Spiratone Portragon 100mm f/4

bmattock

bmattock

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The Spiratone Portragon was a single-element lens with a fixed aperture (f/4) that came in t-mount. It could be mated with any one of many t-mount adapters and used on typical SLR cameras of the time. I'm guessing, but I suspect it was circa 1960's to 1970's manufacture. It was designed to present an intentionally-distorted, soft-focus effect. As the name of the lens suggests, it was aimed at portraiture. It was as much a popular fad at the time as the 'Lensbaby' lenses are today.

I have found that the crop factor of the current dSLR cameras increases the effect of the distortion, such that perhaps it is too much for typical uses.

I took this self-portrait today, using a Pentax K200D. You can click on the photos to see them larger if you wish.



I have also used the lens as a 'pictorialist' style landscape lens, with somewhat interesting results.



These lenses are often available on eBay, hopefully for not much money. They're not well-made, but there is not much to go wrong with them. Very basic, easy to use.
 
I remember it being advertised in the Pop/Modern Photography magazines. I could be wrong but I think it went for $19.95. Yours has a neat effect. I made something similar for medium format: a Polaroid plastic lens used as the donor. When you use it for portraits, you will find that women love it, all ages.
 
This portrait effect is fashionable today. I think it works well - Nice photo. As you say, also interesting for landscapes and I imagine might be interesting for table top still life. Thanks for sharing.
 
I remember the Spiratone shop very well. It was on 31st Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. They sold a lot of really interesting equipment for very little money.
 
Sold mine 30 years ago. Wish I still had it. But the German Dreamagon does the same, only better, for my money. And I'm about to test the (German again) Objectiv.

Cheers,

R.
 
It consisted of a +10 close-up lens in a focusing mount. A plus ten lens has a focal length of 100mm. F/4 requires a diameter of 25mm for a focal length of 100mm.
 
kbg32 said:
I remember the Spiratone shop very well. It was on 31st Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. They sold a lot of really interesting equipment for very little money.
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I remember that shop well too. I was a regular there, well, if you call once a month or so a regular. :) I remember their shop out in Flushing too, but only remember going there once.
 
I suspect that cheap third class postage was what made Spiratone possible. A lot of things had "plus $.35 shipping" or something similar. A lot of their gizmos and oddball filters were stuff no self respecting pro would ever buy but their "Rayburst" filter produced a cover shot for an annual report for me, and the fish-eye converter lens got a lot of use on my Hasselblad! The other pros were using expensive Nikon fish-eye lenses that put about a 20mm circle on 35mm film. I could turn in a slightly bigger than 50mm circle on 120 and the High Speed Ektachrome of that era was grainy film by today's standards. They marketed a great 400mm f/6.3 lens for under $40 too.
 
Al Kaplan said:
I suspect that cheap third class postage was what made Spiratone possible. A lot of things had "plus $.35 shipping" or something similar. A lot of their gizmos and oddball filters were stuff no self respecting pro would ever buy but their "Rayburst" filter produced a cover shot for an annual report for me, and the fish-eye converter lens got a lot of use on my Hasselblad! The other pros were using expensive Nikon fish-eye lenses that put about a 20mm circle on 35mm film. I could turn in a slightly bigger than 50mm circle on 120 and the High Speed Ektachrome of that era was grainy film by today's standards. They marketed a great 400mm f/6.3 lens for under $40 too.
Click to expand...

Al, you have a better brain than I. That stuff in their ads was so much fun to droll over. Thanks for the memories, Al.
 
There is also a Pentax K-mount 85/2.2 lens with two elements (a simple Achromat)
This can be stopped down manually to f/5.6, the way it gradually wins contrast and circle of sharpness. At f/2.2 images looking similar to these posted here.
I never used it in landscapes.
A very nice tool...
 
dmr said:
My brother had one of those. It had this incredibly funky two-ring aperture f-stop set-up.
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The two-ring aperture setup was not that unusual - early Canon FL mount lenses often had it too. It served two purposes on the Spiratones (and similar lenses) - it allowed you to do a DoF preview, and it kept you from having to look at the lens when you stopped down to the taking aperture, since it had no M42 aperture pin. You'd set one ring to your desired f-stop (say f/5.6) and leave the other wide-open, so you could focus and compose. The reach up and rotate the second ring - it stops down the lens and stops turning when it reaches the 5.6 mark that the second ring is on. Funky, but it worked.
 
That "funky two-ring" thingie was called a "pre-set diaphragm". A lot of lenses had them. You set your f-stop on one ring, focused wide open, and with a quick turn of the second ring you were stopped down to the aperture you wanted.

Back in the sixties and seventies every rinky-dink camera manufacturer had their own unique lens mount. Even cameras with the same lensmount might have different auto diaphragm set-ups, like Topcon and Exacta. Pre-set diaphragms and interchangeable T-mount adapters made life easier!

Those long skinny "stove pipe" 400/6.3 lenses were marketed by several other companies besides Spiratone. I still have a Tele-Astranar by Sterling Howard. The lenses sold in the range of $34.95 to $39.95 including front and rear caps and a T-mount adapter that seperately would have been $4.95. A slightly slower (f/6.8) Leitz Telyt sold for well over $400 and according to Modern Photography magazine wasn't any sharper.
 
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My father got a zoom lens as he got lazier later in life, a Sun Zoom if I remember right. I still have his 52mm Rayburst filter, not sure when I'll ever use it. They did have stuff that no one else did and at a reasonable price. Their fisheye adapter was used by lots of folks on some TLRs in year book photography too. I think 1/8 of their business was to year book photographers looking for something different.

Kind of like the Ron P (vegamatic, pocket fisherman) of photography......

B2 (;->
 
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