Hakuhor 135mm 3.5 T2 mount

Someone familiar with that lens? Early 1960's. Bycatch in a Topcor lens deal. Searched the web but this must have been a very small shop they came from or from a better known manufacturer but with another label. A T2-Exa adapter made it usable on the Topcon. Aperture is broken but I see that it should have a lot of blades, mechanically it looks like a good lens, focusing is smooth. Nice black finish.


Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
No photographer's gear list is complete without the printer mentioned !

Several in this this group that resemble it. The Hakuhor has a 15 blades aperture and a 46mm filter thread. Dissected now I see that the aperture is the weak spot of the lens. Pivot of each blade is just a stamped protrusion of the blade steel itself, it is like hanging on your nails at a cliff edge, the other end folded perpendicular and that side sliding in a groove on the aperture ring.



Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
No photographer's gear list is complete without the printer mentioned !

Ernst

I read somewhere recently that Komura made some flimsy aperture blade connections in some of its lenses at least. The chat was that these types of connections were hard if not impossible to repair. From memory the description of the blade connections was similar to yours.

Tom Caldwell said:

Ernst

I read somewhere recently that Komura made some flimsy aperture blade connections in some of its lenses at least. The chat was that these types of connections were hard if not impossible to repair. From memory the description of the blade connections was similar to yours.

--
Tom Caldwell

Click to expand...

Yes, I can imagine that. Repaired the lens yesterday though. Oil/grease became glue on the blades, lens had that throughout the internal parts. Lighter fluid dip for the parts without silkscreened text worked well. Some 6 blades came off the pivot connection and I could snap in 4 by pushing with a small Phillips screwdriver at the hole in the blade, the "nails" clamped again. Two other ones I had to bend the "nails" back to the center of the hole with a small knife and then could do the same. Conical shape of the aperture ring pivot hole allow the nails to cling to that hole. Rough sketch attached. The lens looks very nice, bokeh is nice like with all lenses too soft for other tasks and that's the best I can write about it. I just could not allow it to be halfblind for the rest of its life.




3.5 opening, focus on the text in the yellow label


8.0

Allphotolenses has some images made with clones of that lens, most typical: http://allphotolenses.com/gallery/item/c_2705.html

Dollonds-S, Weltblick, Prinz Galaxy and even fancier names. The Vivitar carries 76 at the start of the serial number but the lens is made before 1970 so that is no indication for a manufacturer. Someone at Allphoto thinks it is Tokina product. I have no clue. 4 element, 4 groups, more an enhanced triplet design.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
No photographer's gear list is complete without the printer mentioned !

Ernst,

Can you put up a picture of the lens.

I have a couple of Komuras with broken apertures that I have not found time to pull apart and try to fix (not 135mm though). When I was researching them I found an article which said that (some) Komuras had crimp on aperture blades with connections similar to those that you have illustrated. The article said that they were almost impossible to repair - so you have done well

I have a few Komuras and might be able to compare their look. They have several lens designs and made for LTM, their own “Universal” mount and the same lens in several popular “everyday” mounts such as MD, FD, Exa, M42, ...

As Komura was known to make for other branding as well it would be interesting to see if your lens was actually a Komura - or even if some Komuras are actually rebrands of another manufacturer.

But I tend to think that Komura was principally a lens manufacturer in its own right.

But I have never heard of a Hakuhor before.

it could use a more elegant adaption




The typical folded edge guidance. Edit: Someone else has been intrigued by that design; http://forum.mflenses.com/mistery-lenses-collection-t23606.html Readingng further on the 'vane' blades: http://www.pbase.com/pganzel/misc_repairs


6 feet minimum focusing distance, 3.5 aperture. A guy wrote his wife being the subject loves this lens. Vivitar labeled one though.


500 meter

Edit: The Soligor clone of it, as visible in the Allphotolenses search, has a serial number starting with 761. The 7 stands for Sun Optical as the manufacturer, 61 as the year of production. Searching further reveals a Sun Optical 135mm 3.5 with the same characteristics.

https://www.apotelyt.com/photo-lens/soligor-catalog

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
No photographer's gear list is complete without the printer mentioned !

Ernst,

Thanks for the photographs and links. Maybe this is a Sun made lens? I checked my Komuras. Several differences:

They all seem to have a more fluted design focus ring

The multi-blade mechanisms seem to all have a conventional pin/slot actuating mechanism but I cannot see how the blade hinge mount works without taking one apart for repair which I have not attempted as of yet

The decimal marking on your illustrated lens is “European style” comma (3,5) and not the otherwise convention of dot (3.5) as seems to be Komura practice. Of course if these lenses were made for a market the comma limiter might have just been used for the intended market.

The brand Hakuhor does not sound “European” or “English” (it hardly flows off our English speaking tongue).

Tom Caldwell said:

Ernst,

Thanks for the photographs and links. Maybe this is a Sun made lens? I checked my Komuras. Several differences:

They all seem to have a more fluted design focus ring

The multi-blade mechanisms seem to all have a conventional pin/slot actuating mechanism but I cannot see how the blade hinge mount works without taking one apart for repair which I have not attempted as of yet

The decimal marking on your illustrated lens is “European style” comma (3,5) and not the otherwise convention of dot (3.5) as seems to be Komura practice. Of course if these lenses were made for a market the comma limiter might have just been used for the intended market.

The brand Hakuhor does not sound “European” or “English” (it hardly flows off our English speaking tongue).

--
Tom Caldwell

Click to expand...

It does not flow in Dutch at all. There are a few Hakuhor lens types, tele extender etc but a brand it isn't. Far East sound to that name.

I think the lens is assembled with parts from different sources like more of the dual ring preset aperture 135mm of that period are. Glass possibly from one source, aperture assembly from different sources, barrel made in house or also third party. The 4 element 4 groups could have its origin in the even older Fujita designs.

There is not one brand with that aperture concept throughout. Some Russian lenses also seem to have it.

The lens is not as bad as I described it first but I will sell it if possible. Expect more of the Mamiya Sekor CS 135mm 2.8 that I recently bought, have to convert it to EF mount. Weight close to the MD 135 3.5 that I usually take with me. My FD 135 2.5 does the Sonnar look in portraits. Too heavy for the bag. Have some hope the M-S is a blend between both.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
No photographer's gear list is complete without the printer mentioned !

When I looked up Hakuhor on the web it tried to interest me in Suomi wrestling ...

But I think that is enough to consider that it might be some obscure Japanese small factory. By the sound of your comments they may even have been assembling them from parts supplied by other manufacturers.

I am getting to like Mamiya 645 lenses and am building up a small collection. Luckily there is not a huge variety of lens types to select from. My most exotic one is the C 145mm f4.0 soft focus. This is going to take a while for me to truly understand and get the best performance from. Luckily the instruction book is available in English on the web. It has five stages of soft focus control and soft focus is also variable with aperture - so that a mix can be obtained. Soft focus is also supposed to vary across the image circle but harder of course with the 4/3 sensor. I have tried focal reducing the lens but wiht mixed results.

This lens is one that needs the right subject matter to obviously give its best effect.

All this is not helped by the fact that their neat pull back clutch on the focus ring to effect a stop down (in this case) to allow sharp munual focus to be easier made is not working at apertures greater than f8.0. The blades seem to be sticking. As the lens obviously has a complex mechanism and is in otherwise immaculate order I am reluctant to pull it apart to try and free up the sticking aperture clutch mechanism. However this difficulty is adding to the difficulty in coming to terms with the lens capabilties. Not helped by the fact that a third complication intrudes that the focus shifts when the degree of soft focus is changed.

The soft focus effect is optically created by the mechanism that shifts two of the internal elements.

From f8.0 smaller and soft focus at minimum this is actually a very sharp normal lens.

One more comment on Mamiya 645 lenses - they are relatively expensive for the tastes of many Legacy MF lens users but considering that they were well respected medium format lenses in their day and the price of modern Mamiya lenses that presumably do much the same thing they are relative bargains.

Adapting M645 to EF and then using various standard EF to Sony E/FE or EF to M4/3 adapter combinations seems the most practical way to go. In that way I can use a Mamiya 645 lens as: shift-plain; shift/tilt; shift-focal reduced; or plain-plain. With the shift adapter capable of rotate as well. And no vignette.

Tom Caldwell said:

One more comment on Mamiya 645 lenses - they are relatively expensive for the tastes of many Legacy MF lens users but considering that they were well respected medium format lenses in their day and the price of modern Mamiya lenses that presumably do much the same thing they are relative bargains.

Adapting M645 to EF and then using various standard EF to Sony E/FE or EF to M4/3 adapter combinations seems the most practical way to go. In that way I can use a Mamiya 645 lens as: shift-plain; shift/tilt; shift-focal reduced; or plain-plain. With the shift adapter capable of rotate as well. And no vignette.

--
Tom Caldwell

Click to expand...

The Mamiya Sekor CS lenses I hunted for are for the 35mm film SLRs of Mamiya. NC1000 and NC1000s. Bayonet type. The first one I got is a 35mm 2.8. I saw some resemblance in tests results with the Topcor 35mm 2.8 lens and in practice it really is a good lens.

Of the MF Mamiya lenses the 70mm 2.8 (shutter type) for the 645 could be interesting for me, to fill the usual gap between 60 and 90 mm in SLR lenses. Not that expensive. The Pentax lenses in that gap have the wrong focusing direction, the Leitz ones are beyond my budget. The Sigma 70mm 2.8 macro is big and I have macros enough now. Nothing wrong with its IQ though. If one goes by superlative IQ in analog times, few lenses went above the rangefinder Mamiya 6/7 lenses but they keep their price. Anyway in that category there are some FujiFilm MF 645 cameras with good lenses too and either the bellows or something else goes kaput so they are more affordable as parts cameras. I have to make some other lenses workable first and sell some unused ones off before I get into the market again.

Let's finish the Hakuhor(ror) thread, too much honor for it already.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
No photographer's gear list is complete without the printer mentioned !

Agreed - move on - I have already made a post about my jammed zoom ring on the Mamiya 645 C 55-110mm f4.5N - seems a bit obscure for this forum which seems to either cover some (intersting) fringe lenses or cheap old everyday lenses that everybody knows about. Once terribly expensive old medium format lenses that are still not really cheap are not nearly as interesting or known.