Robert Monaghan's "Third Party Lenses Resource Megasite" can be retrieved

(When I started typing this, it was to be a follow-up post to the March 31 thread "Pentax Spotmatic actual zoom lens...options?" But now it seems likely to do more good as a stand-alone thread, so here it is.)

About 10 years ago, Robert Monaghan compiled a truly voluminous, online reference resource--a collection of well-written, interesting and helpful articles and lists--for the benefit of anyone seeking to learn about lenses in general, and about all the third-party lenses in particular, that were made for SLR's dating from the 1960's through the 1990's. I spent hours soaking it up, as I'm sure others here did as well.

Six or seven years ago, Robert Monaghan's original website went dark. Portions of its content were hosted by others for several years afterward, off-and-on, but they too now seem to be inactive. Robert Monaghan is listed as a Photo.net member since 2003, but with no activity noted since 2006. His Photo.net member page links to an index of his earlier writings, but almost all the items linked to the index are dead links. Googling his name yields mostly "Whatever happened to...." entries.

When I tried using the "wayback machine", however, it worked: it retrieved Robert Monaghan's full original homepage, with links that connect (automatically) to similarly-"wayback"-archived items. So...the entire, wonderful shooting match that he compiled as a labor of love is still available.

For anyone with an older SLR who may have wondered what non-OEM lenses may be floating around out there, on eBay or elsewhere (and who made them, and when, and what they originally cost, etc.), this is where you can find out. Also, there is much wise advice on assessing lens quality, lens use, lensmakers' claims, etc....

The "wayback" homepage link is here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20021001122829/medfmt.8k.com/third/index.html

Three of the most useful of its (many, many) linked lists and articles include:

(1) Listing of 1,600+ Third Party Lenses by Mfgr from 1960's to mid 1980's

http://web.archive.org/web/20021101165753/medfmt.8k.com/third/table1.txt

(2) Listing of 1,600+ Third Party Lenses by Focal Length and Speed (1960's-80's)

http://web.archive.org/web/20021101165015/medfmt.8k.com/third/table3.txt

(3) Interchangeable Lens Mounts - Third Party Lens Advantage?

http://web.archive.org/web/20021028141952/medfmt.8k.com/third/mounts.html