Is the YAshica ML 70-210 f4.0 really this rare???

Yes!   

It has taken me 15 years to find 8 of them at affordable prices - and there were only a few more I found at truly eye-watering asking prices.  Under 1000 (probably fewer than 700) were made over a period of about 10-12 months and it was the most expensive lens Yashica sold other than its 1000mm reflex; the highest serial number I have ends in 00566.  If you have one, you know just how good its build quality is - despite the massive weight of glass, not one of my lenses suffers from any zoom creep when held vertically.  IQ is almost identical to the Zeiss VS 75-210 f3.5 which is truly saying something special. I suspect that once you have bought one, you don't tend to sell it as it's hard to match for quality.  We should though start to see a few more as estate sales for people of my age are becoming more common as we start dying.  I see a lot more Contax/Yashica gear from the 1970s and '80s appearing on eBay and auctioneers' sites as families start to clear out items previously owned by their parents or grandparents. 

Having said all that, the price being asked is unrealistic - I would usually pitch its price at being about 65% of that for a Zeiss 70-210 of equivalent condition.  The Zeiss will always have the edge because, unlike the Yashica, it offers a superb macro facility as well as benefitting from T* coatings which are slightly better than ML ones.  BUT if you need one of the best 70-210mm lenses ever made and the Zeiss is not available, you won't be disappointed with Yashica's offering - if you can find one!

Very interesting and useful information, I usually do not pay much attention to zooms, thanks.



It is really sad, and not only when happening with things related to photography, apart from the indifference and lack of appreciation for old things and things that belonged to family members, it is plain laziness, since the existence of internet that almost all information is available, including the sale price in currently available offers and on items sold in the past. Anyway, even when that laziness plays in our favor to get gear, it is really very sad.

Hello yashicanoner

I wouldn't argue with his assessment of 600 lenses.

It is rare for Yashica to have such a limited production; even highly specialised lenses like the ML 100mm f4 Bellows ran to about 3,000 units. I suspect obscure lenses like the ML 20mm f3.3 may also have endured very small production runs. The development and tooling costs alone for the 70-210mm must have been substantial and the complexity of assembly won't have helped; I doubt that it was profitable at 600 units which may well go some way to explaining the prompt return to the ML 80-200 f4.  The 20mm lens was also produced in very limited quantities as it was essentially an Auto Yashinon model with a modified mount, providing a focal length close to the planned ML 21mm which had yet to be put into full production; in this case the tooling costs would not have been prohibitive - it was simply a stop-gap solution for an ultra wide-angle lens that would otherwise have been missing from the Yashica ML portfolio.  That said, the ML 20mm is a very good lens in its own right.