Can anyone identify more info about this lens - 135mm f3.5?

[peterm1]

I was wondering if anyone knows something about this lens. I bought this yesterday and picked it up from the seller (same city sale) but can find virtually nothing about it on Google.

The lens is a 135mm f3.5 and is labelled Zetagon, which is almost certainly an aftermarket / made up marketing name in the style used a lot by lens makers in the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s.

It is a pretty lens, with painted finish and silver chrome rings and is slightly unusual in that while it looks like an M39 lens it is in fact an M42 - a preset lens with 4 chrome rings counting the chrome mounting ring. It is also heavily built in the fashion of early Komuras and has 14 aperture blades.

In fact I think I have seen something like this before and the following images are of the sort of lens I have in mind (in this case labelled Juplen).

http://forum.mflenses.com/fujita-the-forgotten-maker-t22482,highlight,juplen.html

BTW The images look good and I will submit a couple of examples shortly as I process them.

 

[peterm1]

Here are three quick images made with the lens. It is what I would think of as pretty typical of lenses of this era and type, especially when shot wide open.

Low contrast, with acceptable but only moderate sharpness (especially relatively close like these) and nice bokeh - a product of those 14 blades. It is nice to shoot with if you like old lenses and this kind of imagery.

 

[View Range]

This is a topic that could use an in depth book written by someone who was part of the Japanese lens manufacturing industry in the 1950s and 60s. There were a LOT of third-party branded lenses. But how many lens manufactures were there really? And to whom did they supply lenses with a variety of name rings?

 

[peterm1]

I just stumbled on this thread once more which I started over 2 years ago asking if anyone knew of this lens - a 135mm f3.5 "Zetagon". I could find no info on it on the internet other than one other owner asking essentially the same question. I thought I might resurrect it in the hope that in the past couple of years some info has come to light. I am still pleasantly surprised at how nicely it renders in that acceptably sharp yet low contrast kind of way that some older lenses have. I like this style of image.

Let me be clear though............I realize that Zetagon is most likely a marketing name for the lens and that it would have been made by one of the well known Japanese makers. So I am not really asking if anyone necessarily knows the lens by name. I am much more interested to know if someone recognizes the lens from its appearance - and with another name. The appearance is slightly unusual even for an age when silver and black were commonly used liveries. (I initially thought that Kyoei Acall was a reasonable bet as they did make some similar lens styles but have not been able to turn up a photo of a lens that looks exactly like this under that name.)
In other words does anyone have any other potential name for the lens based on its looks?

Cheers.

 

[Greyscale]

Your lens is a Kyoei Acall 135/3.5.