Early Yashinon 45-135mm Zoom
Oct 23, 2021 23:55:16 GMT
on Oct 23, 2021 23:55:16 GMT
Last Edit: Oct 24, 2021 0:00:32 GMT by lumiworx
These were sold as the Yashica Auto Yashinon Zoom (M42), Beroflex Auto Zoom (YS-PE), Soligor Zoom (M42), Lentar Auto Zoom (M42 & YS-BR ?), and even as an obscure Raynox Polaris Auto Zoom (T2-YS). Some cosmetics were slightly different between brands, with the exception of the Soligor which had a major modification to the grips. There's certainly not a lot of info on any of these as Yashica models, and not too much as any of the other brands either.
There's also something slightly odd about the makers involved, and the mounts in use. I've seen Yashica and Beroflex matches before, and Yashica and Lentar (tied to Tokina, Mitakon, Mitaki, and even GAF) don't seem to show up that much, and throwing Soligor into the mix strikes me as an awful lot of somewhat major 3rd party players jumping into the same lens at the same time. In the earlier days of massive metal zoom lenses, I'm wondering if there were a lot of quasi-partnerships formed to share and/or split the burden, or maybe have a mix of makers each contributing some individual pieces of the lens puzzle to collectively create something new.
The Yashinon Auto Zoom 45-135mm f/3.5 - fresh out of the bubble wrap...
This particular lens is being a little stubborn during cleanup. It had traces of fungus, and it's proving to be a challenge to get the front groups separated to access all their faces to clean it all out, and whatever oily coating there is on the elements doesn't want to come off with a few passes of the usual solutions.
A few quick snaps after unwrapping shows that this has several of the small shortfalls that you'd expect - CA, heavy vignetting at wider apertures, softness until f/8, etc. - but the one that probably won't get this lens featured on anyone's hot list, is the weight. It comes in at 900 g / 1.98 pounds in it's naked state, and the front element alone would probably come close to what a 50mm ML f/2 weighs, so this won't be a typical hiking lens.
There's also something slightly odd about the makers involved, and the mounts in use. I've seen Yashica and Beroflex matches before, and Yashica and Lentar (tied to Tokina, Mitakon, Mitaki, and even GAF) don't seem to show up that much, and throwing Soligor into the mix strikes me as an awful lot of somewhat major 3rd party players jumping into the same lens at the same time. In the earlier days of massive metal zoom lenses, I'm wondering if there were a lot of quasi-partnerships formed to share and/or split the burden, or maybe have a mix of makers each contributing some individual pieces of the lens puzzle to collectively create something new.
The Yashinon Auto Zoom 45-135mm f/3.5 - fresh out of the bubble wrap...
This particular lens is being a little stubborn during cleanup. It had traces of fungus, and it's proving to be a challenge to get the front groups separated to access all their faces to clean it all out, and whatever oily coating there is on the elements doesn't want to come off with a few passes of the usual solutions.
A few quick snaps after unwrapping shows that this has several of the small shortfalls that you'd expect - CA, heavy vignetting at wider apertures, softness until f/8, etc. - but the one that probably won't get this lens featured on anyone's hot list, is the weight. It comes in at 900 g / 1.98 pounds in it's naked state, and the front element alone would probably come close to what a 50mm ML f/2 weighs, so this won't be a typical hiking lens.
