DS-M 24mm - the M42 Yashica stunner!

Hi everyone and thanks for the kind comments; grabbing the lens was sheer luck as I saw it shortly after it was listed - those many hours trawling the internet for Yashica interests sometimes pay off....

As promised, a little bit of hazy sunshine and I grabbed a couple of images at the back of the house. The first shows a portion of the garden and is simply there to provide the context for the key photo which is a close-up of one of the plants you can see towards the right of the first image.

The lens is pretty impressive, although as with a lot of wide-angles, accurate focusing can be fun...  The key image shows good contrast and sharpness at the point of focus, along with the shallowness of depth of focus wide-open - bokeh is soft and not distracting.  The piccies were taken hand-held in a gentle breeze in hazy light. 

Oct 28, 2016 1:08:27 GMT ridgeblue99 said:

Wonderful! That second shot is almost 3-D.

I lucked into a Minolta 24mm one day for $25. Only problem is, I've never shot it because shortly afterwards I made the decision to concentrate on my Nikon gear, and divest myself of the Minolta, Canon, and Olympus stuff.

I figured after doing all that, I could then go back to gathering up a nice ML/Contax kit, although I have picked up a few such items along the way, such as the 50mm Planar, and the right angle finder.

PF

$25 for a Minolta 24mm - what a bargain; such a pity you never got the opportunity to try it. 

I'm delighted you are impressed by the quality of the 24mm's glass - it has taken me by surprise as I was expecting something good but imho I received something great.  At some stage, I'll have to do a comparison between it, the ML and the Zeiss 25mm.  I'd be interested to know how much the DS-M 24mm cost back in its day - sadly, my earliest camera magazines only go back to 1978 and the M42 range of Yashica lenses does not feature in any of them; I'll try to find a copy of the US' Popular Photography magazine from the early 1970s and check the ads.  Not easy to find here in the UK and although plentiful on Ebay, US postal charges are now making it too costly a task but I'll keep hunting...

Prior to this little adventure looking into Yashica's M42 heritage items, the only Yashinon DS-M I had owned was the Tomioka 55mm f1.2 which I ditched when I bought the equivalent Zeiss Planar.  My memory of it is still very positive and I have a feeling it was sharper wide open than the ML.  Although Yashica did not produce a lot of Yashinon DS-M lenses, I'm impressed by their quality.  I have yet to try out the 50 f1.4 but if the f1.7 is any guide, it should be very good. 

The photo below shows the development in mid-range (24-25mm) wide-angle lenses (and cameras for that matter) from the Yashica and Contax/Zeiss stable.  Given the serial numbers, I reckon that the lenses (and cameras) cover a period of about 10 years, from around 1972 to 1982.

I would grade them in order of quality from the photo's left to right with the Yashinon DS-M being the star performer.  There's not a lot in it but I put the superb old M42 beauty just ahead of the ML which in turn is just a shade sharper than the Zeiss.  The 24mm DS-M coating seems closer to Zeiss' T* than Yashica's ML which may explain why its contrast is superior to the ML and equal to that of the 25mm Distagon; it beats both of the other lenses for edge to edge definition although all three have exceptional centre sharpness.

The exceptional quality of the very limited range of DS-M lenses produced by Yashica makes the acquisition of the 55mm f1.2 all the more appealing, especially as it holds a unique position in the Tomioka/Yashica stable as it was the first lens to use computer-aided design for its optical qualities.  Mind you, the rear of the lens looks awful as Yashica had to grind off some of the glass and mount to enable it to fit into the 42mm throat while allowing free movement of the aperture pin. Not a pretty sight.  At the moment, the only DS-M 55 1.2 lenses I can find are about double the cost of the ML version so they're a bit beyond my pocket.  I look forward to the day when I can compare it with my ML and Zeiss Planar...