Group: Moderator
Post: 2,036 (561 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
|
|
on Mar 9, 2022 12:16:55 GMT
Posted: Mar 9, 2022 12:16:55 GMT
This is a bit of a puzzle... I have come across about a dozen Yashica 35mm lenses which look like the ML type but as you can see from the image below, the ML letters remain unpainted.  Yashica 35mm lens in C/Y mountHad it only been one, I could easily be convinced that the original owner simply blacked-out the letters for some arcane reason. But this appears on around a dozen of these lenses all with very high serial numbers starting A134xxxx which would make them among the last to be produced. Very odd. |
|
Group: Administrator
Post: 1,370 (301 liked)
Join date: February 2017
Status: Failed treatment for L.B.A. and G.A.S,
|
|
on Mar 9, 2022 16:17:16 GMT
Posted: Mar 9, 2022 16:17:16 GMT
They could be something like the DX f/2 50mm's. Their manufacturing origin might not be confirmed, and they don't show up in any sales documents or brochures, but they did come out of the sames distribution channel via Yashica. It is odd there's no 'family' designation, but I suppose these could be one step past the prototype stage and they are production samples for a new and unnamed family of 35mm lenses with simple lens rings. If the serial numbers are consecutive - or very close to it - that could lend support to the production sample idea with small test batches that stayed together.
Are these for sale in Japan, or elsewhere?
|
|
Group: Member
Post: 272 (39 liked)
Join date: July 2014
Status:
|
|
on Mar 9, 2022 17:21:11 GMT
Posted: Mar 9, 2022 17:21:11 GMT
I have seen this blacked or unpainted text on a batch of 28mm's sold via eBay here in the UK, sold as NOS, which were said to be originally for CCTV use. These lenses were also mechanically modified - no aperture and suitable for stopped down use only. Fine for adapted use but not so much on Contax & yashica SLR's.
|
|
Group: Moderator
Post: 2,036 (561 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
|
|
on Mar 9, 2022 21:36:23 GMT
Posted: Mar 9, 2022 21:36:23 GMT
They could be something like the DX f/2 50mm's. Their manufacturing origin might not be confirmed, and they don't show up in any sales documents or brochures, but they did come out of the sames distribution channel via Yashica. It is odd there's no 'family' designation, but I suppose these could be one step past the prototype stage and they are production samples for a new and unnamed family of 35mm lenses with simple lens rings. If the serial numbers are consecutive - or very close to it - that could lend support to the production sample idea with small test batches that stayed together. Are these for sale in Japan, or elsewhere? Only in Japan as far as I can see. The numbers, if sequential, would suggest that a few hundred were produced but in its final years, the numbering system could not always be relied upon. |
|
Group: Moderator
Post: 2,036 (561 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
|
|
on Mar 9, 2022 21:39:15 GMT
Posted: Mar 9, 2022 21:39:15 GMT
I have seen this blacked or unpainted text on a batch of 28mm's sold via eBay here in the UK, sold as NOS, which were said to be originally for CCTV use. These lenses were also mechanically modified - no aperture and suitable for stopped down use only. Fine for adapted use but not so much on Contax & yashica SLR's. That is very interesting: I was completely unaware of those lenses. I wish I had a record of their serial numbers. These ones would appear to be conventional, fully operational ML types but without that designator. |
|
|
Deleted
Group: Member
Post: 0 ( liked)
Join date: January 1970
Status:
|
|
on Mar 9, 2022 21:42:09 GMT
Posted: Mar 9, 2022 21:42:09 GMT
These are definitely meant for something other than C/Y bodies. Although the aperture coupling is there, the stop down leaver is missing and the maximum aperture pin is missing. So you could probably put them on an SLR but you would only be able to use them with stopped down metering.
|
|
|
Deleted
Group: Member
Post: 0 ( liked)
Join date: January 1970
Status:
|
|
on Mar 9, 2022 21:47:23 GMT
Posted: Mar 9, 2022 21:47:23 GMT
The same seller is selling some other lenses with strange couplings. This one is marked ML but it has an extra (large) pin on the back.  |
|
Group: Administrator
Post: 1,370 (301 liked)
Join date: February 2017
Status: Failed treatment for L.B.A. and G.A.S,
|
|
on Mar 9, 2022 22:59:49 GMT
Last Edit: Mar 9, 2022 23:13:23 GMT by lumiworx
Although it isn't directly related to these specific lenses, there's a blog page that shows a complete teardown of a Yashica ML 35mm f/2.8 lens with lots of detailed pictures. I think some of us have come into possession of a lens or two that has been repaired, or purposely modified with non-standard parts - including Yashica's own progressive part changes to different designs/styles - so the photos might help for comparison to the original version, at every component level. In Japanese: pakira3.sakura.ne.jp/wp/?p=52194 |
|
Group: Administrator
Post: 1,370 (301 liked)
Join date: February 2017
Status: Failed treatment for L.B.A. and G.A.S,
|
|
on Mar 9, 2022 23:23:42 GMT
Posted: Mar 9, 2022 23:23:42 GMT
A "sold" Mercari sales page showing what might be one of these same lenses. This one clearly shows the "ML" has been blacked out or the paint removed, and the max aperture pin isn't in place... In Japanese: jp.mercari.com/item/m51640105306 |
|
Group: Moderator
Post: 2,036 (561 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
|
|
on Mar 10, 2022 10:23:08 GMT
Posted: Mar 10, 2022 10:23:08 GMT
A "sold" Mercari sales page showing what might be one of these same lenses. This one clearly shows the "ML" has been blacked out or the paint removed, and the max aperture pin isn't in place... In Japanese: jp.mercari.com/item/m51640105306A good find. That is yet a further example of these hybrid 'ex-ML' lenses. As with all the others, the serial number is in the high A134xxxx range. The ML 35mm lenses start at A130xxxx and the highest I have is A13377xx but if bp_reid is correct in identifying their use for CCTV work, it may not follow that they are sequentially numbered. Yashica may have segregated the A134 numbers for these lenses at any time in their production. Do any of our Members have a standard ML lens with a serial number starting A134 (or A135 for that matter)? If so, can they please confirm the number(s) and take a piccie? |
|
Group: Administrator
Post: 1,370 (301 liked)
Join date: February 2017
Status: Failed treatment for L.B.A. and G.A.S,
|
|
on Mar 11, 2022 20:12:38 GMT
Posted: Mar 11, 2022 20:12:38 GMT
Mine are in the 131xxxx range.
|
|
Group: Moderator
Post: 2,036 (561 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
|
|
on Mar 12, 2022 10:14:36 GMT
Posted: Mar 12, 2022 10:14:36 GMT
Mine are in the 131xxxx range. Hi Randy, Thank you for taking the trouble to reply. Always appreciated... |
|
Group: Member
Post: 435 (15 liked)
Join date: July 2016
Status:
|
|
on Mar 12, 2022 17:38:31 GMT
Last Edit: Mar 13, 2022 10:37:02 GMT by lenslover
I've read somewhere onto the web, that Samples >131xxxx are being best to avoid, due to lower quality and sample variation. Would update this post, if i find the link again. It's true, some of these Yashica ML's have been used for CCTV exclusively. I once had a 35/2.8 ML with that kind of sticker on it.
|
|
