Soligor Soligor C/D 80-200mm f4.5 Heritage

Overview

The Soligor C/D (Computer Designed) 80-200mm f/4.5 was part of Soligor's more ambitious lens line, described by reviewers as 'rather like Vivitar Series 1: relatively aggressive undertakings intended to compete directly with lenses from the major camera brands.' As a third-party constant-aperture telephoto zoom for 35mm SLRs, it dates to roughly the late 1970s according to community estimates. It employs a push-pull design in which focal length is changed by pushing or pulling the focus ring, with a built-in macro mode. No established nicknames or community jargon are evidenced in the available reviews. Its modest cult following stems from its extremely low price on the used market (averaging around $15) combined with genuinely respectable sharpness, making it a favorite budget adapt-anywhere manual telephoto.

Verdict: The Soligor C/D 80-200mm f/4.5 is a bargain-priced manual telephoto zoom that rewards patient shooters with sharp, contrasty, nicely colored images once stopped down to f/8-f/11. It's ideal for adapters and budget-minded enthusiasts who want a competent all-around tele zoom with a handy macro mode, provided they can live with minor wide-open CA and somewhat finicky manual focus.

Optical Character

Bokeh

Nice/pleasant bokeh with no swirl or bubble effects.

Color

Nice, fine colors with pleasant rendering and no strong cast.

Sharpness wide open

Very good stopped down to f/8-f/11; decent wide open but shows some corner CA.

Contrast

High contrast reported by users.

Community Insights

What people love

Genuine sharpness, especially when stopped down to f/8-f/11
High contrast and pleasant, accurate colors
Nice bokeh for a budget zoom
Excellent value — extremely cheap on the used market (around $15-20)
Useful built-in macro mode
Compact for its class (per the manufacturer description, though at least one user found it large and heavy)

What people dislike

Some visible chromatic aberration wide open, especially in the corners
One reviewer found it large and heavy
Hard to achieve perfect focus (manual focus can be fiddly with the push-pull design)

Pro Tips

Stop down to f/8-f/11 for the best sharpness and corner performance
Shoot at or near wide open only when you can tolerate slight corner CA
Take extra care with manual focus, as reviewers note it is hard to nail perfect focus
Use in-body stabilization (IBIS) or good technique at 200mm; a handheld user got sharp results at ~f/6 with IBIS set to 200mm

Sources (1)

Web-grounded synthesissecondary

The Soligor C/D (Computer Designed) 80-200mm f/4.5 was part of Soligor's more ambitious lens line, described by reviewers as 'rather like Vivitar Series 1: relatively aggressive undertakings intended to compete directly with lenses from the major camera brands.' As a third-party constant-aperture telephoto zoom for 35mm SLRs, it dates to roughly the late 1970s according to community estimates. It employs a push-pull design in which focal length is changed by pushing or pulling the focus ring, with a built-in macro mode. No established nicknames or community jargon are evidenced in the available reviews. Its modest cult following stems from its extremely low price on the used market (averaging around $15) combined with genuinely respectable sharpness, making it a favorite budget adapt-anywhere manual telephoto.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/userreviews/soligor-80-200mm-f4-5-c-d-zoom-macro.htmlhttps://radojuva.com/en/2020/04/mc-soligor-cd-80-200mm-4-5/https://allphotolenses.com/lenses/item/c_682.htmlhttps://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4243392https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3205696