I picked up some cheap M42 lenses today, mostly I bought them because I wanted a Super Takumar 55 that was in the bunch, and a Vivitar 28 I wanted to try out (which turned out to be terrible, in fact). In the bunch was a Vivitar 55mm 1.4. I wasn't that concerned about it one way or the other, but it has been a surprise--it seems to be out performing the Takumar, and I brought out me Canon EF 50 1.4 and it seems to be outresolving it. So now I am curious--has anyone ever owned this lens, or know anything about it? I tried looking it up online and found pretty much nothing. But it does look pretty much identical to the Mamiya Sekor 55 1.4--the only difference I can notice is that where the Mamiya has the numbers printed in red, on mine they are in green. The serial number starts in 9, which according to one website indicates that it was probably manufactured by Cosina, but all the websites mentioning the Mamiya indicate that particular lens was made by Tomioka, and was also known as the Tominon 55 1.4. Anyway, if anyone has any information on my lens, I would love to hear it--I am wondering if I have found something good here.
This is one of the under-rated lens, atleast on crop camera. I have 3 copies,
1) Sears 55mm f1.4
2) Rolleinar 55mm f1.4 (Rollei Mount) and
3) Older version Sears 55mm f1.4 (you need to keep the pin pressed for aperture control)
