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The Limbo Connection

The Limbo Connection club

Posted: 19 Jan 2020

Taken: 07 May 2016

7 favorites     4 comments    257 visits

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Keywords

light •
Chinon 55mm f/1.4 •
legacy lens •
Tomioka •
Chinon •
Canon EOS 40D •
extension tube •
red onion •
depth of field •
onion •
vegetable •
still life •
texture •
red •
shadow •
fast lens •
prime lens •
standard lens •

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Red Onion Photographed with a Chinon 55mm f/1.4 Lens

Red Onion Photographed with a Chinon 55mm f/1.4 Lens
An extension tube between the camera and the lens enabled close focussing here.

The Japanese Tomioka company made the Chinon 55m f/1.4 lens to a Planar design by Johannes Berger of Zeiss, which Zeiss never themselves used, having something similar which they considered superior.

I bought the lens - still attached to a Chinon CX - from an eBay seller. It is engraved ‘Auto Chinon’ but in all other respects is identical to 55mm f/1.4 lenses badged ‘Tomioka’ which Chinon were supplying before 1974 when there was a change of ownership at Tomioka. The company was taken over by Carl Zeiss in 1974 and the name Tomioka was removed from the front of lenses being supplied to camera manufacturers.

Tomioka was at one time the largest lens producer in Japan. It was more economical for Chinon, Mamiya Sekors, Ricoh, and others to buy from Tomioka than to manufacture their own lenses. In this they were not alone. Vivitar and Soligor, for example, never made lenses. They specified what they wanted, and various Japanese optical companies bid for the contracts.

When sold new in the UK by Dixons the f/1.4 lens was available as an option to the normal f/1.7 for an extra £10 over the £69.95 usual price (I quote from a 1976 advertisement in ‘Amateur Photographer’). That was quite a premium and as a result the f/1.4 version is relatively scarce.

Sylvain Wiart, Rachel J Bowler, Andrew Trundlewagon, Annalia S. and 3 other people have particularly liked this photo

Comments
 Ingo Krehl
Ingo Krehl club
Danke für die Informationen.
☆ ☆
5 years ago.
 Bob Taylor
Bob Taylor club
Excellent choice of subject, beautifully photographed. I appreciate, too, the information about the Chinon lenses (they aren't, unfortunately, part of my collection).
5 years ago.
The Limbo Connection club has replied to Bob Taylor club
Thank you, Bob, for your complimentary remarks. The strong interest in this lens continues unabated. There must be a suspicion that people who own one or more of them are simply talking the price up. The trick is to find one attached to a camera and therefore listed under 'cameras' rather than in the category of 'lenses'. The copies bearing the Tomioka name engraved around the front element sell for appreciably more than the later ones lacking that detail; often twice as much, or more. Yet there is no difference other than the Tomioka name. I paid £37 four years ago. I think I got something of a bargain. I like this lens despite its age and obvious deficiencies when compared to a fast 50mm in current production.
5 years ago.
 The Limbo Connection
The Limbo Connection club
Here is a picture of the lens. Make sure, if you fancy one, that you get the leatherette finish to the focussing ring and that the rear element is perfectly flat.
A Fast Standard Lens
5 years ago.

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