What have you just BOUGHT?

peterm1 said:
I can say that Ricoh lenses I have experienced are all good to excellent and perhaps the one I like best for its rendering is the Ricoh 50mm f1.7 in Pentax K / PK mount.
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I agree. The XR 50f/.17 is an excellent lens but so is the cheap XR 50f/2 which is almost pancake size and suits well small cameras (I use it on an Pentax ME).

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p.giannakis said:
I agree. The XR 50f/.17 is an excellent lens but so is the cheap XR 50f/2 which is almost pancake size and suits well small cameras (I use it on an Pentax ME).
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Mine landed earlier and is slightly smaller than the 50/2 and happy for the price paid, the close focusing is about 2 feet away! But that's what Ext Tubes are for ;)

You can clearly see the softness at 2.2, it's mostly all plastic but feels OK on the Camera, looking forward to trying it out.

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p.giannakis said:
I agree. The XR 50f/.17 is an excellent lens but so is the cheap XR 50f/2 which is almost pancake size and suits well small cameras (I use it on an Pentax ME).

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Yes, that is the lens version I have. I found it unloved in a bric a brac store and paid $10 or something like that for it. It had a faint touch of fog behind the front element which was easy to fix. The rendering of this lens is really nice - it is sharp and contrasty with just a touch of classic charm. I spoke to a camera guy I know (a collector who works in a camera store) who told me that most (all?) of these 50mm f1.7 lenses made in Japan back in that era were a Zeiss Planar design. Zeiss had a working arrangement with Yashica in Japan and licensed them to make and market the 50mm Planar not just for their own cameras but also for other Japanese camera companies too. (At least that is the story so far as I understand it.) What I do know is that 50mm f1.7 lenses can be found in the livery and mounts of companies like Yashica, Ricoh, Konica, Pentax etc. Is it true with respect to this lens specifically? I suspect it is because it fits with the story of the Zeiss/Yashica collaboration but have not been able to absolutely confirm it except in terms of generalities - Zeiss did have such a partnering arrangement with Yashica and licensed some Planar designs to them. And BTW according to what I have read these were made in the fabled Tomioka plant - a famous name in Japanese classic lens making which was at one time owned by Yashica.
 
peterm1 said:
Is it true with respect to this lens specifically? I suspect it is because it fits with the story of the Zeiss/Yashica collaboration but have not been able to absolutely confirm it
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I remember reading an article by Mike Johnston were he said that Zeiss fell out with Kyocera for registering the Contax name rights to Yashica. That was considered crossing a red line and Zeiss started delaying the delivery of the lenses for the RTS system. As a result Yashica established the ML line which were Zeiss copies build to high standards but without the T* coating.

All those lenses that came out of the Tomioka factories and have a Zeiss equivalent, are excellent Zeiss copies. The rest are not Zeiss designs.
 
p.giannakis said:
I remember reading an article by Mike Johnston were he said that Zeiss fell out with Kyocera for registering the Contax name rights to Yashica. That was considered crossing a red line and Zeiss started delaying the delivery of the lenses for the RTS system. As a result Yashica established the ML line which were Zeiss copies build to high standards but without the T* coating.

All those lenses that came out of the Tomioka factories and have a Zeiss equivalent, are excellent Zeiss copies. The rest are not Zeiss designs.
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That's interesting, thank you.
 
This week I bought a white Ricoh 500GX which seems to be in good condition, although I think it's been re-covered as the right hand side plastic body protector thingy around the strap lug has been caught under the body cover, and the bit surrounding the "multi-exposure" dial bit hasn't been cut quite well enough. It also seems to work, although there is the occasional high pitched low volume sound right at the end of the shutter noise. I bought it because I don't hold out much hope of getting my original one fixed.
 
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