collection of well-written, interesting and helpful articles and lists--for the benefit of anyone seeking to learn about lenses in general, and about all the third-party lenses in particular, that were made for SLR's dating from the 1960's through the 1990's. I spent hours soaking it up, as I'm sure others here did as well.</p>

<p>Six or seven years ago, Robert Monaghan's original website went dark. Portions of its content were hosted by others for several years afterward, off-and-on, but they too now seem to be inactive. Robert Monaghan is listed as a Photo.net member since 2003, but with no activity noted since 2006. His Photo.net member page links to an index of his earlier writings, but almost all the items linked to the index are dead links. Googling his name yields mostly "Whatever happened to...." entries.</p>

<p>When I tried using the "wayback machine", however, it worked: it retrieved Robert Monaghan's full original homepage, with links that connect (automatically) to similarly-"wayback"-archived items. So...the entire, wonderful shooting match that he compiled as a labor of love is still available.</p>

<p>For anyone with an older SLR who may have wondered what non-OEM lenses may be floating around out there, on eBay or elsewhere (and who made them, and when, and what they originally cost, etc.), this is where you can find out. Also, there is much wise advice on assessing lens quality, lens use, lensmakers' claims, etc....</p>

<p>The "wayback" homepage link is here:</p>

<p>http://web.archive.org/web/20021001122829/medfmt.8k.com/third/index.html</p>

<p>Three of the most useful of its (many, many) linked lists and articles include:</p>

<p>(1) Listing of 1,600+ Third Party Lenses by Mfgr from 1960's to mid 1980's</p>

<p>http://web.archive.org/web/20021101165753/medfmt.8k.com/third/table1.txt</p>

<p>(2) Listing of 1,600+ Third Party Lenses by Focal Length and Speed (1960's-80's)</p>

<p>http://web.archive.org/web/20021101165015/medfmt.8k.com/third/table3.txt</p>

<p>(3) Interchangeable Lens Mounts - Third Party Lens Advantage?</p>

<p>http://web.archive.org/web/20021028141952/medfmt.8k.com/third/mounts.html</p>

<p>Ernest, that is a really valuable post. I've often wondered "What happened to Robert..?" and to have this compilation is just great. Many thanks for your efforts.</p>

<p>Thumbs up for reposting the links to this wonderful resource.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>Excellent! I was looking for this a while back myself. Thank you.</p>

<p>Oh that was a great site! I remember his medium format on the cheap page too. I hope Mr. Monaghan is still with us...if not we've got his wonderful site now.</p>

Wouldn't it be great if he suddenly just posted here!! Anyway, this infor is extremely helpful for those just wanting to know what is (should be ) out there!

<p>Chuck, I agree. Robert Monaghan, whether or not you ever see this.....thank you.</p>

<p>Ernest,</p>

<p>Thank you for taking the time to search for and find this wonderful information.</p>

<p>I would also add my thanks to Robert for providing us this information. Robert seem to be the type person to go out of their way to help others. He also seem to have many areas of interest. I wish him well in his pursuits.</p>

<p>One of the great drawbacks of such excellent online resources is linkrot. If only someone could develop "linkrot-not"...</p>

<p>Does anyone here really know what happened to Mr. Monaghan? He seems to have disappeared completely from internet.</p>