Lens arbitrage

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Yesterday, I acquired a new lens (yes I know, again). A Tamron 28mm f/2.8 on Pentax screw mount, which is very close to my Meyer-Optik Görlitz Lydith 30mm f/3.5 (2 mm wider, half a stop faster). Finished in brushed aluminium, the lens is quite a striking difference to all those black rubber-clad tubes out there.




Cyclops

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The shop did not know the mount for the lens, and it was generically labelled as “fits most SLR cameras”. It’s actually a Tamron Adaptall 2 system which can be adapted to fit Canon, Nikon, Pentax K, Minolta, Konica and M42 mounts. This particular specimen came with the M42 screw mount, but someone made a mess and thought it was a T-mount (like the M42, the T-mount has 42 mm screw threads but with different thread widths). And the secondary market for T-mount lenses is very small.

Hence, it was cheap.




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So, I now have an arbitrage opportunity. Essentially, buy low sell high with no value adding.

Also, my position appears to be hedged by means of a put option (because I managed to get the salesperson to wrongly ‘confirm’ that the lens is a T-mount, I have a leeway in returning the thing if the need arises).

I didn’t know specialist knowledge can be so useful...




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The rear of the lens showing the M42 mount



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The workings of the Adaptall 2 mechanism with the Adaptall - M42 adapter removed

See my newly expanded vocabulary? I’ve been levelling up.