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AndrewFlannigan

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Has anyone ever used the extraordinary INA 135mm f1.5 (Yep: f1.5 !)? I have seen one. It was in the window of a shop at the bottom of Fitzjohn's Avenue in North London (where it joins Finchley Road). This was in the late 1960s. At £160 (equivalent to £3000 today) it was far beyond my means and I wonder just how many they sold.
Advert for INA 135mm lens IMG_8684.JPG
 
A wiki page I found suggests it was sold as Vivitar brand and another perhaps Soligar.

Either way it is apparently very rare and sought after!
 
Sigma do a 135 f1.8 (so only a tad slower) for around £1000 and I bet optically it's a lot better than something from the 60's, they also do a 105 f1.4

It does make me wonder if the wafer thin DoF is that useful however.
 
Box Brownie said:
A wiki page I found suggests it was sold as Vivitar brand and another perhaps Soligar.
Click to expand...
Yes, I knew about the Vivitar and Soligor lenses. It was claimed that the Ponder and Best (Vivitar) version was commissioned by NASA so it might have been a different design. The Soligor could be a clone of the INA.

Incidentally: as of the latest version of Google Street View the shop I saw the INA in is still there: Trans World Trading. Doesn't seem to have a web presence though.
 
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