Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Two lenses--and maybe a third

I have two lenses on a FedEx truck and heading to my doorstep. One is a Bushnell 1:3.5 f=35~105mm. The second is a Tele-lentar, 1:2.8, f=135mm.

Why did I buy them? Price--one reason. The action price was $8.00 for both of them--definitely not cult-classic lenses.

And curiosity. Bushnell is a division of Bauch&Lomb of binocular and telescope fame. For a few years back in the 80's they made or distributed a relatively small number of camera lenses. Google turned up very little info about their lenses. But I figured they couldn't be that bad. Bauch&Lomb had a reputation to maintain. Plus the lenses zooms from 35-105mm--normal to short telephoto on my 1.5 crop D60--a zoom range I don't own.

I'm not even certain the Lentar 135mm f2.5 comes with a Nikon mount. But it does have some sort of universal mount. The iris ring has marking that good both CW and CCW. I may be surprised but I have bought lens that came with Adaptal and T4 mounts so I should be able to make it work. As for the curiosity, I have a Nikkor 135mm f2.8 and I want to compare the two lenses. Make an interesting discussion in the forums if the $4 no name lens turns out to be as good or even better than the Nikkor.

The third maybe lens. A super cult classic very hard to find Viv 100mm 1:1 macro. There is only one for sale on ebay--a Buy it Now for $299. The maybe is now at $18.87 with 4 hours and 22 minutes to go.

A very under advertised lens. Someone had no idea what he/she was selling. If you didn't recognize the makings in a couple uninformative photo you would not know it was the 1:1 macro. So the question now is how many other collectors like myself are waiting in the weeds to pounce and make a bid in the last few seconds of the auction. Find out in about 4 hours.

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Twas not to be. Three of us lurked in the grass and I was out bid. Boohoo

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