Auto Rikenon Zoom 90-190mm f/5.8 (M42)
Ricoh · M42 · 1967 · Seven elements in six groups
Also known as: Auto Rikenon Zoom 90-190mm · Auto Rikenon Zoom 90-190mm f/5.8 · Auto Rikenon Zoom 90-190mm f5.8 · Auto Rikenon 90-190mm · Auto Rikenon 90-190mm f5.8 · Rikenon Zoom 90-190mm · Rikenon 90-190mm · Rikenon 90-190mm f5.8 · Rikenon 90-190mm 1:5.8 · Rikenon 5.8/90-190 · Ricoh Rikenon 90-190mm · Auto Rikenon Zoom 1:5.8 f=90-190mm · オートリケノン 90-190mm · リケノン 90-190mm · Rikenon 5.8/90-190mm · Rikenon 5,8/90-190mm · Rikenon 1:5.8 f=90-190mm · Rikenon 1:5.8 90-190mm · Rikenon Zoom 5.8/90-190mm · Rikenon Zoom 5,8/90-190mm · Rikenon Zoom 1:5.8 f=90-190mm
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto Rikenon Zoom 90-190mm f/5.8 | M42 | — | — | — |
- The specifications are Ricoh's, from the lens table on p.14 of the Auto TLS EE instruction book: six groups, seven elements, 2.0 m closest focus, 27° to 13° angle of view, 55 mm filter, 560 g (1.23 lb), automatic diaphragm. Dr. Ricoh's M42 table gives the same groups, elements, distance, filter and weight. Neither prints the smallest aperture, the blade count, the diameter or the length, and neither says whether the zoom is a single push-pull ring or separate zoom and focus rings.
- No launch or end date is known. The 1967 in the header is the launch year of the Singlex TLS in Ricoh's own camera list, the first body whose instruction book lists the lens. That printing of the book is undated and may be later than 1967, so the lens may be too. Dr. Ricoh leaves the release and end-date columns empty for all its M42 lenses. Japanese Wikipedia names an オートリケノン 90-190mm F5.8 among the M42 lenses but gives no date or source for it.
- Ricoh's books do not name the maker, and no document found does. Blue Moon Camera describes the Yashica Auto Yashinon 90-190mm f/5.8 as a Tomioka lens with seven elements in six groups and a 55 mm filter, the same layout and thread Ricoh gives for this zoom, but it quotes about 1.8 m closest focus against Ricoh's 2.0 m. That is a dealer's description of another brand's lens and does not show who built the Rikenon.
- Dr. Ricoh also lists a Rikenon 5.8/90-190 in Nikon F mount for the 1962 Singlex, marked confirmed, with no optical or physical specifications. It is a different mount and is not covered here.
- No Sears-badged 90-190mm is on record. Sears sold other Rikenons as Auto Sears lenses, so a Sears 90-190mm f/5.8 with a 55 mm filter and 2.0 m focusing would belong here if one turns up.
How to tell them apart
- Screw mount and a 90-190mm range: Ricoh's later zooms are K-mount, and none of the K-mount zooms in Dr. Ricoh's table covers 90-190mm
- The Rikenon name on the front ring: Yashica sold a Yashinon 90-190mm f/5.8 for M42 with the same published seven elements in six groups and 55 mm filter, and that lens is not this page's
Auto Rikenon Zoom 90-190mm f/5.8:
- 55 mm filter thread, the smallest of Ricoh's three M42 zooms (the 55-135mm f/3.5 takes 62 mm, the 70-230mm f/4.5 67 mm)
- Constant f/5.8 maximum aperture across the range, the slowest of the three zooms
- Closest focus 2.0 m in Ricoh's table, so the distance scale should stop at 2 m
- Automatic diaphragm, with no EE setting on the aperture ring: Ricoh's EE list has no zoom
- 560 g, the lightest of the three M42 zooms in Ricoh's table
- Auto Rikenon Zoom 90-190mm f/5.8: Ricoh's short tele zoom for its screw-mount reflexes. It appears as "90-190mm Zoom f5.8 automatic" in the accessory-lens list of the Singlex TLS instruction book, as "90-190mm Zoom f 5,8 Automatik" in the German section of the TLS 401 book, and in the Auto TLS EE book's lens table among the ordinary Auto Rikenons, not among the four EE lenses.
Specifications
- Formula
- Seven elements in six groups
- Construction
- 7 elements / 6 groups
- Aperture range
- f/5.8
- Min. focus
- 2 m
- Weight
- 560 g
- Filter
- 55 mm
- Country
- Japan
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 90-190mm f/5.8 was the smallest and slowest of the three zooms Ricoh offered for its M42 screw-mount reflexes, a short telephoto zoom rather than a long one. Ricoh’s lens table in the Auto TLS EE instruction book gives it seven elements in six groups, an angle of view from 27° to 13°, a 55 mm filter, a closest focus of 2.0 m and a weight of 560 g, less than half the 1,300 g of the 70-230mm f/4.5. The third zoom was the 55-135mm f/3.5. The 90-190mm and the 70-230mm both appear in the accessory-lens lists of the Singlex TLS and TLS 401 instruction books, so they were listed for Ricoh’s first screw-mount bodies; the 55-135mm appears only in the later SLX 500 and Auto TLS EE tables. No launch date has been found. The 1967 on this page is the year Ricoh gives for the Singlex TLS, the first body whose book is known to list it; the undated TLS book may be a later printing, so the M42 lens may be later too.
It is an ordinary automatic-diaphragm M42 lens and fits every Ricoh screw-mount body, as well as any other M42 camera. On the Singlex TLS and TLS 401, which meter through the lens at the taking aperture, it is used stopped down. The Auto TLS EE gives shutter-priority automation only with Ricoh’s EE lenses, a list that stops at the 28, 35, 135 and 200mm and includes no zoom. Ricoh says ordinary M42 lenses work on that camera with manual coupling. The instruction book for the Sears Auto TLS, the Sears-badged camera, offers full-aperture metering only with screw-mount lenses that open to f/5.6, which this f/5.8 zoom does not, so on that body it is metered stopped down. The export SLX 500 and Singlex II of 1975–76 take it as well. Ricoh’s camera list credits both with open-aperture metering, but their own instruction books have the user meter stopped down, with the preview lever or button pressed. Dr. Ricoh also lists a 90-190mm f/5.8 Rikenon in the Nikon F mount of Ricoh’s 1962 Singlex, which is a different lens for a different mount, as are the K-mount XR bodies of 1977 onward and their XR Rikenon and Rikenon P zooms.
Who made it is not recorded in any Ricoh document. Yashica sold an Auto Yashinon 90-190mm f/5.8 for M42 with the same published element count and filter size, which one dealer attributes to Tomioka, so a shared origin is possible but unproven. When buying, check for the Rikenon name on the front ring as well as the screw mount, the 55 mm filter thread and a distance scale that stops at about 2 m. A zoom of this age is worth checking for haze between the elements, for slack or stiffness in the zoom and focus movement, and for a diaphragm that springs closed smartly when the auto pin is pressed. No Sears-badged version of this zoom has been found.
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 90-190mm f/5.8 (M42)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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