Elgeet 4 Inch f4.5 - Sample

Nice Bokeh, no? -- NEX-5N & Elgeet 4 inch f4.5 @ f4.5. Click for larger size.

When people are getting into manual focus lenses, most of them would look at the popular brands, like Takumar, Vivitar, Nikon, etc. After a while, they will get into more upscale brands like Leica, Voigtlander, Zeiss or some other brand that cost way more.  Between the popular and the expensive, there are some very overlooked lenses, particularly the American brands.  Kodak, Elgeet, Bausch & Lomb, Wollensak, Gundloch, to name a few.  I have talked about Kodak quite often and they made some of my favourite lenses.  Most people have never heard of Elgeet lenses, maybe except saw it on their grand father's 8mm movie cameras.  Indeed, Elgeet made a variety of lenses, including c-mount, d-mount, and Exakta mount.  They company still exists today, under the name Navitar, which makes optical tracking systems for the military, among many other optical products.

This is the only Elgeet lens I have, other than a few tiny D-Mount lenses I got from the Outlet Store.  But I like this 4 inch (102mm) f4.5.  It's not particularly fast, but it's very sharp at maximum aperture.  Closest focus distance is something like 6 feet, not exactly close, but common with old lenses at this focal length.   Will update when I get to use it a bit more.