Auto Rikenon Zoom 55-135mm f/3.5 (M42)
Ricoh · M42 · 1975 · Thirteen elements in nine groups
Also known as: Auto Rikenon Zoom 55-135mm · Auto Rikenon Zoom 55-135mm f/3.5 · Auto Rikenon Zoom 55-135mm f3.5 · Auto Rikenon 55-135mm · Auto Rikenon 55-135mm f3.5 · Rikenon Zoom 55-135mm · Rikenon 55-135mm · Rikenon 55-135mm f3.5 · Rikenon 55-135mm 1:3.5 · Rikenon 3.5/55-135 · Ricoh Rikenon 55-135mm · Rikenon Auto 55-135mm · Auto Rikenon Zoom 1:3.5 f=55-135mm · Rikenon Zoom 1:3.5 f=55-135mm · オートリケノン 55-135mm · リケノン 55-135mm · Rikenon 3.5/55-135mm · Rikenon 3,5/55-135mm · Rikenon 1:3.5 f=55-135mm · Rikenon 1:3.5 55-135mm · Rikenon Zoom 3.5/55-135mm · Rikenon Zoom 3,5/55-135mm
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto Rikenon Zoom 55-135mm f/3.5 | M42 | — | — | — |
- The specifications are Ricoh's. The Auto TLS EE book (p.14) and the SLX 500 book give the same figures: nine groups ("lens sections"), thirteen elements, 1.5 m closest focus, 43° to 18° angle of view, 62 mm filter, 650 g (1.43 lb), automatic diaphragm. Neither prints the smallest aperture, the blade count, the diameter or the length, and neither says whether the zoom works by one push-pull ring or separate zoom and focus rings.
- The f/22 smallest aperture comes from Dr. Ricoh's M42 table alone, which otherwise repeats Ricoh's groups, elements, distance, filter and weight.
- No launch or end date is known, and neither instruction book that lists the lens is dated. The 1975 in the header is the year Ricoh gives for the SLX 500, not a known launch date. Ricoh dates the Auto TLS EE, whose book also lists the lens, to 1976, but camera-wiki dates that camera to 1973 from a July 1973 Popular Photography advertisement; if camera-wiki is right, the lens may be older than 1975. It is missing from the Singlex TLS (1967) and TLS 401 (1970) accessory lists, which suggests it came later than the other two M42 zooms, but those lists show only what was on offer when each book was printed. Dr. Ricoh gives no dates for the M42 lenses.
- Ricoh's books do not name the maker, and no known document does; the maker is unknown.
- A Sears version is unconfirmed. In a 2008 MFLenses thread a collector of all-metal Auto Sears lenses listed a "55-135/3.5 zoom" in the series, said he did not have one and had missed one on eBay; no photograph or catalogue entry accompanies it, and he notes that Auto Sears lenses came from Mamiya as well as Ricoh, so it is not shown to be this lens. An Auto Sears 55-135mm f/3.5 with a 62 mm filter and 1.5 m focusing would belong here as a variant.
- No original price and no published review of this lens are known.
How to tell them apart
- Screw mount and a 55-135mm range: none of the K-mount Rikenon zooms in Dr. Ricoh's lens tables has a 55-135mm range
- The Rikenon name: other makers sold 55-135mm f/3.5 zooms under their own names (a Soligor in Konica mount turns up on the market), and those are not this page's lens
Auto Rikenon Zoom 55-135mm f/3.5:
- 62 mm filter thread, between the 55 mm of the 90-190mm f/5.8 and the 67 mm of the 70-230mm f/4.5, Ricoh's other two M42 zooms
- Constant f/3.5 maximum aperture across the range, the fastest of the three M42 zooms
- Distance scale ends at 1.5 m, the closest of the three zooms
- Automatic diaphragm, with no EE setting on the aperture ring: Ricoh's EE list has no zoom
- 650 g, about half the weight of the 70-230mm (1,300 g in the Auto TLS EE table, 1,320 g in the SLX 500's)
- Auto Rikenon Zoom 55-135mm f/3.5: Ricoh's standard-to-short-tele zoom for its screw-mount reflexes, and the only one of its three M42 zooms that starts at a standard focal length. It is listed as "55~135 mm Zoom" in the Auto Rikenon table of the SLX 500 instruction book, which lists no EE lenses, and as "55mm-135mm Zoom" among the Auto Rikenon lenses of the Auto TLS EE book, not among its Auto Rikenon EE lenses. It is absent from the accessory-lens lists of the earlier Singlex TLS and TLS 401 books, which carry only the 90-190mm and 70-230mm zooms.
Specifications
- Formula
- Thirteen elements in nine groups
- Construction
- 13 elements / 9 groups
- Aperture range
- f/3.5–f/22
- Min. focus
- 1.5 m
- Weight
- 650 g
- Filter
- 62 mm
What reviewers say
No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.
History
The Auto Rikenon Zoom 55-135mm f/3.5 was the general-purpose zoom of Ricoh’s M42 screw-mount system: the only one of its three M42 zooms to start at a standard focal length, and at a constant f/3.5 the fastest of them. Ricoh’s own tables give it thirteen elements in nine groups, an angle of view from 43° to 18°, a 62 mm filter, focusing down to 1.5 m and a weight of 650 g. That puts it between its siblings, the 560 g 90-190mm f/5.8 and the 70-230mm f/4.5, 1,300 g in the Auto TLS EE table and 1,320 g in the SLX 500’s.
It came late. The 90-190mm and 70-230mm zooms are in the accessory lists of the Singlex TLS and TLS 401 instruction books, but the 55-135mm is not. It appears in the lens tables of the SLX 500 and Auto TLS EE books, export bodies Ricoh dates to 1975 and 1976, shortly before the company moved to the Pentax K bayonet with the XR-1 and XR-2 of 1977. Neither book is dated, and camera-wiki puts the Auto TLS EE on the American market by July 1973, so the 1975 on this page is the SLX 500’s date, not a known launch date. The lens is an ordinary automatic-diaphragm M42 lens and fits every Ricoh screw-mount body and any other M42 camera. On the Singlex TLS and TLS 401 it is used stopped down for metering. The Auto TLS EE gives shutter-priority automation only with EE lenses (its book lists four: 28, 35, 135 and 200mm). With an ordinary lens such as this zoom its book offers two manual methods: a full-aperture reading, for any screw-mount lens of f/5.6 or faster, with the lens’s maximum aperture set on the Lens Selection Dial and the f-number shown by the needle then set by hand on the aperture ring; or a stopped-down reading with the previewer switch held in. Ricoh’s camera list calls the SLX 500 and Singlex II open-aperture metering, but the SLX 500’s instruction book has the reading taken with the preview lever pressed, that is stopped down, and that is how this zoom is metered on it. The K-mount XR Rikenon and Rikenon P zooms of the following years are different lenses for a different mount.
No Ricoh document names the maker. A Sears-badged version has been mentioned by a collector but not shown. When buying, look for the Rikenon name together with the screw mount, the 62 mm filter thread and the 1.5 m end of the distance scale: 55-135mm f/3.5 zooms were sold under other names in the same years. A thirteen-element zoom of this age should be checked with a torch for haze and separation between the elements, for a zoom and focus action that is neither slack nor stiff, and for an aperture that closes cleanly when the auto pin is pressed.
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
Sample photo wanted — shot with a Auto Rikenon Zoom 55-135mm f/3.5 (M42)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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