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Abbreviations

Specification

Source of data

• "Chinon - The last word in quality lenses" booklet.

Manufacturer description

As the world's smallest and fastest macro lens, it is the standard lens of the future. It is not only just as compact as the smallest 50mm standard lenses available today, but it is also just as fast (F/1.7) as most standard lenses; yet it focuses all the way down to 27cm to produce images 1/3 lifesize. Available only in a Pentax/Praktica mount.

From the Popular Science magazine (April 1977)

Who's the world's largest maker of movie cameras? It's a name that until a year or two ago would have been almost totally unknown to photographers: Chinon, a Japanese company that specializes in the manufacture of private-label cameras. Department stores, mail-order companies, and distributors who wish to have cameras with their own brand names order them from Chinon - the way your local liquor store gets to have a "private label" by ordering 50 cases, say, from the distiller. Now Chinon is selling cameras under its own name, as well. And besides movie cameras, the company is selling Chinon single-lens-reflex 35mm cameras and Chinon lenses.

There are 11 lenses in the line, including, says Chinon, the "world's smallest and fastest macro lens" - 50mm f/1.7. People who take pictures of flowers, which move constantly with even the slightest breeze, will find the extra speed handy.

From the Photo Equipment Buying Guide (1979)

Chinon is the first camera manufacturer we know of to offer a revolutionary, newly designed macro lens as standard. The lens is the world's fastest macro: 50mm, f/1.7.

[...]

There is a drawback to most macro lenses: they are slower than the average normal lens. Few, for example, have wider maximum apertures than f/3.5. That makes shooting with a macro in low light (without flash) rather difficult. There is one notable exception - the revolutionary Chinon 50mm f/1.7 macro lens. We expect to see faster macro optics in the near future.

From the editor

A standard lens for Chinon 35mm SLR cameras with the M42 screw mount. Also a standard lens for the Alpa Si 2000 35mm SLR camera (under the name MULTI-COATED AUTO-ALPA 1:1.7/50mm FOR ALPA SWISS).

The same lens was sold under the name PORST COLOR REFLEX MC 1:1.7/50mm Macro F.

Optically, it is based on a modified double Gauss optical design, but has a close focusing capability. Most standard lenses focus as close as 0.45 or 0.5m, but this Chinon 50/1.7 Macro focuses down to 0.27m for a reproduction ratio of 1:3.

Other macro lenses in the Chinon M42 system

Lenses with similar focal length