Westex Lens M42

Hi guys, I'm new here but I was wondering if anyone knew much information about these lenses. I've managed to get one off ebay for 12 pounds which was reasonable. It was a Westex 135mm f2.8 which is M42 thread mount. I haven't been able to find information on this lens actually, and would be glad if someone could enlighten me. It is made in japan. I believe has 15 aperture blades which is quite impressive.

Some photos of this lens are on a flickr account I just made:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58480074@N05/
(Hope the link works)

Hope that someone has some information on these.

That looks very much like a Soligor to me. They made many lenses that ended up being rebadged depending on the territory they were sold in (usually with the name of the importer/distributer/shop); I've not heard of Westex before but the silver/black colour scheme, pre set operation and large number of blades are all Soligor hallmarks.

I've found Soligor made M42 lenses to be reasonable performers in the past, not quite up to Takumar or CZJ standards but better than most third party manufacturers. For 12 quid you can't really go far wrong.

Hi thanks alot, but the most rather interesting thing about this lens; is that the aperture settings are at the front of the lens. I have never used a M42 lens before and it's my first try; but it also appears to have two aperture rings where I can turn to get, one to get the aperture larger and the other to make it smaller.

Hi kcsun. Early M42 lenses didn't have an automatic aperture so they had to be "preset". You took the reading with a lightmeter, set your shutter speed, and then the aperture on one ring, focused, then closed the aperture with the second ring and took the photo.

With modern dSLRs this can be quite useful. Leave the preset ring wide open and put the camera on Av mode. Focus the lens, and then close the aperture ring until either (a) the shutter speed is as slow as you can cope with (traditionally about 1/125th with a 135mm lens although with shake reduction you can get away with 1/60th easily enough) or (b) when the DoF is how you want it.

In some ways preset lenses are easier to use on a dSLR than later K and M series lenses. Don't forget, the camera will have no way of knowing the f-stop and so the display will read something like F--

Enjoy the lens. K.

This is the first time I seen a lens branded Westex, i've tried to search for it everywhere on the internet. It appears that no one seems to have encountered these lenses. But the weird this is its numbered No.196704 which suggest quite a lot of other lenses like this were made. The condition of my lens is not great though, as there appears to be a bit of dust inside.. Any ideas of how to remove it? I have attempted to take it apart, but nearly lead to me losing a screw head about 2mm of size.. Hope someone here might own a similar lens.

Thanks alot anyways, as soon as I get my M42 adapter sent to me I will give them a good test when I am free.
Also looking forward to my close to MINT Jupiter 11A to arrive from russia!! Which is quite exciting. Thanks alot for you help though. Is there a M42 discussion anywhere in this forum? or any M42 users?

There are plenty of M42 users but no specific place for M42 discussions, here in the lenses section is as good as anywhere - or in the Your Photos section if you have some results to show. If it's a genuine Takumar lens then the Pentax Equipment sub-forum is another good place to start threads.

The Jupiter 11A is a very nice lens and I'd be willing to bet you'll end up using that a lot more than your Westex/Soligor 135mm.

BTW, Westex appears to have been the trading name of Westminster Photographic Exchange - a pre-war British camera manufacturer who made various folding cameras from 1903 onwards. Like many manufacturing concerns based in London (premises variously listed at Victoria Street, Oxford Street, Piccadilly, Charing Cross Road, The Strand and finally Cheapside) they disappeared in the war years, no doubt due to the efforts of the Luftwaffe, never to return as an independent company.

The name would have almost certainly been bought by one of the (then big in camera retailing) High Street chains such as Boots The Chemist, Dollond & Aitchison, etc to appear on imported lenses such as your Soligor. I can't say which chain it was that used Westex but I'd imagine it was a British one and I'm 99.9% certain it'll have no relationship with the original Westminster Photographic Exchange.

Yup, there are some M42 users about... I should be getting my Jupiter-11 tomorrow but it is in Leica thread mount for my FED2...

Best wishes, Kris.

I managed to find that information too, but then it seems that it was made in japan which then lead me to think; maybe not?
Also the only images i found were really really old pre war cameras...
This history lens search is certainly getting quite interesting.


Ooh! Jupiter 11, should be quite nice!!!
I was deciding between the jupiter's and some forum recommended 11A over 11 and 37A so I went for it I guess. Looking forward to your photos. I've only seen some photos, but I know that my jupiter has a rather small aperture at f4.. I was wondering is it enough to capture some rather funky bokeh... Since you are also a jupiter user you should be able to enlighten me perhaps?

It would be nice if there was a M42 discussion area, or old lenses discussion area. I am kind of fed up of prices of the new lenses, and in a tight financial situation as a student; so I start to explore the cheap end lenses. Anyway's I use a Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4 for those who were wondering.

I've got the Jupiter 135mm's 11A and 37A both similar and superb performers and still very cheap.

Some shots on Flickriver

I think maybe you've missed the point here. Yes the lens was made in Japan, but at the time (probably late 50's / early 60's judging by the preset design) there was quite a bit of prejudice in the UK regarding anything made in Japan as it was generally considered to be cheap rubbish (plus memories of the war were still fresh in many minds and Japan was still thought of as "the enemy" to many).

So if you owned a photographic retailer in Britain in the 50's, and you wanted to import/sell cheap lenses from Japan, the best way to slip them into the hands of your customers was to re-badge them with a British (or British sounding) name. By picking a name from a recently defunct company (Westex in this case) you could then advertise the lenses as "Westex" and sell a lot more of them (no doubt at a higher price) than if you left them branded as "Soligor".

This wasn't unique to photographic companies - toys, hi-fi, televisions and many more all got the same treatment. I'd be interested to know who used the Westex name for their imports though, and I'd bet if you could find an old copy of Amateur Photographer from that period you could find out by going through the dealer adverts.

I'm not sure the Jupiter-11a came in LTM fitting. I'll let you know how it fares when I get the next roll of film back from the developers.

If you are into old lenses you could visit the mflenses forum as well. I lurk there too, if not quite as much as I lurk here. They tend to be a bit too obsessed with German glass but I can live with that.

K.

The Jupiter 'a' lenses use an interchangeable mount system, similar to a T2 mount held on by 3 small screws. Not sure if a LTM was is available or not. There was a very rare 'K' Bayonet one although the Pentax official M42/K adaptor is probably a better fit.