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Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Jul 23, 2014 22:25:15 GMT
Posted: Jul 23, 2014 22:25:15 GMT
If you're like me and still have catalogues from the days of the FX-1 and FR, you will have seen references to the ML 400mm f5.6 - a lens with 5 elements/5 groups, 77mm filter thread, in-built hood and a minimum focus of 8m (25ft).
I still get asked if I've ever seen one and, other than seeing magazine ads that include it from the late 1970s, no sign of one has ever materialised. Another lens of that era - ML 70-210 f4 - is very, very hard to find and only appeared in one catalogue BUT it went into manufacture and was abandoned in favour of the best 70-210 ever made, the Zeiss VS 70-210 Macro f3.5; Yashica then produced a less costly and slightly slower, but superb, alternative and the few people with the f4 simply never appeared to sell them.
I have attached a scan of part of a lens leaflet from Yashica from around 1976; it shows a prototype of the 400mm, which suggests a heritage from the Yashinon 400 5.6, but most significantly, says below the lens details 'Scheduled'... Other than probably about 4 or 5 prototypes, at least one of which was seen at a US camera fair, we can now finally conclude that it never went into production.
I believe this should be the last word on the matter; unless someone here knows differently..... 
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on Jul 26, 2014 2:12:15 GMT
Posted: Jul 26, 2014 2:12:15 GMT
Glad we can put that one to rest. I'd hate to go nuts trying to find one.
PF
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Group: Moderator
Post: 2,040 (563 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Oct 17, 2014 13:14:31 GMT
Posted: Oct 17, 2014 13:14:31 GMT
Sometimes I wonder how we managed without the internet a few decades ago.
Courtesy of an Australian Ebay listing, I bought a Yashica Lens catalogue I had never seen before and at last there's a decent image of this 'almost-lens'. Sorry about the moiré - my scanner's on the blink.
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on Oct 18, 2014 1:55:00 GMT
Posted: Oct 18, 2014 1:55:00 GMT
Oh yes, that would have been one nice lens to have.
PF
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Group: Moderator
Post: 2,040 (563 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Jul 1, 2015 17:24:47 GMT
Posted: Jul 1, 2015 17:24:47 GMT
Whoa! The mystery is back....
I have just acquired a 1979 copy of the UK magazine 'What Camera?'. In addition to Vic Odden's selling the rare 70-210 f4 ML, the 400 f5.6 ML is listed in the Price Index (where actual street prices are shown) at £207. So it seems they may have existed after all....my brain hurts....
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Group: Moderator
Post: 2,040 (563 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Mar 26, 2016 12:08:35 GMT
Posted: Mar 26, 2016 12:08:35 GMT
I've just found another shop catalogue from 1978 that has a price for the ML 400mm and the price may explain why, if it went into production, numbers were probably lower than for the fabulous ML 70-210 f4. The ML 400 is the second most expensive (the 1000 Reflex being the most costly) lens in the list - this was overtaken a year later by the 70-210 f4. With high production costs and a limited appeal, the 400 was probably not commercially viable and so was either abandoned or withdrawn. I wonder how many orders Yashica received for the lens...was it enough for a limited production run?
Interesting too to note that price differential between the new FR and the older FX-1...and by comparison, how cheap the 124G was!
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