City Gardens: Trenton's Lost Punk Rock Mecca

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The building seemed to sag against the Trenton sky, its walls leaning in a way that looked both tired and dangerous. I was driving, searching for a lunch spot after a morning spent exploring the city's industrial skeletons, when I saw it. A questionable choice, maybe, but curiosity is a powerful guide. I pulled over. Getting inside was one of the sketchiest entrances I’ve ever attempted. But once my feet were on the dusty floor, the danger faded. An enormous space stretched before me. It was sparse, cleaned out. My footsteps echoed where a stage once stood, a fact I’d later confirm in a NNKH YouTube video about the building’s past life as an underground punk club. The video showed a vibrant scene, an electric place. But the ghosts of that life were mostly gone. The long, rounded bar, where thousands of hands must have slapped down crumpled bills, had vanished. The dust-coated wine and shot glasses that once lined its shelves were gone, too. The club’s glittering crown jewel, a l...
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eBay Vintage Lens Buy: Rare Taisei Kogaku (Tamron) 135mm f2.8


Rare Taisei Kogaku 135mm Twin Tele
A remarkable lens from Japan, very sharp wide open, of the famous zeiss inspired design with preset aperture. It's well made, all glass and steel, with excellent color and contrast. The optics in this lens are amazing, it is simple and it works. It's bokeh and colour rendering are brilliant and it's as sharp as a razor. This is one of the mythical lenses of the days of lore, and hard to find even on ebay. There is about 340 degrees of rotation on the focus ring. The lens came with a 2X adapter as well. This series of lenses (model 680) were made between 1962 & 1969. The included tele converter is shown in the picture. This gave the kit the twin tele name. 
Sharp Kogaku 135


Also known as the Taisei Kogaku [Tamron] Tamron 680 Twin-Tele 135mm f/2.8. A rare lens with the hard to adapt praktina mount. Mounting this lens onto to a EOS Rebel won't be easy. I have been trying to source an adapter for my Canon 600D Rebel but so far all information has pointed me to praticka B mount adapters. The praktina mount is often confused with the praktica B mount (PB). A few sellers on eBay (fleaBay) sell PB->EOS adapters but no praktina mounts. The praktina mount has a bayonet type screw mount. In addition, I am missing the 2x adapter that came with it that gave it the twin tele name.

No praktina mounts available anywhere in the world. The only inkling on the Internet is some guy who may be able to source work in manufacturing some praktina-EOS adapters for a steep Euro. I think it would be worth it since it is a rare lens and a hard to find adapter conversion. If only it came in the ubiquitous universal M42 mount. I would be outside on this glorious midday afternoon snapping away at all the pretty flowered trees.

Currently my copy has some haze on the front element and some oil on the blades. So far the oil has not affected the buttery smooth blades when toggling the aperture ring. The lens feels very hefty, solid and genuine feel of a well made lens. I am impressed. Hopefully sourcing some type of praktina to M42 mount would reap great benefits.

Front Element Haze

The only sources of hand made adapters are for m4/3, Sony NEX, and Samsung NX cameras.
View here.


Technical Info 
Serial #- 373268
F/range-2.8 - 22 
Focal range 135mm or 225mm (2x teleconverter)
12 aperture blades (bokeh goodness)
12 Blades of Aperture Bokeh Glory/Sony HX9V lens needs a good cleaning.

 Source: Four Thirds Forum Samples, Asian Manual Focus Club Forum, Praktina M4/3/Sony/Samsung
Praktinafan Flickr, MFLenses Forum Praktina to EOS Conversion Discussion, Tamron Twin Tele,

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 16, 2017 at 3:26 AM

    I know this is an old post, but I have acquired one of these lenses in what seems to be Pristine condition. Was wanting to sell, but not sure what its real worth is. Any help?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 16, 2017 at 3:26 AM

    I know this is an old post, but I have acquired one of these lenses in what seems to be Pristine condition. Was wanting to sell, but not sure what its real worth is. Any help?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kareem KingMarch 19, 2017 at 11:32 PM

      I apologize for the late reply. I cannot remember how much I bought it for but to my understanding it is rare because of the mounting system. I would price it about USD 80 -120.

      Delete

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