Article on Tomioka and their Industrial Lenses

As a couple of people here who were very kind to help me during my research on the topic, know, I've been writing an article on Tomioka - first and foremost their enlarging and industrial lenses - for quite some time. While a couple of things are still missing or incomplete, I wanted to share the first draft with you in order to let you know what I was able to gather so far.

There are actually two articles:

1.) THE TOMIOKA STORY
deltalenses.com/the-tomioka-story/

a little bit of background in terms of history of Tomioka as a company.

and

2.) TOMIOKA INDUSTRIAL LENSES
deltalenses.com/tomioka-industrial-lenses/

an overview of three notable lens families (EXXC minilab lenses, The Osawa Tominon enlarging lenses and the Polaroid MP4/5 macro and repro lenses) + a couple of other Tomioka made industrial lenses I found along the way.

A BIG THANK YOU to some of the people here who have helped me out a lot by providing interesting information, feedback or questions, particularly @IliahBorg, @bobn2 and @TimoK

This whole topic has gotten way bigger than I had ever imagined, so please forgive me, if there are still some errors or missing pieces in there.

I'd love to hear what you think about the article, or some of the lenses, if you have some experience with any of them or other experimental lenses by Tomioka. And if you happen to know some good sources I'm missing, please let me know as well, so I can further refine this write-up!

Here are a couple of sample shots made with these lenses:

Way closer... to Spring by simple.joy, on Flickr

Don't worry, we're just playing ball here! by simple.joy, on Flickr

Bad leather front by simple.joy, on Flickr

Mandatory morning breathing by simple.joy, on Flickr

Bumping heads by simple.joy, on Flickr

Ballways online by simple.joy, on Flickr

Absence can be felt. by simple.joy, on Flickr

My macro swan song by simple.joy, on Flickr

Densely populated by simple.joy, on Flickr

Pretty or just pre-tea? by simple.joy, on Flickr

Silence of the lamps by simple.joy, on Flickr

Great articles!👍 And so pleasantly illustrated with simplejoy's mighty pictures! 😋 If you can't read you can enjoy only looking at the photos of the lens article.

Thank you for using that huge amount of be... ehm, huge amount of your time and energy to do that work! 😍

The "Buy Now" button appears to have been omitted.

Sometimes it happens for eager hobbyists that they start to admire the subject of their hobby so much that other people call them biased. And sometimes they really are biased.
In photography forums I've seen the word fanboy many times. I think it is insulting. Sometimes there are wars between fanboys of this or that brand. Sad to read.
If you read simplejoy's article, you might critisize him as fanboy of Tominon.
I think that's not the case. He is very interested in Tominon / Tomioka lenses and researching them, but a fanboy? If you think so, I don't buy your opinion .

We will have to wait for the OP's reply. But unless I am missing something, I took it as a joke. In that I would like to buy one, but cant see the button...

I was referring to the button that normally takes you to the shopping cart.

Thanks for the interest and kind words! I wish those lenses were more readily available still… It‘s assumed that they were tossed into the trash by the thousands when the era of the minilab came to an end, or even before, when fully automated machines (with motorized zoom lenses) took over. It‘s a pity, really!

The ones which still are around are usually in well worn condition, however they still compete with the very best that‘s out there in terms of modern macro lenses when it comes to image quality. I find that impressive enough to make a statement and give the people behind those lenses - who‘re probably completely unknown and long retired - some credit!

If anyone is able to find some of the patents behind those lenses (particularly the E36/E66 series), I‘ll be happy to give those people a shoutout!

I'm sorry. I misunderstood your message. 😢