The FX-3 that shouldn't be.

Oct 15, 2019 20:09:53 GMT lumiworx said:

One thought that comes to mind is that it might have been meant to be an anniversary edition of some type. The problem is that they would have an anniversary inscription if they were a Contax, but then, Yashica didn't 'do' anniversaries that I know of. Maybe it's from the very last batch and it had a design change, but they halted production before they could be properly introduced. Any clues with the serial number?

It is an oddity. It has a 840xxxx serial number which makes it sequentially earlier than your black version with a serial number starting with 9.  I think a clue may exist in the Kyocera logo - if both your ones have the larger, standard version with the red on silver element, then I would suspect that the silver one was manufactured in a different facility or at a different time.  Corporations, if they decide to change their look, tend to simplify their logos (I once was head of communications for one of the world's leading identity consultancies) which would lead me to think that the silver one is a later model than the black ones.  I would suggest that this is the case because the corporation reversed its brand identity such that the motif is now on the left (as with the silver camera) and the name on the right; that it's all mono is probably to save cost.  That however, brings up the issue of serial numbers; with some marques that use multiple 3rd party manufacturers, the initial digits or letters can signify the actual producer or production facility and the later digits are the sequential serial numbers (think Vivitar Series 1 lenses - Cosina, Komine, etc.).  I wonder if Yashica was doing that in its later years?  That might explain a later model with an 'earlier' serial number...

Perhaps another of our members has a silver FX-3 S 2000 - if so, let's hope they can share the first 3 digits of the serial number.

Oct 16, 2019 4:55:23 GMT lumiworx said:

As far as Yashica-made lenses go, I can make 3 observations on serial numbers...

The Yashica compact "c" prime or zoom models I have (which were all reportedly made by Cosina) use a "C" as the first character in the serial number, and not the usual "A".
The AE versions of my Zeiss C/Y lenses start with a 6, but the MM versions start with "7". There's one exception, and that one's a MMJ Planar 50mm f/1.4, which starts with a "5".
The Yashica AF lenses I have all start with an "F", but the only Power Zoom I have (28-70mm) has no letters at all.

Contax SLR Body numbers that I have all seem to start with a "0" or a "1", and are a total of 6 numbers. I don't have a G1 or G2, so those are a mystery for me. My Yashica bodies are all over the place. An original version FR has '70404209', while a 103 is "176101", so the only consistency I see is that they are all numbers, with no letters or symbols.

There doesn't seem to be anything obvious beyond the 1st character with lenses for either branding. I'm not sure what type of numbering scheme might apply for SLR body numbers for either one, but that might be something that pauls could shed some light on.

As for the Contax G camera numbers, it's slightly odd in that the G1s I have start with 04 and 08, yet my later G2s start with 02.  Contax camera numbers are bemusing as I have for example, an Aria starting 00 and a RTS starting 124.  Some of my RTSIIs start with a 3.  All the digital Contaxes have the same 6 digit rule, starting with 0, but are preceded by letters CL, DX, DR or EB.  The RTS Gold Anniversary cameras have 3 very different systems for numbering plus some with standard 0 numbers for those that were promotional specials or non-territory specific.

As for the Zeiss numbering, it's much more straightforward as they started with almost all their AE lenses at 5xxxxx so, for example, all my 15, 16, 28 f2, start with a 5 and the more numerous lenses like 25, 28 f2.8, 35 f2.8, 50 1.4 start with a 5 and rattle up to late 6s (for example my highest numbered 50 1.4 AE is 674xxx) before we hit MM types starting at around 68xxxx.  All my 50 1.7 AE lenses start with 6. They then simply ran incremental numbers regardless of the lens type until you hit 88xxxx which was as high as any of my C/Y mount lenses go - my 8xxxxx lenses include 50 1.7s, 55 1.2s, a Mutar III and 500 f8 Mirotars. I think I've seen a 50 1.7 MM with a 89xxxx serial number but I don't recall any starting with a 9 though that doesn't mean they may not be out there; they would have been the last of the line.  The exception to the rule was the 1000mm f5.6 Mirotar which started with a 4.  The N series lenses are unusual in that they have 8 digits. 

Trying to work through Yashica's post-M42 lens serial number permutations is a real challenge!  I have a few C/Y mount Yashica lenses that don't have a prefix letter, for example DSB 28mm & 135mm f2.8s - some have just numbers and others have 'No. followed by the 6 digits; also the 500mm f8 and 1000mm f11 Reflex optics.  Some Yashica lenses have A followed by 5 digits, most have 7 but some have 8 and the C lenses you correctly identified as Cosina have 6.  You are quite right about the AF Power Zooms - neither has a prefix which suggests a different manufacturer from the rest of the AF types.  And I'll bet we've only just scratched the surface...!