Tamron 400/6.9 preset t-mount - a very early collectible

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

This is an old Tamron (model FO-69) from about 1963. It seems to be one of the more common of the Tamron long lenses, and of course it is one of the first t-mount lenses.

Tamron started establishing their brand early - while they sold through the distributors under their brands - notably Soligor - they also made a point of selling their product under their own name as well, and they weren't shy of it - they made sure to print it in very large letters on their early products !

This is a typical Tamron product of the early period, very simple, sturdy, well made and finished. It is a very light and handy lens for a 400mm, helped by the rather small aperture. Its a fraction of the weight of, for instance, the Meyer Telemegor 400/5.5. It is no hardship to carry this around.

I think this was intended as a consumer lens, if so it is one of the first of the low-cost "wundertute". Tamron also made a line of even smaller and lighter 400mm's, and even a collapsible model (Nestar), on the same principles and probably for the same market.

This one came in rather worn condition, with a badly dented filter ring, but that is easy to remedy. The glass has the coating worn off in spots, doubtless reducing performance a bit. Even so, it is a very capable lens that is sharp wide open (even if that is only f/6.9), and as far as I can tell, excellent contrast. Its worst problem is a rather long minimum focus of 30ft/9m.

The bird - I never managed to get perfect focus on this, after many tries, maybe because of the small aperture ?

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