A few weeks ago I picked up an interesting vintage camera lens designed by the Ichizuka Optical Company. This lens, the Telinar 105mm F/4.5, originates from Japan, dating back to the mid 50’s & 60’s. Very little is known about this lens and its manufacturer. The only information I could find online was on the Camerapedia website. Drawn by its aluminum build, quirky shape, m42 mount and $20 price tag I was curious to see what sort of images it could produce.

The lens arrived through the mail in average shape. All the aluminum had tarnished to a dull flat silver and the inner lens element was coated with a film of fungus/haze.  After fully restoring my first camera lens, the Jupiter 11 135mm F/4, I thought I’d give this lens a try. To start, I had to figure out how to pull out the rear element to see if I could clean the haze. I purchased a compass from Home Depot to use as a spanner wrench but soon realized this was a mistake. Using a compass as a spanner wrench is a terrible idea as it warps with pressure when you unscrew any part of the lens. I bit the bullet and purchased proper spanner wrenches off eBay for $45 which were much more efficient at taking apart the lens.

Dismantling the lens was fairly easy. I managed to get to the hazy glass within 20 minutes. Luckily the haze wiped off easily, so I put everything back together and polished the aluminum with Autosol. After re-greasing the focusing helix with white lithium grease it was good as new! So how did it perform?

Mounted on a Canon 5D, the Telniar 105mm is surprisingly sharp. At F/4.5 images in the center are very sharp, but soft around the edges with low contrast. Ironically enough, these are exactly the sort of qualities I like in a vintage lens. If you see one of these lenses, don’t hesitate to pick one up!