maybe..lets spin this a bit further - assume some Korean company bought a bunch of coated and edge painted lens elements from Schneider, likely leftover lenses when they switched from the Symmar-S to the Apo-Symmar and assembled them in their own mounts just for sale on the home market? That would explain the Schneideritis (the edge painting that lifts off in spots) as this would have been done by Schneider; if they were Symmar-S lens elements that would explain the MC label and look and the black Copal since now we are talking later 1980's. Why is not named Symmar-S? Maybe Schneider did not allow it, to keep them from selling it elsewhere? This is all pure speculation of course...
No... that's chinaritis!!
Back home now, I pulled out the Symmar, Symmar-S, and Apo-Symmar lenses in my collection (210mm, not 150 though) and had another long look at those pictures in the ebay ad. The mounting style of the lens elements and the retainer rings in the cell, the taper of the back cell, the size relation of the front and back cells and the coating colors definitely make me think this is a rebadged multicoated Symmar-S, it all fits perfectly - plus the fact that I can't get my head around the notion of forging a lens like this, it does not make any sense to me. My Symmar-S also has the very same Schneideritis specks shown in the pictures, whereas both my Symmar and Apo-Symmar don't show it. Given the mounting similarities I suspect that Schneider at some point sold unlabeled Symmar-S lens cells (not just elements as I mentioned above) to some company that then relabeled them in clumsy English: the double labeling of "Lens by Germany" and "Product by ..." would corroborate that.
The plain Symmar name was maybe not as problematic in competing with Schneider-badged lenses when Schneider themselves were selling the Symmar-S or the Apo-Symmar? Or they used it without permission after they already had the cells? I don't know. Does anybody know if Schneider lenses were officialy sold in S. Korea in the late 1970's/early 1980's?
Obviously all of this is speculation...
Is it possible that this is an older Symmar that was recoated (maybe only the front element) and with the barrel painted and engraved? I can picture the barrel as being chrome, making it an early Symmar. If they removed the retaining ring on the front cell (which is where the label resides on Symmar-Convertible-era lenses) and replaced it with a generic ring after applying a colorful coating to the front element, and then painted the outer barrel black, they would be able to engrave through the paint the label we see. It would be a real Symmar, with real Schneideritis, and a way for a small optical shop that might make, say, cheapie binoculars to make a quality camera lens with very little investment.
I have a 180mm Symmar Convertible and I ought to look at it to compare the barrel shape.
What I can't figure is why the price went so high.
Rick "who paid less than half that for the 180" Denney
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