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There are Soligor-branded lenses for which I wish to identify the manufacturer. I have read that Soligor encoded the manufacturer in the serial number, so in principle, I just need to find a list of applicable manufacturer codes.

What are the manufacturer codes for lenses that have been rebranded Soligor?

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    This is actually really important when shopping for used lenses, since Soligor rebranded lenses of manufacturers with wildly differing quality levels. It can also be helpful in finding rebranded, cheaper copies of brand name lenses.
    – rackandboneman
    Nov 26, 2019 at 12:05

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Possible Soligor code system:

First number = Maker
Second number = Decade
Third number = Year

1 = Tokina
2 = Sun
3 = Sun
4 = Sun
5 = ??? (perhaps Samyang)
6 = Komine
7 = Sun
8 = Tokina
9 = Kobori
31 = ??? *
A = Komura #
H4 = Kawanon ? #
H5 = Komine #
H6 = Komine #
H7= Tokina #
H37 = Kawanon? #
M = ??? #
N = ??? #
R = ??? #
T = Tamron #

* Six digit lens date code unknown.
# Letter code lens date code unknown.

"H" prefix brands: Lentar / Focal / Soligor / Sun / Vemar

Soligor lenses were also branded and sold as: Reflex, Super Carenar, Prinzflex, Weltblick, Mirage, Infotar, Hanimar, Flexar, Elicar,Derek Gardenar, Porst and possibly Bushnell (Bausch & Lomb ), J.C. Penny, Pallas, Berroflex and Aetna.

References:

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  • Tokina and Kino: You will want to buy the lens and do photography with it (unless you don't like old school Tokina colors). Sun: You don't want to buy the lens and you certainly do not want to photograph anything with it. Relevancy established.
    – rackandboneman
    Nov 26, 2019 at 21:02
  • @rackandboneman Are Sun lenses really that bad? I find Komine lenses tend to be pretty good.
    – xiota
    Nov 27, 2019 at 0:26

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