Leica Elmar-R 4/180
(R)
Construction: ******
Condition: B
Optical Performance: 9 /10
Estimated value (mint): € 603,-
Highlights: optical performance, built, handling
Downsides: none (perhaps "only" f4?)
"What a fantastic tele lens! Highly recommendable.."
Tamron SP 8/500 Mirror Lens
(Adaptall-2)
Construction: *****
Condition: A-
Optical Performance: 8 /10
Estimated value (mint): € 150,-
Highlights: surprisingly nice pictures, built, integrated hood
Downsides: "only" f8, big (but not too big for a 500mm)
"Often mirror lenses have problems with image quality. This lens is different. It produces very nice images. You still have to accept the doughnut bokeh highlights. ;-)"
Telear-N
3.5/200 (Kiev)
(F)
Construction: ****
Condition: B
Optical Performance: 8 /10
Estimated value (mint): € 101,-
Highlights: optical performance, built, handling
Downsides: not many
"A solid lens that produces fantastic pictures, in most regards better than the Varexon or the Pentacon. It shows excellent picture quality, it's sharp and it produces fine colours. Even the bokeh is quite nice, although its aperture blades close to some unusual shape."
Jupiter-21
M 4/200
(M42)
Construction: ******
Condition: A-B
Optical Performance: 8 /10
Estimated value (mint): € 60,-
Highlights: very nice pictures, built, integrated hood
Downsides: "only" f4, big
"Execellent from f5,6 on, a little soft at f4. A heavy lens but a fine piece of glass!"
Tair
3-S 4.5/300
(M42)
Construction: *****
Condition: A-
Optical Performance: 8 /10
Estimated value (mint): € 75,-
Highlights: built, optical performance
Downsides: it's huge and heavy!
"Wow! This part of a "Snaiper" [sic!] is a tele champion! Either all the Tairs are that good or I got a really fantastic copy! Excellent resolution, great contrast and colours, no CAs whatsoever. It is much better than my Tamron 28-300 (of course, you might say) and better than my Canon EF 75-300 at 300mm. A definite recommendation!"
Pentacon
4/200
(M42)
Construction: *****
Condition: A-B
Optical Performance: 7.5 /10
Estimated value (mint): € 50,-
Original price: approx. DM 200,-
Highlights: nice pictures, built, hood
Downsides: "only" f4, big
"Very solid lens that offers a really good performance. Nice!"
Super
Varexon 3.5/200
(M42)
Construction: ****
Condition: A-B
Optical Performance: 7 /10
Estimated value (mint): € 60,-
Highlights: price
Downsides: rather unknown
"Not very common, I guess, but really good. I like to shoot with the Varexon. Its perfomance is good enough to be used with a 2x tele converter (and it's fast enough, too)."
Enna
Tele-Ennalyt 4.5/240
(M42)
Construction: ***
Condition: C
Optical Performance: 6.5 /10
Estimated value (mint): € 50,-
Highlights: price
Downsides: need of additional remote cable
"Also a strange lens. OK in resolution, fine in bokeh and colours, its aperture has to be controlled by a separate cable control, otherwise it is always open at f4.5. Quite OK."
Soligor
3.5/180
(M42)
Construction: ***
Condition: C-D
Optical Performance: 6 /10
Estimated value (mint): € 35,-
Highlights: price
Downsides: built
"A length I didn't have so far. Kind of closes or better narrows the gap between my 135mm lenses and my 200mm lenses. After the first tests, I realized that it was not in that good condition. It appeared to be new, but when you handled it, you realized that is had a slightly shaky focus ring. The pictures were OK, but sometimes not really good. It seems that the wobbly focus ring had some influence on the picture quality. Meanwhile I was able to fix it, well, sort of. It produces fine pictures, but nothing amazing."
Beroflex
-5°- 8/500
(T2 / EOS MF)
Construction: ****
Condition: C
Optical Performance: 6 /10
Estimated value (mint): € 70,-
Highlights: price
Downsides: it's looong!
"The most affordable way to get 500mm with a fine performance, I guess. Of yourse with f8 for a start you need good weather and/or a good tripod."
Tamron
Twin-Tele 5.5/225
(M42 / T2)
Construction: ***
Condition: B-
Optical Performance: 4.5
/10
Estimated value (mint): € 60,-
Highlights: none really, apart from being an unsual lens
Downsides: optical performance (as 225mm)
"A weird lens (or should I say lenses?) This 'Twin-Tele' is a regular 135mm-lens (with a mediocre to good performance but a very nice bokeh!) that can be changed by a special adapter to a 1:5.5/225. But then it loses a lot of its quality: lower contrast, sharpness, worse colours. Thus fine as a 135mm, poor as a '225mm'."