Auto Rikenon 135mm f/2.8 (incl. EE, Sears)

Ricoh · M42 · 1967

our own finding

Also known as: Auto Rikenon 135mm f/2.8 · Auto Rikenon 135mm f2.8 · Auto Rikenon 1:2.8 f=135mm · Auto Rikenon 135mm 1:2.8 · Auto Rikenon 2.8/135 · Ricoh Auto Rikenon 135mm · Ricoh Rikenon 135mm M42 · Rikenon 135mm M42 · Rikenon 135mm f2.8 M42 · Rikenon 135mm 1:2.8 M42 · Rikenon Auto Lens 135mm · Auto Rikenon f/135mm 1:2.8 · Ricoh Automatic Rikenon 135mm · Auto Rikenon EE 135mm f/2.8 · Auto Rikenon EE 135mm · Rikenon EE 135mm · Auto Sears 135mm f2.8 · Auto Sears 135mm f/2.8 · Auto Sears 135mm 1:2.8 · Sears Auto 135mm f2.8 · Auto Sears 1:2.8 f=135mm · Auto Sears 2.8/135 · Rikenon 2.8/135 · Rikenon 2,8/135 · Rikenon 135 mm f/2.8 · Auto Rikenon 1:2.8 135mm · Rikenon 1:2.8 135mm M42 · Rikenon 1:2.8 f=135mm M42 · Rikenon 135 mm f/2.8 M42

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Auto Rikenon 135mm f/2.8 (ribbed metal focusing ring)	M42	—	—	—
Auto Rikenon 135mm f/2.8 (knurled focusing grip)	M42	—	—	—
Auto Rikenon EE 135mm f/2.8	M42 (with Ricoh EE coupling for the Auto TLS EE)	—	—	—
Auto Sears 135mm f/2.8	M42	—	—	—

Construction (4 groups, 4 elements), closest focus (1.8 m), angle of view (18°) and filter (55 mm) are from Ricoh's accessory tables in the SLX 500 and Auto TLS EE manuals, which agree on them, and from Dr. Ricoh's list, which repeats them and gives the non-EE lens f/2.8–22. The smallest stop of the EE lens is not given in any source; Ricoh's photograph of it does not show the end of the scale.
Weight differs by source. Ricoh's SLX 500 manual gives 390 g (0.86 lb) for the non-EE lens and its Auto TLS EE manual 405 g (0.89 lb), with 420 g for the EE lens; Dr. Ricoh gives 405 g and 420 g. Matt Denton weighed his Auto Sears at 394 g, m42lens.com gives 468 g for the ribbed Auto Rikenon, and allphotolenses.com 446 g and 90.45 mm long.
Other published figures disagree with Ricoh's: m42lens.com gives the ribbed lens 4 elements in 3 groups and 1.73 m closest focus and the knurled one 1.5 m; Denton and allphotolenses.com both give 1.5 m. Blade count is eight in m42lens.com's database and photograph and in Denton's notes, six on allphotolenses.com; it is left blank here. allphotolenses.com also describes the built-in hood as retractable by 14 mm.
Dates: no source dates the introduction of any version. 1967 on this page is the year Ricoh gives for the Singlex TLS, whose instruction manual lists a '135mm f 2.8 automatic' among its accessory Rikenon lenses; that manual is undated, so 1967 is the earliest year the lens can be tied to, not a proven launch date. The SLX 500 (1975 by Ricoh) and Auto TLS EE manuals list it again. The EE lens cannot be older than the Auto TLS EE, which Ricoh dates to 1976 and camera-wiki to 1973 on the strength of a Popular Photography advertisement. For the Sears lens, Denton's 'late 1960s' and luisalegria's 'early to mid-1970s' are both estimates.
The ribbed and knurled barrels are told apart from m42lens.com's photographs only. Which came first, and whether the change came with the EE series, is not recorded.
No list price for the lens in yen or dollars is on record. Dr. Ricoh's list gives €20 for the non-EE lens and €25 for the EE lens in its Value (EUR) column, its estimated collector values for copies in very good condition, not recorded sales or period prices.

How to tell them apart (expand)

135mm f/2.8, 55 mm filter, built-in telescoping hood and an A–M switch on the plain Auto Rikenon; Ricoh's tables give 4 elements in 4 groups and 1.8 m closest focus
Three Ricoh-badged forms: a ribbed metal focusing ring, a diamond-knurled focusing grip, and the Auto Rikenon EE with an EE position on its aperture ring. A Sears-badged Auto Sears 135mm f/2.8 shares the ribbed lens's features
Ricoh's K-mount 135mm f/2.8 lenses (XR Rikenon, 1978 onward in Dr. Ricoh's list) also take 55 mm filters but have a bayonet and focus to 1.5 m; they do not screw into an M42 body. Ricoh's M42 Rikenon 135mm f/3.5, listed by Dr. Ricoh without the Auto prefix, is a separate lens with a 49 mm filter

Auto Rikenon 135mm f/2.8 (ribbed metal focusing ring):

Focusing ring of fine straight ribs in black metal, with a telescoping hood built into the front of the barrel
Separate A–M ring between the depth-of-field scale and the aperture ring; aperture ring marked 22 16 11 8 5.6 4 2.8; distance scale in white metres and green feet, with a colour-coded depth-of-field scale
Front ring engraved AUTO RIKENON 1:2.8 f=135mm, LENS MADE IN JAPAN, with a serial number followed by P (m42lens.com's example, No.75476 P)
Eight-sided aperture in m42lens.com's photograph of the lens stopped down, matching the database's eight blades

Auto Rikenon 135mm f/2.8 (knurled focusing grip):

Focusing ring covered in a raised diamond-pattern grip in place of the straight ribs; built-in telescoping hood
A–M ring with a red A, aperture ring 22 16 11 8 5.6 4 2.8; distance scale in orange feet and white metres, focal length printed in green beside it
Front ring engraved AUTO RIKENON 1:2.8 f=135mm, LENS MADE IN JAPAN, serial followed by P (m42lens.com's example, No.775307 P)
Boxed in m42lens.com's example in a black-and-white RICOH LENS carton marked 135MM F/2.8 AUTOMATIC RIKENON LENS

Auto Rikenon EE 135mm f/2.8:

EE engraved on the aperture ring next to the f/2.8 end (Ricoh's photograph shows the ring reading 16 11 8 5.6 4 2.8, then EE)
Front ring engraved AUTO RIKENON EE; finely ribbed focusing ring in Ricoh's photograph
Ricoh gives 420 g, 15 g more than the non-EE lens; construction, closest focus, angle and filter are the same

Auto Sears 135mm f/2.8:

Front ring engraved AUTO SEARS, LENS MADE IN JAPAN and the focal length in place of AUTO RIKENON (Matt Denton's photograph)
Denton lists an A–M switch, built-in hood, 55 mm filter, eight blades, f/2.8–22 and 1.5 m closest focus, and weighs his at 394 g
M42 thread. Sears's later MC Auto Sears 135mm f/2.8 is a Pentax K-mount lens and is not this one

Auto Rikenon 135mm f/2.8 (ribbed metal focusing ring): The lens listed as version 1 in the m42lens.com database, photographed there from front, side and rear. The database gives f/2.8–22, 4 elements in 3 groups, 8 blades, 1.73 m closest focus, 55 mm filter, 468 g and dimensions of 66 mm by 98 (86) mm. The construction, distance and weight disagree with Ricoh's own table (4 elements in 4 groups, 1.8 m, 390 or 405 g), and no Ricoh document distinguishes this barrel from the knurled one; the split is by appearance only. The EE 135mm in Ricoh's Auto TLS EE manual photograph also has a finely ribbed focusing ring.
Auto Rikenon 135mm f/2.8 (knurled focusing grip): The lens listed as version 2 in the m42lens.com database, which records f/2.8–22, 1.5 m closest focus and a built-in telescoping lens hood and leaves the other fields blank. The six-digit serial against the five-digit one on the ribbed lens, and the database's v1 and v2 labels, suggest this is the later barrel, but no source dates either. Optically it is not known to differ: Ricoh's tables list one non-EE 135mm f/2.8.
Auto Rikenon EE 135mm f/2.8: One of the four EE lenses Ricoh lists for the Auto TLS EE: the 28mm, 35mm and 135mm f/2.8 and the 200mm f/3.5. Set to EE on that body, the camera chooses the aperture for the speed set, which is shutter-priority automatic exposure; set to a number, it is an ordinary lens. Ricoh's table gives it the same 4 groups and 4 elements, 1.8 m, 18° and 55 mm filter as the non-EE 135mm, which is why the two share this page; whether the glass is identical is not stated anywhere. Dr. Ricoh's list repeats Ricoh's figures and leaves its aperture range blank.
Auto Sears 135mm f/2.8: Sears sold Ricoh's Singlex TLS as the Sears TLS from 1967, with lenses engraved Auto Sears. For the 135mm the tie to Ricoh rests on collectors' judgement. Matt Denton, who owns one, says it was probably made by Ricoh for Sears in the late 1960s and that from its fit and finish he would bet it is a Rikenon, noting that his Auto Sears 55mm f/1.4 is identical to his Rikenon 55mm f/1.4. On MFlenses, the collector luisalegria said an Auto Rikenon 135mm f/2.8 shown there looked like the Sears version, but in the same breath suggested the lens might be a Tokina, and wrote elsewhere that the all-metal Auto Sears lenses probably came from more than one maker; he dates that all-metal series to the early to mid-1970s, against Denton's late 1960s, and thought the Auto Sears 55mm f/1.4 probably a Tomioka. No Sears catalogue or Ricoh document names the 135mm's maker.

Serial-range notes

No.75476 P, No.775307 P: The two serials photographed by m42lens.com, five digits on the ribbed-ring lens and six on the knurled one, each followed by the letter P. No serial list for Ricoh's M42 lenses has been published, and nothing found explains the P, so the numbers cannot date a copy.

Specifications

Construction: 4 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range: f/2.8–f/22
Min. focus: 1.8 m
Filter: 55 mm
Country: Japan

What reviewers say

Nesster (MFlenses) (blog) — Encouraging first tests on a digital body, with samples at f/2.8, f/5.6 and f/11: high JPEG file sizes even wide open, apparently good detail and very smooth, neutral bokeh, though he had not yet shot enough to judge it fully.
Matt Denton (Matt's Classic Cameras) (blog) — On the Auto Sears version: well built in the old Takumar or Rikenon style, compact and well balanced for a metal telephoto, and a lovely little lens he is quite pleased with.

History

The Auto Rikenon 135mm f/2.8 is the short telephoto of Ricoh’s M42 screw-mount system. It is a compact, metal-bodied lens with an automatic diaphragm, a manual A–M switch for stop-down metering, and a hood that slides out of the front of the barrel. Ricoh’s own accessory tables, in the SLX 500 and Auto TLS EE manuals, give it 4 elements in 4 groups, 1.8 m closest focus, an 18° angle of view and a 55 mm filter. Ricoh gives the weight as 390 g in one manual and 405 g in the other. No source says who made the optics or when the lens was introduced. It is listed as a “135mm f 2.8 automatic” in the undated manual of the Singlex TLS, the camera Ricoh dates to 1967, and again in the manuals of the SLX 500 of 1975 and the Auto TLS EE.

There are three Ricoh-badged forms. Two are plain Auto Rikenons that differ only in the focusing ring. One has fine straight metal ribs and the other a raised diamond-knurled grip; both are photographed in the m42lens.com database, where the knurled lens carries the longer serial number. The third is the Auto Rikenon EE, made for the Auto TLS EE, with an EE position past f/2.8 on its aperture ring. The accessory-lens table in Ricoh’s instruction book for that body lists four EE lenses: the 28mm, 35mm and 135mm f/2.8 and the 200mm f/3.5. With the ring on EE and the lens’s maximum aperture set on the body’s dial, the camera picks the aperture for the shutter speed you set, which is shutter-priority automatic exposure. Ricoh calls the Auto TLS EE the first AE camera on the M42 mount. That is not right as history, since Asahi’s aperture-priority Pentax ES, announced in 1971 according to camera-wiki, was a screw-mount AE camera before it. Ricoh dates the Auto TLS EE to 1976; camera-wiki cites a US advertisement of July 1973. Ricoh’s table gives the EE 135 the same construction, focus and filter as the plain lens and 15 g more weight. On the Singlex TLS, Ricohflex TLS 401, SLX 500 and Singlex II, or any other M42 body, the EE lens should work as an ordinary automatic lens on its numbered stops, with no use for the EE setting; no Ricoh document describes this. A non-EE lens on the Auto TLS EE is metered at full aperture by reading the stop off the viewfinder needle and setting it by hand, or metered stopped down.

Sears sold the Singlex TLS as the Sears TLS from 1967, with lenses engraved Auto Sears, and an Auto Sears 135mm f/2.8 in M42 shares the ribbed Auto Rikenon’s main features: an A–M switch, built-in hood, 55 mm filter and eight blades. Matt Denton, who owns one, thinks it was probably made by Ricoh in the late 1960s, and an MFlenses collector said the Rikenon looked like the Sears lens. Neither is a document, and the same collector suggested the design might be a Tokina, that the Auto Sears line came from more than one maker, and that the all-metal Auto Sears lenses date from the early to mid-1970s. It is listed here as a version, with that doubt attached. Sears’s later MC Auto Sears 135mm f/2.8 is a Pentax K-mount lens and a different design.

Published figures for this lens scatter more than usual: closest focus of 1.5, 1.73 or 1.8 m, weights from 390 to 468 g, six or eight blades, and one database that gives 4 elements in 3 groups. Ricoh’s two manuals are the firmest ground. When buying, check that the diaphragm snaps shut briskly on an auto body with the switch on A, since a slow or oily aperture is the usual fault in lenses of this age. Check that the hood slides freely and the focusing is smooth, and look through the lens for haze and fungus. Ricoh’s K-mount 135mm f/2.8, the XR Rikenon of 1978 onward, also takes a 55 mm filter. It has a bayonet rather than a thread, so check the mount in the photographs. Ricoh’s M42 Rikenon 135mm f/3.5, listed by Dr. Ricoh without the Auto prefix, is a separate lens with a 49 mm filter, and the Rikenon 135mm f/3.5 bellows lens is a third. Dr. Ricoh’s list also records a 135mm f/2.8 in the old Nikon F mount for the 1962 Singlex, which is outside this page. No period price for the lens and no photograph that may be reproduced here were found.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Auto Rikenon 135mm f/2.8 (incl. EE, Sears)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

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