Yashica ML Lens timeline
Jan 23, 2021 19:21:38 GMT
on Jan 23, 2021 19:21:38 GMT
Last Edit: Jan 23, 2021 20:02:40 GMT by dalegreer
I've been trying to put together a timeline of when each ML lens was introduced, discontinued, etc. (I have a massive spreadsheet for this project, drawing only on published books or official documentation from Yashica such as dealer price lists).
That has grown into a more robust timeline for Yashica and Kyocera SLR products in general, which I decided to turn into a narrative. See below if you are interested. Comments are appreciated.
Yashica Co. Ltd. SLR Timeline
1975: Yashica introduces the Contax/Yashica Bayonet Mount with the FX-1 Camera. Available lenses total six in the ML line: the 28mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.7, 135mm f/2.8 and the 200mm f/4, all sourced from the company-owned (and highly respected) Tomioka Optical Co. Ltd.
Concurrently, Yashica releases the Contax RTS camera, also featuring the Contax/Yashica Bayonet Mount, in collaboration with Carl Zeiss of West Germany. Zeiss begins selling a line of Contax lenses exclusive to the C/Y mount that fit on either Yashica or Contax bodies. An extensive line of premium Contax SLR cameras, lenses and accessories will follow over the next 30 years.
1976: Yashica introduces the FX-2 camera and expands the ML line to add the 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, 21mm f/3.5, 24mm f/2.8, 55mm f/1.2, 55mm f/4 Macro, 100mm f/4 Bellows and the 300mm f/5.6.
1977: Yashica Introduces the FR camera and accessories, a concerted effort to offer a professional system as capable as anything sold by Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Olympus or Pentax. Many Yashica and Contax accessories are interchangeable.
1978: Yashica introduces the FR I and FR II cameras.
1979: Yashica announces the FX-3 camera (assembled by Cosina) and two new ML prime lenses: the 55mm f/2.8 Macro and the 100mm f/3.5 Macro. The company also announces its first ML zooms, the 28-50mm f/3.5 and the 80-200mm f/4. Previously, zooms were offered only in the DSB series of single-coated optics.
1980: Yashica announces the FX-D camera and two more ML zooms, the 35-70mm f/3.5 and the 42-75mm f/3.5-4.5. It also discontinues the 55mm f/4 Macro, which had been superseded by the 55mm f/2.8 Macro the previous year.
1981: The ML 50mm f/2 is added to the catalog around this time.
1983: Yashica announces the FX-70 camera (often sold as a kit with the 50mm f/2 DX lens) and four new ML lenses, the 35-70mm f/4, 35-105mm f/3.5-4.5 Macro, 75-150mm f/4 and the 100-300mm f/5.6.
October 1983: Kyocera Corp., a Japanese conglomerate with interests in ceramics, electronics, telecommunications, solar power, jewelry, chemicals, stationery, office equipment, fine art and automotive components, purchases Yashica Co. Ltd.
1984: Corporate cost-cutting begins. Five ML lenses are eliminated from the lineup: the 21mm f/3.5; the 35-70mm f/3.5; and the recently announced 35-70mm f/4, 35-105mm f/3.5-4-5 Macro and 100-300mm f/5.6. The last three had only been on the market about 18 months, making them among the more rare ML lenses. Yashica did, however, introduce a new camera body, the FX-3 Super (assembled by Cosina), which offered minor improvements over the FX-3.
February 1985: Minolta introduces Maxxum/Dynax, the world’s first integrated autofocus SLR system. The rest of the industry scrambles to catch up.
1985: Yashica phases out the FX-3, ends production of the FX-70 introduced two years earlier, and announces the FX-103 Program. Three new ML lenses are announced as well — but they will be the last ever produced by Yashica: the 50mm f/1.9, a cost-reduction design; the 70-210mm f/4.5, which would replace the venerable 80-200mm f/4; and the 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5 Macro, a somewhat slow but mechanically complex lens. Any new lenses announced from this point forward will be sourced from third-party OEMs like Cosina.
1986: The FX-3 Super is replaced by the FX-3 Super 2000 (assembled by Cosina), with a faster shutter speed but lower-quality parts. Production is eventually moved to China.
1987: Production of the FX-D and FX-103 Program ends. Belatedly, the company enters the SLR autofocus market with the 200AF camera body and a small number of interchangeable lenses. Three other AF bodies will be added by 1991 before the entire project is declared a loss and killed.
1988: The 107 MP is announced, signaling Yashica’s continued dedication to manual-focus SLRs after the disastrous foray into autofocus. Yashica also continues phasing out the ML lenses it produces in-house and starts selling the MC 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5, made in Hong Kong by Universal Optical Industries, a Kyocera subsidiary.
1989: Yashica begins selling the ML 50mm f/1.9c, an entry-level lens supplied by Cosnia; and the MC 75-200mm 4.5 Macro, produced in Hong Kong by Universal Optical Industries. Yashica also launches the 108MP camera.
1991: Yashica introduces the MC 28-80mm f/3.9-4.9, manufactured in Hong Kong by Universal Optical Industries. The 107MP camera is discontinued at some point around 1991 or 1992.
1995: The 109MP is introduced. It will be Yashica’s last manual-focus SLR design.
1996: The only cameras left in the Yashica catalog are the FX-3 Super 2000, the 108MP and the 109MP. The only lenses remaining all are OEMS: the ML 50mm f/1.9c; and the trio of MC zooms from Universal Optical.
1999: By this point, two camera bodies survive: the FX-3 Super 2000 and the 109MP. All lenses are sourced from outside vendors.
2002: Yashica suspends sales of SLR camera products to focus on point-and-shoot models. Production of Contax SLR cameras and Contax/Zeiss lenses continues, including the highly regarded Contax 645 Medium Format autofocus camera system (introduced in 1999); the jewel-like G-series of autofocus rangefinders; and a new line of excellent autofocus 35mm SLRs (the N1 and NX), supplemented with nine Carl Zeiss AF lenses. The autofocus SLR system, introduced in 2000, fails to gain traction in the marketplace, however; and a digital variant — the N1-based N Digital — was an operational disaster. With extremely high noise levels, a slow buffer and poor software support, the N Digital was perhaps ahead of its time as the world’s first full-frame Digital SLR. Pentax had tried to use the same Philips-supplied sensor in its own full-frame DSLR project, but gave up when engineers could not achieve acceptable picture quality. The Contax N Digital was so bad, Kyocera refused to loan samples out to the press for review, killing the model just one year after its 2002 introduction.
Given the poor uptake of the N system and the limited number of Zeiss lenses available to support it (notable was the complete lack of fast tele-zooms), and coupled with the abject failure of the N Digital, the writing was on the wall: Cannon and Nikon were firmly entrenched in the DLSR market now, and photography would never be anything more than an unprofitable distraction for a conglomerate like Kyocera, barring a massive (and unlikely) injection of capital.
April 2005: Kyocera announces that it will exit the camera business by the end of the year. All production ceases, ending one of the world’s great photographic legacies. 1
This announcement was quietly removed from Kyocera’s media relations web page at some point, but the Internet never forgets:
CONTAX-Branded Camera Business
April 12, 2005
Kyocera Corporation (President: Yasuo Nishiguchi, hereafter called "Kyocera") has decided to terminate CONTAX-branded camera business.
Although Carl Zeiss and Kyocera have entered into a long term co-operation regarding the development, production and sale of CONTAX-branded cameras, Kyocera has decided to terminate such business due to difficulties in catching up with the recent rapid market changes.
Consequently, Kyocera will terminate the shipment of CONTAX-branded cameras, and the exclusive lenses and accessories in September, 2005, except for the CONTAX 645 camera system, the shipment of which to some markets will come to an end in December, 2005.
Kyocera will continue to provide after-sales services to its customers for their CONTAX-branded cameras, and the exclusive lenses and accessories over the maximum period of ten years within the specified time of each model.
— web.archive.org/web/20050415044550/https://global.kyocera.com/news/2005/0402.html
•••
Footnotes:
1) Tomioka Optical Co., purchased by Yashica in 1968, survives even today, having been transformed into Kyocera Optec Co. Ltd. at some point in the 1990s or 2000s. The company that once served as contract manufacturer for world-renowned Carl Zeiss optics now produces plastic lenses and sensor modules for automotive back-up cameras and cell phones. In 2018, Kyocera Optec was consolidated into the parent company as the Optical Components Division of Kyocera Corp. The following statement was released through Kyocera Investor Relations:
May 25, 2018 — KYOCERA OPTEC Announces Incorporation into KYOCERA Corporation
It is decided that Kyocera Optec Co., Ltd. will be incorporated into Kyocera Corporation as of October 1, 2018 in order to achieve further business expansion and management efficiency for optical components business in the Kyocera Group. After the incorporation, we will certainly continue to develop attractive new products and provide even better quality products and services than ever by extensive and abundant management resources of Kyocera. We solicit constant patronage to our products and look forward to your redoubled support.
Notice Relating to Merger within Kyocera Group:
global.kyocera.com/ir/news/2018.html
global.kyocera.com/ir/news/pdf/0525e.pdf
global.kyocera.com/prdct/optec/
2) I have no information about sales or production dates for the following lenses:
• ML 70-210 f/4 (Yashica) — rarest of all ML lenses, perhaps only available for 6 months.
• ML 28mm f/2.8c (Cosina OEM) — sold only in Japan?
• ML 70-210mm f/4.5-5.6 Macro (Cosina OEM) — sold only in Japan?
• ML 28-210mm f/3.5-5.6 (Cosina OEM) — sold only in Europe and Japan?
• ML 35-70mm f/3.5-4.8 (Cosina OEM) — the flimsiest of all ML lenses, and sold by the boatload as an inexpensive, mostly plastic kit lens. Also sold by Minolta, Nikon and Olympus in appropriately disguised company livery; available in third-party branding from Cosnia, Phoenix, Vivitar and others.
CAO January 23, 2021
Cheers!
Dale
That has grown into a more robust timeline for Yashica and Kyocera SLR products in general, which I decided to turn into a narrative. See below if you are interested. Comments are appreciated.
Yashica Co. Ltd. SLR Timeline
1975: Yashica introduces the Contax/Yashica Bayonet Mount with the FX-1 Camera. Available lenses total six in the ML line: the 28mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.7, 135mm f/2.8 and the 200mm f/4, all sourced from the company-owned (and highly respected) Tomioka Optical Co. Ltd.
Concurrently, Yashica releases the Contax RTS camera, also featuring the Contax/Yashica Bayonet Mount, in collaboration with Carl Zeiss of West Germany. Zeiss begins selling a line of Contax lenses exclusive to the C/Y mount that fit on either Yashica or Contax bodies. An extensive line of premium Contax SLR cameras, lenses and accessories will follow over the next 30 years.
1976: Yashica introduces the FX-2 camera and expands the ML line to add the 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, 21mm f/3.5, 24mm f/2.8, 55mm f/1.2, 55mm f/4 Macro, 100mm f/4 Bellows and the 300mm f/5.6.
1977: Yashica Introduces the FR camera and accessories, a concerted effort to offer a professional system as capable as anything sold by Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Olympus or Pentax. Many Yashica and Contax accessories are interchangeable.
1978: Yashica introduces the FR I and FR II cameras.
1979: Yashica announces the FX-3 camera (assembled by Cosina) and two new ML prime lenses: the 55mm f/2.8 Macro and the 100mm f/3.5 Macro. The company also announces its first ML zooms, the 28-50mm f/3.5 and the 80-200mm f/4. Previously, zooms were offered only in the DSB series of single-coated optics.
1980: Yashica announces the FX-D camera and two more ML zooms, the 35-70mm f/3.5 and the 42-75mm f/3.5-4.5. It also discontinues the 55mm f/4 Macro, which had been superseded by the 55mm f/2.8 Macro the previous year.
1981: The ML 50mm f/2 is added to the catalog around this time.
1983: Yashica announces the FX-70 camera (often sold as a kit with the 50mm f/2 DX lens) and four new ML lenses, the 35-70mm f/4, 35-105mm f/3.5-4.5 Macro, 75-150mm f/4 and the 100-300mm f/5.6.
October 1983: Kyocera Corp., a Japanese conglomerate with interests in ceramics, electronics, telecommunications, solar power, jewelry, chemicals, stationery, office equipment, fine art and automotive components, purchases Yashica Co. Ltd.
1984: Corporate cost-cutting begins. Five ML lenses are eliminated from the lineup: the 21mm f/3.5; the 35-70mm f/3.5; and the recently announced 35-70mm f/4, 35-105mm f/3.5-4-5 Macro and 100-300mm f/5.6. The last three had only been on the market about 18 months, making them among the more rare ML lenses. Yashica did, however, introduce a new camera body, the FX-3 Super (assembled by Cosina), which offered minor improvements over the FX-3.
February 1985: Minolta introduces Maxxum/Dynax, the world’s first integrated autofocus SLR system. The rest of the industry scrambles to catch up.
1985: Yashica phases out the FX-3, ends production of the FX-70 introduced two years earlier, and announces the FX-103 Program. Three new ML lenses are announced as well — but they will be the last ever produced by Yashica: the 50mm f/1.9, a cost-reduction design; the 70-210mm f/4.5, which would replace the venerable 80-200mm f/4; and the 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5 Macro, a somewhat slow but mechanically complex lens. Any new lenses announced from this point forward will be sourced from third-party OEMs like Cosina.
1986: The FX-3 Super is replaced by the FX-3 Super 2000 (assembled by Cosina), with a faster shutter speed but lower-quality parts. Production is eventually moved to China.
1987: Production of the FX-D and FX-103 Program ends. Belatedly, the company enters the SLR autofocus market with the 200AF camera body and a small number of interchangeable lenses. Three other AF bodies will be added by 1991 before the entire project is declared a loss and killed.
1988: The 107 MP is announced, signaling Yashica’s continued dedication to manual-focus SLRs after the disastrous foray into autofocus. Yashica also continues phasing out the ML lenses it produces in-house and starts selling the MC 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5, made in Hong Kong by Universal Optical Industries, a Kyocera subsidiary.
1989: Yashica begins selling the ML 50mm f/1.9c, an entry-level lens supplied by Cosnia; and the MC 75-200mm 4.5 Macro, produced in Hong Kong by Universal Optical Industries. Yashica also launches the 108MP camera.
1991: Yashica introduces the MC 28-80mm f/3.9-4.9, manufactured in Hong Kong by Universal Optical Industries. The 107MP camera is discontinued at some point around 1991 or 1992.
1995: The 109MP is introduced. It will be Yashica’s last manual-focus SLR design.
1996: The only cameras left in the Yashica catalog are the FX-3 Super 2000, the 108MP and the 109MP. The only lenses remaining all are OEMS: the ML 50mm f/1.9c; and the trio of MC zooms from Universal Optical.
1999: By this point, two camera bodies survive: the FX-3 Super 2000 and the 109MP. All lenses are sourced from outside vendors.
2002: Yashica suspends sales of SLR camera products to focus on point-and-shoot models. Production of Contax SLR cameras and Contax/Zeiss lenses continues, including the highly regarded Contax 645 Medium Format autofocus camera system (introduced in 1999); the jewel-like G-series of autofocus rangefinders; and a new line of excellent autofocus 35mm SLRs (the N1 and NX), supplemented with nine Carl Zeiss AF lenses. The autofocus SLR system, introduced in 2000, fails to gain traction in the marketplace, however; and a digital variant — the N1-based N Digital — was an operational disaster. With extremely high noise levels, a slow buffer and poor software support, the N Digital was perhaps ahead of its time as the world’s first full-frame Digital SLR. Pentax had tried to use the same Philips-supplied sensor in its own full-frame DSLR project, but gave up when engineers could not achieve acceptable picture quality. The Contax N Digital was so bad, Kyocera refused to loan samples out to the press for review, killing the model just one year after its 2002 introduction.
Given the poor uptake of the N system and the limited number of Zeiss lenses available to support it (notable was the complete lack of fast tele-zooms), and coupled with the abject failure of the N Digital, the writing was on the wall: Cannon and Nikon were firmly entrenched in the DLSR market now, and photography would never be anything more than an unprofitable distraction for a conglomerate like Kyocera, barring a massive (and unlikely) injection of capital.
April 2005: Kyocera announces that it will exit the camera business by the end of the year. All production ceases, ending one of the world’s great photographic legacies. 1
This announcement was quietly removed from Kyocera’s media relations web page at some point, but the Internet never forgets:
CONTAX-Branded Camera Business
April 12, 2005
Kyocera Corporation (President: Yasuo Nishiguchi, hereafter called "Kyocera") has decided to terminate CONTAX-branded camera business.
Although Carl Zeiss and Kyocera have entered into a long term co-operation regarding the development, production and sale of CONTAX-branded cameras, Kyocera has decided to terminate such business due to difficulties in catching up with the recent rapid market changes.
Consequently, Kyocera will terminate the shipment of CONTAX-branded cameras, and the exclusive lenses and accessories in September, 2005, except for the CONTAX 645 camera system, the shipment of which to some markets will come to an end in December, 2005.
Kyocera will continue to provide after-sales services to its customers for their CONTAX-branded cameras, and the exclusive lenses and accessories over the maximum period of ten years within the specified time of each model.
— web.archive.org/web/20050415044550/https://global.kyocera.com/news/2005/0402.html
•••
Footnotes:
1) Tomioka Optical Co., purchased by Yashica in 1968, survives even today, having been transformed into Kyocera Optec Co. Ltd. at some point in the 1990s or 2000s. The company that once served as contract manufacturer for world-renowned Carl Zeiss optics now produces plastic lenses and sensor modules for automotive back-up cameras and cell phones. In 2018, Kyocera Optec was consolidated into the parent company as the Optical Components Division of Kyocera Corp. The following statement was released through Kyocera Investor Relations:
May 25, 2018 — KYOCERA OPTEC Announces Incorporation into KYOCERA Corporation
It is decided that Kyocera Optec Co., Ltd. will be incorporated into Kyocera Corporation as of October 1, 2018 in order to achieve further business expansion and management efficiency for optical components business in the Kyocera Group. After the incorporation, we will certainly continue to develop attractive new products and provide even better quality products and services than ever by extensive and abundant management resources of Kyocera. We solicit constant patronage to our products and look forward to your redoubled support.
Notice Relating to Merger within Kyocera Group:
global.kyocera.com/ir/news/2018.html
global.kyocera.com/ir/news/pdf/0525e.pdf
global.kyocera.com/prdct/optec/
2) I have no information about sales or production dates for the following lenses:
• ML 70-210 f/4 (Yashica) — rarest of all ML lenses, perhaps only available for 6 months.
• ML 28mm f/2.8c (Cosina OEM) — sold only in Japan?
• ML 70-210mm f/4.5-5.6 Macro (Cosina OEM) — sold only in Japan?
• ML 28-210mm f/3.5-5.6 (Cosina OEM) — sold only in Europe and Japan?
• ML 35-70mm f/3.5-4.8 (Cosina OEM) — the flimsiest of all ML lenses, and sold by the boatload as an inexpensive, mostly plastic kit lens. Also sold by Minolta, Nikon and Olympus in appropriately disguised company livery; available in third-party branding from Cosnia, Phoenix, Vivitar and others.
CAO January 23, 2021
Cheers!
Dale
