Yashica ML 70-210 F/4.5 (not F4) vs Yashica ML 80-200 F4

I was a little surprised to read Lumiworx words: 'The optical diagrams and formulations for the glass and coating of the Zeiss/Contax lenses may have been supplied and designed by Zeiss, but everything else about them was pure Yashica and Tomioka. They may have shipped product materials from Japan to Germany for assembly on a few models, but that doesn't remove either company's influence and make the German assembled lenses more Zeiss-ey because of it. '

I'm not sure to which lenses he is alluding but I can happily assure him that when it came to the production of the West German lenses such as the 15mm, 16mm, 28 f2, 35 f1.4, 60 S-Planar, 100 f2, 135 f2, 85 1.4, 100 f2, 70-210 VS and several others, all the elements and bodies were manufactured in their facility at Oberkochen.  I had the great privilege of being invited there in 1981 via Yashica in Hamburg and they allowed me to watch the entire assembly process of several of their lenses over the course of my two day visit.  I also got to see some of the development work on prototypes that never got to market (18mm f2.8, 25mm 1.4 and a few monster telephotos).  In their packing areas were many crates that were destined for Yashica in Japan though I have no idea (and never thought to ask) what was in them.  I do recall that there was a mass of building work going on when I was there with new facilities being constructed on the site.  Sadly, I never got to visit Yashica's 'Tomioka' production plant. 

The bottom line: we were incredibly fortunate to be able to select lenses from two superb manufacturers that had different but complimentary ranges of glassware and very different philosophies.  It is worth remembering that Yashica was a purely commercial organisation dealing with a wide range of photographic items while Zeiss was a Trust dedicated primarily to the development and production of premium lenses. 

Yashica's ML range offered the greater diversity of focal lengths and more than filled the many gaps in Zeiss' catalogue; Zeiss offered some of the fastest (and most costly) prime lenses but with a poor variety of zooms in the early days.  Each manufacturer was able to produce lenses that outperformed the other and the Yashica lenses that beat Zeiss at their own game had to be the best value on the planet at the time - for example, Zeiss' VS 40-80 f3.5 never matched the optical quality of the ML 28-50 or 35-70 f3.5 and the ML 70-210 f4 was almost a match for the superb VS 70-210 f3.5 Macro but at a third of the price.  And in much later production, the hugely over-priced Mirotar 500 f8 T* was no match for Yashica's little ML 500 f8.

Oh yes, and as to the 70-210 f4.5 and 80-200 f4, I can't tell their respective images apart; they are almost identical in overall performance when used with film.  CA is more of an issue with the 80-200 when used with digital full-frame.

It is a testament to the quality of the former Tomioka production facility that Zeiss had complete confidence in Yashica to assemble their standard lenses which became the exemplar against which other manufacturers' 50mm lenses were judged.  And as time moved on, further lenses were added to the Yashica line.  However, there remained a lot of snobbery about German vs Japanese Zeiss lenses which continues to this day - just witness the difference in s/h price between a 85 1.4 MM Japanese vs a German lens.  The myth of Japanese inferiority was finally debunked with the arrival of the truly wonderful Zeiss 21mm f2.8 T* Distagon - a lens that was made exclusively in Japan and is still highly sought-after and well regarded. 

Although one could never have imagined that Zeiss would have outsourced production of their most exacting lenses - such as the three f1.2 Planars - to Yashica, I don't doubt that in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Yashica could have coped. Of course, once Kyocera decided that development and production of lenses was too costly, standards dropped and we have seen the inconsistencies of quality in some of the ML range, especially those outsourced to Cosina.  What Kyocera did ultimately to the Yashica and Contax brands, in my opinion, was deeply regrettable even though I applauded their noble attempt to take on the world's first digital full-frame SLR with the N1D.  That project, of course, finally broke the bank.

But at least it left us with some of the finest legacy lenses that can be used with film or on many digital cameras.  And there's something really pleasurable to oldies like me to using a manual focus lens on a modern digital body with the help of focus-peaking...  Now, where's my ML 80-200....