MD mount Voigtlander Skoparex 28-70 1:3.5-4.5 lens question

[murrayatuptown]

Hi:

 

A couple years ago I found a Voigtlander Skoparex 28-70 mm MD-mount macro zoom in a thrift store. S/N is 8130378. I have no idea if the first two digits mean anything specific.

 

I assumed it was a Cosina, as it seems like other Asian lenses feature-wise: one-touch zoom & partial macro capability.

 

I e-mailed CameraQuest and it doesn't sound at all familiar to Mr. Gandy. He was fairly confident it was not from Cosina.

 

It has no country info on it...which means little...some do, some don't.

 

I am trying to decide if it's actually a decent (or better) lens, and worth keeping for something in the future, or as ordinary and as a Korean Kalimar 35-70 zoom I got from the same store.

 

The Skoparex seems like kind of an orphan and making itself difficult to identify. I think I have only seen Voigtlander primes that carry the Skoparex wording.

 

I am curious if anyone has ever seen one of these; maybe it wasn't for US market, or knows if their s/n's can be associated with a year.

 

The Voigtlander Skoparex lettering is a bright medium blue. There are red letters 'MC' which I kept telling myself meant meter-coupled, but just realized it's probably 'multi-coated'. The lens finish is black everywhere but the bayonet. Filter size is 55 mm.

 

Manual focus, if not obvious.

 

1:3.5-4.5 aperture (to distinguish from 3.5-5.6 & other variants).

 

Also, the lettering font is nothing like the white-letter Voigtlander lenses.

 

Thank you

 

Murray

Edited May 2, 2019 by murrayatuptown

[Dieter Schaefer]

I assumed it was a Cosina

Unlikely as Cosina licensed the Voigtlander brand name in 1999 - by which time the Minolta MD mount was on its last legs already. The lens was most likely produced when Plus Photo (or later, but less likely Ringfoto) had lenses produced by various manufacturers and sold under the Voigtlander name - Chinon, Ricoh and Mamiya come to mind.

[Heritage Cameras]

A couple years ago I found a Voigtlander Skoparex 28-70 mm MD-mount macro zoom in a thrift store. S/N is 8130378. I have no idea if the first two digits mean anything specific.

 

I assumed it was a Cosina, as it seems like other Asian lenses feature-wise: one-touch zoom & partial macro capability.

 

A Google image search finds a few pictures of this lens, and based on these I believe the lens was made by Samyang in Korea. This was sold under many different brand names. The equivalent zoom from this period by Cosina was an f/3.5-4.8, and had separate zoom/focus rings. Hope this helps.

[rodeo_joe1]

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Does it produce decent pictures?

 

If yes - keep it. If not - send it back to the thrift store.

 

It's a budget zoom; one of millions produced to satisfy the market for affordable lenses at the height of 'SLR fever' in the late C20th.

 

My guess is that if it was any good, it'd be more famous. It has nothing to do with the venerable German firm of Voigtlander, who incidentally were first to market a zoom lens for still cameras. A groundbreaking but not-very-good feat of optical engineering.

[murrayatuptown]

Thank you all.

 

I have not used my X-700 for film recently.

 

I had been using the Minolta 50/1.7 lens on adapters on a Pentax Q7, and do like it for macro work, but that is probably a poor test of a lens' capability, especially because a failure to intelligently decide whether or not to use a tripod produces operator-induced motion blur!

 

Some lenses at thrift stores are poorly handled or even damaged. Some of those I have experimented on rather than discard. Removal of detached aperture blades leaves me with a wide open lens and removal of the bayonet mount gives me options (admittedly weird ones) to bypass register distance incompatibilities. I have trouble simply sending injured lenses to a landfill (repurposing is more attractive than recycling). I have convinced myself I do not NEED anymore things in my 'lens morgue' on the Island of the Evil Dr. Murray (was that a movie?).

 

Back to the subject lens of weak pedigree. It is in beautiful condition, and of little value, so I'll keep if for I don't know what and work on thinnng the lens herd of damaged ones first.

 

Not sure if I have a hobby or a disease...

 

Thanks for the history lesson and your patience.

 

Murray

[murrayatuptown]

I gave it another try.

 

No, it doesn't seem to do anything well other than CA. Most images I desaturate and exploit the focal shifts...it's given me the old 'snapshot' look from when I was a kid. Or there is something defective other than engineering. 

Edited February 18, 2023 by murrayatuptown

[rodeo_joe1]

If it was made by Samyang; their favourite lens fault is to build in some decentring or axis tilt. Meaning you can't get a flat or distant subject sharp from side-to-side or top-to-bottom or whatever. But when they do get the assembly right their lenses can be exceptionally good. 

Given the lack of zooms in Samyang's current or back catalogue I'm a bit skeptical that a cheap kit zoom was made by them around 40 years ago.