Sonnar2
Well-known
TAIKA HARIGON, heard about it? it has a ZEN kind of aperture setting: you think, you press the aperture ring down deeply, you turn it to the desired f-stop, you release it. Than you focus. Next you will turn the preset-ring left until it stops. Than take your picture.
Fastest SLR lens in the world, back then in 1960... Nikon, Pentax and Canon struggled hard to bring out a f/1.4 lens. Taiseh Optical (later renamed to Tamron) already had a f/1.2....
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bmattock
Veteran
Very cool historical information, and no, I had not heard of it, so thanks!
However...
I think the Zunow might have it beat. They had their own SLR and 58mm f/1.2 lens, in 1958.
http://www.cameraquest.com/zunow.htm
Zunow also had an f/1.1 lens, but it was for the rangefinders and I do not know when it was released.
My only 1.2 lenses were made much later - Canon FL 58mm and FL 55mm, both made in the early-mid sixties, I believe.
bmattock
Veteran
Well, whichever came first, I think it is very cool, and I am glad you shared it with us, because I never heard of Taika Harigon before now. I'd love to see some photos you took with it, I'm sure it must be a very rare (and probably worth a ton of gelt).
Tin
Well-known
I bought an Exakta IIb in 1967, and continued to use it for quite a few years. But I had never heard of this lens. The fastest telephoto lens for the Exakta that I had ever heard of was the 75/1.5 Biotar. That was one lens that I had dreamed of, but obviously couldn't have afford it as I was a poor student back then.
Prosaic
Well-known
Well, there was a Nikon 50/1.1 introduced in 1956.
http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/NikkorRF50mm1.1.jpg
bmattock
Veteran
The Jim Carey movie, "The Majestic," has a brief moment in it of Jim Carey being photographed by some men who were using an Exakta.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268995/
I'm sorry I can't find a still of that event in the movie. It's a good movie, by the way.
Sonnar2
Well-known
A big lens isn't really a problem on a Exakta.
For my feel, the Exakta looks much less "antique" with black lenses.
Anyway this example took most of it's life a fully black Schneider Xenon 50/1.9 -the fastest 50mm SLR lens by it's day - so the only chrome lense I would attach to it is a 75/1.5 Biotar...
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Prosaic
Well-known
Prosaic, thank you for citing my websiteThis is the SLR forum, we're discussing SLR lenses.
I see...
rolleistef
Well-known
... and it's an Exacta Paul Newman uses in Rear Window to spy on his neighbours while with a broken leg...
