What's a Lone Star lens??

Just bought what was listed on eBay as a Yashica 135mm f2.8 for

Yashica/Contax SLRs. The seller lied about the brand. The barrel

engraving reads "LONE STAR MC AUTO 1:2.8 f=135mm". It is Japanese

made.

 

What the heck is a Lone Star lens? Haven't found anything about it on

the web. Funny thing is, the fit and finish is not bad. Good

materials, nice smooth movement, clean and clear barrel engravings.

Overall it does feel as good as a Yashica. I'm inclined to try it out

before I send it back. But I still want to know about Lone Star.

Anyone heard of them?

I bet the optics are like a bottom of a bottle of Lone Star Beer

It's an "off brand", and that being said, it doesn't much matter what exactly it is. Seems like either my teleconvertor or fisheye convertor is a "Five Star" brand, now that I think about it.

 

Best I can tell, 135's were real popular about 30 years ago, and then got killed by the 80-200mm zooms. Result is that now, you can't hardly give one away, especially in an offbrand. I'd put the value at maybe $10. The camera brand lenses (IE, Yashica, Pentax), should be worth quite a bit more than that, though not necessarily any better optically.

 

I had a Penney or Sears (I forget which) 135 f/2.8, and it really did seem to be a good lens- no complaints about optical quality. I think I paid $10 for it at a camera show. It finally bit the dust when the aperture got sticky.

 

Anyway, if you paid much of anything for it, I'd try to get the money back regardless of how nice the optics are. If you paid $10 for it, try it out and see how it works.

 

A while back, I bought a 200mm f/4 lens. It appeared to work fine. But when I actually used it on the camera, I found the aperture was getting stiff. It would close down, but not fast enough for fast exposures. I de-coupled the automatic aperture and still use it, though.

I never heard of Lone Star but you should give it a try. Back a few decades ago when 135mm tele lenses were in their heyday, a lot were made and passed to market via various resellers who somewhat scraped the bottom of the barrel as regards trading names. But the optics companies making the lenses could have been the likes of Tokina, Hoya or Kiron, who made some damn fine lenses in their time. If your lens feels well-made, it may have good glass as well, so give it a try.

Thanks guys. I did get it pretty cheap, about $15, and it's in mint condition. When I got my first SLR in high school I could only afford junky lenses so I know what those look/feel like, and this doesn't look/feel like a junky lens. I whipped a roll of film behind it yesterday and if I like the pics, I'll consider myself not to have been ripped off too badly.