Individual prices (my estimates only):

ME Super - £30
Winder ME with acid damage - £10
M50/1.4 with scratches - £50
Vivitar 28mm - £20
Vivitar 135mm with scratches - £5
Asahi Polarising Filter - £30
Vivitar Flash - £5
Pullman Bag - no value

If he were to sell it together as a kit then he'd probably be looking to get around 50% of those prices, so about £75 I reckon.

Sunny...? Sunny...? I vaguely remember the word but can't quite remember what it describes any more...

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.

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.

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.

I think I've got all 15 knocking around somewhere but the only ones I carry are the blower, lens caps (Pentax though not Nikon) and the bubble level (which I do find useful for all sorts of things, not just keeping the camera straight).

If I'm travelling light though I just have the camera, one lens (with cap), strap and a spare battery tucked in my pocket - the latter being the most important accessory of all IMHO.

I wouldn't worry about dust inside as it won't show up in photos - by taking the lens apart you run the risk of losing parts (as you've already discovered) or mis-aligning elements which *will* show up in photos. As the old saying goes; if it ain't broke don't fix it!

Don't read too much into the serial number either - that'll be a Soligor number and of little/no relevance to how many were badged as Westex.

+1

I was in Morris Photo last week on a bag shopping expedition too - found exactly what I was looking for after trying a dozen or so similar offerings. The one I'd picked out online turned out to be far too big, and the perfect one I ended up with hadn't even been on my radar. With bag shopping there's no substitute for trying before you buy.

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.

I was thinking recently that someone should write a similar book now, bearing in mind MF film equipment is so plentiful and (comparatively) cheap these days. There are a lot of people out there who've only ever used digital cameras and who would be amazed at the quality you can get from 120 film.

There have been several books along the lines of an-introduction-to-digital-for-film-photographers, it'd be great to see just one that reversed this. Any writers/publishers reading..?