1960 fastest SLR lens ...

[Sonnar2]

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....

 

[bmattock]

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....

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]

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]

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]

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....

Well, there was a Nikon 50/1.1 introduced in 1956.

http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/NikkorRF50mm1.1.jpg

 

[bmattock]

But Exakta? Even now, who cares about the top-camera from 5 or 8 years ago?

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]

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...

 

[Prosaic]

Prosaic, thank you for citing my website 😉 This is the SLR forum, we're discussing SLR lenses. 🙂

I see... 😀

 

[rolleistef]

... and it's an Exacta Paul Newman uses in Rear Window to spy on his neighbours while with a broken leg...

 

[Sonnar2]

 

[kjoosten]

... and it's an Exacta Paul Newman uses in Rear Window to spy on his neighbours while with a broken leg...

Jimmy Stewart