What mount is this lens? I’m Puzzled

Joeturner11

Joeturner11

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As per the title picked this up from a charity shop over the past week and in all fairness it seems a great lens and very hard to find online! Haven’t got around to testing it as yet as I still don’t know what mount it is, puzzled me but maybe it’s that obvious it’s just gone straight over my head :) any help would be great!

Sonnagar 135mm f/2.8 (seems to have 20 aperture blades aswell!!)

IMG_5057.jpgIMG_5058.jpgIMG_5059.jpg
 
Possibly Pentax K mount. There's sometimes a clue in the rear cap (but not always - and some rear caps will fit the wrong mount...)
 
Googling the lens gets you to pictures of the lens mounted on a Pentax camera and to pages saying M42.
 
Looks like a Canon FD breech-lock.
 
HoppyUK said:
Looks like a Canon FD breech-lock.
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I thought that especially with the red dot, but PP on the back of the mount?
Does the silver ring at the back (mount end) of the lens rotate if what looks to be a protruding pin is depressed (as in pushed in, not as in unhappy).
 
Where's the aperture actuating lever, or is it a manual stop-down lens, so pre-dating FD/FL?
 
Definitely not FD Breech... The 'bayonet' on a Canon FD mount is on the camera body with the breech lock ring on the lens. The pictures here clearly show that the lens is a bayonet mount with an aperture drive next to the PP engraved on the mount.
Is it possible that the lens is not for 135 format, possibly 6 x 6 cm?
 
It's plainly a bayonet but I don't know what. I reckon that the aperture isn't auto but a preset, hence the second ring up front - you preset the value but view and focus wide open before spinning the actuator ring to the preset stop before exposing. The scale near the mount is of course a dof guide.
 
PhilH04 said:
D
aperture drive next to the PP engraved on the mount.
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Dont they normally have a rotary motion, as in it slides around the lens mount, I know both my Praktica and Canon FD had that arrangement, as if being pushed from left to right (or the other way around). I think the small pin near the PP engraving is a lens mount/dismount pin.
 
droj said:
It's plainly a bayonet but I don't know what. I reckon that the aperture isn't auto but a preset, hence the second ring up front - you preset the value but view and focus wide open before spinning the actuator ring to the preset stop before exposing. The scale near the mount is of course a dof guide.
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Breech lock etc had an aperture ring, you slid it round to what you wanted, the camera then worked out the exposure in full open aperture mode and you focused in same, then just before exposure the aperture was closed down by movement of a lever in the camera which moved a corresponding arm in the lens. But I agree it doesnt look like auto aperture, although I came into photography after they were replaced by a better method.
 
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Is it an old Exacta mount lens or possibly a Topcon RE mount?

If you ask in the F and C section I'm sure someone in there will know, probably got a set of them and a camera to fit them on. :D
 
The lens could have a 'universal' threaded T-mount with a bayonet adapter added? P could indicate Praktica, Petri, Pentax ...?
 
I am going to make a guess. I believe it is a Praktina mount (a breech lock with the locking ring on camera and the bayonet on the lens) possibly with a semi automatic diaphragm, operated by the pin near to the PP engraving...
 
Joeturner11 said:
Thanks for the reply's everyone I'll have to get searching now for a adapter to get it to fit on a Nikon or Canon and get trying it out! :)
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You'll be lucky to find one, Joe, although the Praktina mount has a relatively long flange focal distance so it'll adapt to most traditional 35mm systems.

Bob
 
droj said:
http://forum.mflenses.com/sonnagar-komine-135-2-8-ex-praktina-t19551,highlight,+praktina.html
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Thanks for the link looks a really good lens, image quality seems really impressive!

Canon Bob said:
You'll be lucky to find one, Joe, although the Praktina mount has a relatively long flange focal distance so it'll adapt to most traditional 35mm systems.

Bob
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It is proving a hard issue indeed! Found a couple online but they are only going to Samsung NEX and around £80! Ideally need Sony E mount or Nikon/Canon etc. Shall have to keep searching!
 
Joeturner11 said:
It is proving a hard issue indeed! Found a couple online but they are only going to Samsung NEX and around £80! Ideally need Sony E mount or Nikon/Canon etc. Shall have to keep searching!
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If you can't find one at a reasonable price, Joe, then I suggest looking for a Praktina-M42 converter and then adding an M42-Eos behind it. Praktina discontinued their bayonet in favour of M42 so it's probable that they made such an adapter.

Bob
 
Canon Bob said:
If you can't find one at a reasonable price, Joe, then I suggest looking for a Praktina-M42 converter and then adding an M42-Eos behind it. Praktina discontinued their bayonet in favour of M42 so it's probable that they made such an adapter.

Bob
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Cheers Bob, I'll have a search for that in the morning! :)

Joe
 
I just have a deep thought that it might be a Konica mount ,I do remember seeing these lenses when I started out 50 + years ago and they were very desirable then ,135mm was the go to tell lenses in those days
 
From my days selling secondhand cameras I would go either Exa/Exacta or Praktina as suggested. Exa/Exacta were more common cameras than Praktina so I’d go that way first without having the lens in hand. The Sonnagor being Japanese it was an aftermarket lens whichever it fits.

Edited due to predictive text!
 
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