Yashica shares its mount with Contax, which means that you can use Contax Zeiss T* lenses, which are rated most of the time somewhere between Nikon and Leica (or above Leica). Furthermore, most aftermarket brands support the Y/C mount so you can add Tamron, Tokina, Vivitar and Sigma lenses to your system. I've seen lots of lenses by Sun, a now-gone aftermarket producer; my Sun 135/2.5MC seems to perform well. The Big Four aftermarket brands are in various states of ending their MF offerings, inform for yourself.
This FAQ will only discuss Yashica lenses.
Yashica DSB lenses are single coated, ML lenses are multi coated (ML stands for Multi Layer). As usual, a marketing department messed things thoroughly up by introducing another designator, MC for Multi Coated, for later multi coated lenses. Contrary to the quality jump from DSB to ML, there is no distinguishable quality difference between ML and MC lenses. For quite some time, Yashica offered both DSB and ML lenses; later on, DSB lenses were sold in package deals with bodies (like the FX-D Quartz SE and the FX-7).
YUS stands for Yashica US. This "brand" is now gone, and from comparisons it seems that they were the same as the DSB lenses sold elsewhere.
The following is a list of lenses we know off. If I have performance data, I'll give them a note, ranging from 1 (``this really is a Sigma lens in disguise'') to 3 (``average Yashica stuff'') to 5 (``why didn't they stamp Carl Zeiss T* on this one?''). Completely subjective, of course, give feedback if you disagree and give notes where I didn't do it. Don't forget that this notes are not necessarily my own opinion - a lot of it is based on hearsay (especially when I don't own the lenses myself :-)).
In order to save space, I skimped on the table headers. Here is an explanation:
Description: focal length/largest aperture/coating.
Lenses/groups.
Smallest aperture.
Shortest focusing distance (m).
Filter thread diameter (mm).
Phyiscal size: diameter x length.
Weight (g).
Subjective quality assessment.
Comments, numbers refer to list below table.
Note that Yashica designates their stuff as ``ML 2,0/50'', whereas I use ``50/2,0ML''. I think this makes it easier to quickly find a lens you are looking for.
Desc | L-G | Amin | Dmin | Filt | Size | Wght | Q | Cmt |
15/2.8ML | 10/7 | 16 | 0.3 | - | 75x70.5 | 445 | 4 | 1 |
21/3.5ML | 12/8 | 16 | 0.3 | 72 | 75x54 | 370 | 4 | 2 |
24/2.8ML | 9/8 | 16 | 0.3 | 62 | 65x48.5 | 285 | 4 | |
28/2.8DSB | 6/6 | 16 | 0.3 | 52 | 61x42.5 | 240 | 2 | |
28/2.8YUS | ? | 22 | 0.35 | 55 | 63.5x44 | 260 | ||
28/2.8ML | 7/6 | 16 | 0.3 | 52 | 61.5x41.5 | 250 | 3 | |
35/2.8ML | 6/5 | 16 | 0.3 | 52 | 61.5x41.5 | 230 | ||
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Desc | L-G | Amin | Dmin | Filt | Size | Wght | Q | Cmt |
50/1.9DSB | 6/4 | 16 | 0.5 | 52 | 62x40 | 215 | ||
50/2.0ML | 6/4 | 16 | 0.5 | 52 | 61x32 | 140 | 3 | 1 |
50/1.9ML | 6/5 | 16 | 0.5 | 52 | 61x32 | 145 | 4 | |
50/1.7ML | 6/5 | 16 | 0.5 | 52 | 61.5x40 | 240 | 4 | 2 |
50/1.4ML | 7/6 | 16 | 0.5 | 52 | 61.5x42 | 295 | ? | 3 |
55/2.0DSB | 6/4 | 16 | 0.5 | 52 | 63x39.5 | 200 | ||
55/1.2ML | 7/6 | 16 | 0.5 | 55 | 66.5x50 | 410 | ||
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A warning about telephotos: Yashica came with better designs for the 135, 200 and 300 lenses (less weight, more compact, better optical quality) relatively quick after the introduction of the original lenses. As long as both variants were available, the newer ones were marked with a C (for compact). However, as soon as the old lenses were sold out, they dropped the C. Therefore, when buying a telephoto without the C, you either have a very old one or a recent one (and you really want the latter). The best advise is to use this list and check the measurements when buying second-hand telephotos.
Desc | L-G | Amin | Dmin | Filt | Size | Wght | Q | Cmt |
135/2.8DSB | 5/4 | 22 | 1.8 | 55 | 64x72 | 420 | 2 | |
135/2.8ML | 5/4 | 22 | 1.5 | 55 | 65.5x92.5 | 540 | 1 | |
135/2.8MLC | 5/4 | 22 | 1.5 | 52 | 63x75 | 420 | 2 | |
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See the warning about design enhancements in the previous section.
Desc | L-G | Amin | Dmin | Filt | Size | Wght | Q | Cmt |
200/4.0ML | 5/4 | 22 | 2.5 | 55 | 62x150 | 615 | 1 | |
200/4.0MLC | 5/4 | 22 | 2.5 | 58 | 64x113.5 | 535 | 4 | 2,3 |
300/5.6ML | 5/4 | 22 | 4.5 | ? | 65x210 | 880 | 1,4 | |
300/5.6MLC | 6/3 | 22 | 4.5 | 58 | 66x148 | 645 | 4 | 2,5 |
500/8.0 | 6/5 | - | 4 | - | 88x120.5 | 865 | 1,4,6,7,8 | |
500/8.0ML | 8/6 | - | 2.5 | - | 78x87.5 | 470 | 2,5,6,7,9 | |
1000/11.0 | 6/5 | - | 8 | - | 118x220 | 2330 | 4,6,8,10 | |
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Desc | L-G | Amin | Dmin | Filt | Size | Wght | Q | Cmt |
55/4.0ML | 4/3 | 22 | 0.25 | 52 | 61.5x55 | 305 | 1 | |
55/2.8ML | 6/4 | 22 | 0.25 | 52 | 61.5x56.5 | 305 | 4 | 1,2 |
100/3.5ML | 6/4 | 22 | 0.44 | 55 | 67x77 | 430 | 4 | 3 |
100/4.0ML | 5/3 | 22 | 0.147 | 35.5 | 94.5x155.5 | 1000 | 4 | |
100/4.0MLB | 5/3 | 32 | ? | 52 | 60x32 | 190 | 4 | |
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Desc | L-G | Amin | Dmin | Filt | Size | Wght | Q | Cmt |
28-80/3.9-4.9MC | 13/9 | 22 | 0.5 | 58 | 75x87.5 | 550 | 1,6,7 | |
28-50/3.5ML | 10/8 | 22 | 1 | 72 | 75x74.5 | 475 | 2 | |
35-70/3.5ML | 8/8 | 22 | 1 | 62 | 69x79 | 475 | 1 | |
35-70/4.0ML | 7/7 | 22 | 0.6 | 55 | 67x71 | 390 | 2 | |
35-70/3.5-4.5MC | 11/8 | 22 | 0.5 | 58 | 69.5x63.5 | 330 | 1,5 | |
35-105/3.5-4.5ML | 15/11 | 22 | 1.5 | 55 | 65x84.5 | 470 | 1 | |
35-105/3.8-4.8DSB | 15/14 | 22 | 1.4 | 55 | 64.5x82.5 | 460 | 9 | |
38-90/3.5DSB | 12/11 | 22 | 1.5 | 67 | 70x110.5 | 685 | 1,3 | |
42-75/3.5-4.5ML | 7/7 | 22 | 1.2 | 55 | 61x57 | 315 | 2 | 1,4 |
70-210/4.0DSB | 14/10 | 22 | 2.5 | 58 | 65x165 | 690 | 2 | |
75-150/4.0ML | 12/9 | 22 | 1.5 | 52 | 63.5x115.5 | 485 | 1 | |
70-210/4.5ML | 12/9 | 22 | 1.5 | 55 | 65x128.5 | 525 | 4 | 5 |
75-200/4.5MC | 13/9 | 22 | 1.2 | 55 | 73x79 | 420 | 1,6,7 | |
80-200/4.0ML | 12/9 | 22 | 1.9 | 55 | 65x133 | 610 | 4 | 1 |
100-300/5.6ML | 13/10 | 32 | 1.5 | 58 | 68.5x192.5 | 850 | 4 | 1 |
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