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Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Nov 20, 2019 15:24:27 GMT
Posted: Nov 20, 2019 15:24:27 GMT
Hi guys,
That nice postman has just delivered an early Christmas present to myself - Yashica's astonishing ML 500 f8.
Now don't get me wrong; the Reflex 500 f8 is an excellent lens but the ML is in a league of its own. Smaller and sharper than the Reflex, it completely outperforms the Zeiss 500mm f8 Mirotar (the Zeiss 500 f4.5 is another matter!) and has been reviewed on a number of sites and highly praised. Unfortunately, we all know what that means - they get very scarce as people just won't sell them and the price rockets northwards...
ML 500 f8
The photo shows just how compact this lens is.
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on Nov 21, 2019 8:58:53 GMT
Posted: Nov 21, 2019 8:58:53 GMT
Congrats for the new toy, it really looks very compact for a 500... so what kind of shots do you have in mind to make with it?... or too mint to use it?
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on Nov 21, 2019 10:02:58 GMT
Posted: Nov 21, 2019 10:02:58 GMT
Congrats for the new toy, it really looks very compact for a 500... so what kind of shots do you have in mind to make with it?... or too mint to use it? Hi ariel,
You are so right about its compactness; can you believe that it weighs only 54% of the mass of the Reflex 500mm f8 (470g vs 865g) yet the body and mount are all metal! OK - some of the weight-saving is due to the absence of a tripod collar but the ML 500mm is very small when compared with its predecessor. Its circumference is only 78mm (Reflex: 88mm) and its length is 87.5mm vs 120.5mm for the Reflex. Add in the revised optics and ML coatings and you have a very special lens indeed. One other benefit is that its minimum focus is much better - 2.5m compared with 4m. It is, quite simply, the best 500mm f8 lens ever made, as has been stated on other websites.
As for its use, it's already been in action on an Olympus OM-D E-M1; I live on the side of a hill so views across the rooves of the town in the valley made a great test. There's a lot of wildlife in the hills around here so the lens will get plenty of airing when the weather permits.
As a complete aside, I'm waiting on another mirror lens - a 300mm - and it's the only one I know of that has a variable (f5.6 - f16) aperture!
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on Nov 21, 2019 13:24:33 GMT
Posted: Nov 21, 2019 13:24:33 GMT
Rumors are saying, that a significant number of them were destroyed at the YASHICA warehouse fire in Hamburg.
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on Nov 21, 2019 17:45:14 GMT
Posted: Nov 21, 2019 17:45:14 GMT
Rumors are saying, that a significant number of them were destroyed at the YASHICA warehouse fire in Hamburg. Yikes!!!
That seems more likely than the long-time rumor that Olympus took all of it's old 35mm Pen left-over parts and ran over them with a steam-roller when they discontinued service.
Anyway, nice looking lens.
I'll stick with my 500mm f8 Spiratone -- AKA Tomioka/Yashica -- which I get to use on my Olympus Pen FT.
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on Nov 21, 2019 21:39:10 GMT
Posted: Nov 21, 2019 21:39:10 GMT
In terms of weight and handling... The Zeiss 35-70mm comes in at 475g, and is easy to manage for hand-held use, so 470 should be fantastic for a 500mm mirror. At that weight I can't imagine it will be too unwieldy without a tripod mount on the lens itself. For focal length... The best, fast, longer telephoto I have is the Zeiss 200mm (my 300 is a bit soft), and with the addition of a 2x Mutar (remarkably sharp), it pulls it out to 400mm - but - it comes at a price of 2 more stops in exposure too. Sadly that combination is a long, long, way from 470-ish grams, and still shy of the 500mm reach by a fair amount. The upside was that it was easier to find that pairing than one good ML 500 mirror. My pseudo-Yashica Spiratone mirror can be okay, as long as I'm using it on digital bodies and can put in quite a bit of work on RAW files, but it's no ML 500mm by any stretch. Congrats on the find, biggles3 ... I look forward to whatever shots you can share in warmer weather.
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on Nov 22, 2019 10:39:29 GMT
Posted: Nov 22, 2019 10:39:29 GMT
Gongrats, it's a great lens, which I also own (but in a worse condition), and I like it very much. Please show some pictures taken with this lens.
Here are some samples I took:
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on Nov 22, 2019 16:46:48 GMT
Last Edit: Nov 22, 2019 16:47:35 GMT by xkaes
My pseudo-Yashica Spiratone mirror can be okay, as long as I'm using it on digital bodies and can put in quite a bit of work on RAW files, but it's no ML 500mm by any stretch. Are you using a Spiratone Minitel or a Spiratone Minitel-M?
They are completely different animals. The Minitel (there were different versions) has 77mm filter threads and was made by Tomioka, while the Minitel-M has 72mm threads and was made by who knows who?.
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on Nov 22, 2019 19:00:03 GMT
Last Edit: Nov 22, 2019 19:22:55 GMT by lumiworx
Are you using a Spiratone Minitel or a Spiratone Minitel-M? They are completely different animals. The Minitel (there were different versions) has 77mm filter threads and was made by Tomioka, while the Minitel-M has 72mm threads and was made by who knows who?.
It's the 77mm version, and has the 532xxxx serial # - with the rear-mounted filters... EDIT: Here's a few test images with it on the same NEX-F3 a Sony A7R.
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on Nov 22, 2019 20:08:38 GMT
Posted: Nov 22, 2019 20:08:38 GMT
BTW... A 1000mm f/11 version of the older Reflex model is up for sale. Too many nickles for my wallet to bear, but these don't show up very often.
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on Nov 23, 2019 9:41:55 GMT
Posted: Nov 23, 2019 9:41:55 GMT
Gongrats, it's a great lens, which I also own (but in a worse condition), and I like it very much. Please show some pictures taken with this lens.
Here are some samples I took: Some really nice piccies - great work! I'll upload some snaps in the near future.
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Group: Moderator
Post: 2,040 (563 liked)
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Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Nov 26, 2019 14:46:32 GMT
Posted: Nov 26, 2019 14:46:32 GMT
Rumors are saying, that a significant number of them were destroyed at the YASHICA warehouse fire in Hamburg. Wow - I did not know about the fire! That probably explains the demise of Yashica and Contax - just imagine how much bad luck all those broken mirrors will have brought! Now it all starts to make sense...
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on Nov 26, 2019 18:54:29 GMT
Last Edit: Nov 26, 2019 18:58:27 GMT by matthiasausk
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Group: Moderator
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on Nov 27, 2019 2:39:18 GMT
Posted: Nov 27, 2019 2:39:18 GMT
Hi matthiasusk,
My apologies as my comment on the demise of the brands was not meant to be taken literally; here in the UK we have a superstition that to break a mirror brings seven years bad luck. And it is true as any husband that accidentally broke his wife's vanity mirror will attest!
Thank you to a member of this Forum for a link to a couple of photos from the aftermath of the fire to which your refer. Here's one which shows the burnt Yashica/Kyocera branding on one of their digital camera (SL400R) boxes...
Yashica digital cameras destroyed in 2004 fire
It would certainly help to explain the comparative rarity of the Yashica branded ML410R or the Kyocera SL400R in Europe.
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on Dec 21, 2019 20:57:01 GMT
Posted: Dec 21, 2019 20:57:01 GMT
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