Aires was a Japanese camera company, now sadly defunct, that made both rangefinder cameras (trying to compete with Leica) and reflex cameras, TLR and SLR. This lens was the fast normal lens for an interchangeable lens rangefinder camera named the Aires “V”. Like the old Retina reflex, only the lens head was changeable–the shutter and focusing mount stayed firmly attached to the camera. I have managed to use this lens (along with 100mm and 32mm lenses that also came with the camera I bought) by using a custom focusing adapter for Sony E mount that I found on eBay. I also cannibalized an old Aires V camera and removed the mount, which was then easy to add to a helicoid, which makes an even better adapter. The lens itself is a modified double gauss design, with seven elements in five groups. In contrast to a classic double gauss, the front element is a cemented doublet, and what is usually a cemented doublet just behind it is air spaced. It is very similar to the Nokton Prominent 50mm f1.5, with the difference that the Nokton is 7 elements in four groups, again with a cemented doublet in front. Both lenses have similar bokeh, though the Nokton has higher contrast.
Both lenses have an unique and “spiky” bokeh–not to everyone’s taste–that I happen to love.
