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Yashica Yashinon 75 - 230mm f/4.5 Zoom Telephoto M42
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:47 pm    Post subject: Yashica Yashinon 75 - 230mm f/4.5 Zoom Telephoto M42 Reply with quote
Recently picked up one of these monsters on ebay for less than a tenner inc shipping.

It's an early zoom lens from the early 70s, probably made by Sigma.

It's a huge lens for it;s focal length, two ring design and all metal, feels very well made, almost as good as a Takumar of the same vintage and it reminds me of a Tak in feel. If I had to take some shots in a dodgy area, this would be the lens to use as you could quite easily bludgeon an attacker to death with it and probably wouldn't do much damage to the lens, it's built like a tank and feels like it should be mounted on something suitably heavy and agricultural like a Zenit E!

Apparently there is more than one version of this lens. Mine has a ring to select M or A aperture and is labelled 'Auto Yashinon Zoom' with no DX designation. It's in almost mint condition, looks almost unused, glass is clean, the odd speck of dust behind the front element but looks pretty pristeen. The coating has a yellow colour so it's probably single coated.

I don't normally do zoom lenses but after reading that Yashinon lenses are well regarded and seeing how cheap this was I decided to give it a go.

Smaller lens in the pic is a modern Sigma 28-70 just for scale.



Last edited by iangreenhalgh1 on Thu Apr 14, 2011 1:15 am; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 6:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I love these old Yashica big guns, they feel so well made Smile I highly doubt your lens is Sigma made, it's more likely to be a Tokina, who I believe sold lots of this focal range under a number of brand names.

Luis may well know Smile


PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 12:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well, I don't know, I just suspect.

I have one of these in its preset version. Its the same lens for certain.

http://forum.mflenses.com/yashinon-r-75-230-4-5-preset-t-mount-oversize-zoom-t11445,highlight,%2Byashinon.html

I don't think Tokina made it. Tokina made a smaller, better and much more popular 90-230/4.5 lens in auto and preset. That lens has nothing in common with these monsters.

I now suspect Sigma because Sigma had a line of 75-230/4.5 zooms in fixed mounts and in YS mount in the 1970's. I think this thing might have been an ancestor of those.


PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 12:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Aha! In that case I eat my words and forget I ever said anything Laughing


PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
ManualFocus-G wrote:
Aha! In that case I eat my words and forget I ever said anything Laughing


No problem man, this is a discussion forum so I welcome all discussion as long as it's civil!

I only say it might be as sigma because when I goggled this lens I found a few pages were people werer talking about these lenses and most thought it was made by Sigma.

Not important who made it really, as long as it works well. Not been well today but hope to get out over the weekend with this beast for some trials.

It was luis's posts about his copy of this lens (I think mine is the same as his) that caused me to buy this thing, he did a nice write-up and after looking at my lens I'd say his thoughts about it were spot on:

http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic.php?t=11445


PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 1:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well, I finally got bored of waiting for the rain to stop and the sun to shine and decided to take some test shots with this lens, you can see the falling rain and grey steel skies...

This is at the 230mm end, f8, 1/500 sec, I quite like how sharp this lens is, there is some purple fringing but not bad at all for a zoom.

This lens is a joy to hold and use, feels so well made and the focusing and zoom are so large and easy and smooth to use, I don't mind the large size of this lens at all as it's so easy to hold and focus, and it's not that heavy for it's size, it's as big as my Tair-3C but nowhere near as heavy!








PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 1:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
There are at the 75mm end, also at f8, also acceptably sharp and contrasty to my eyes, I'm quite impressed with the IQ for a zoom lens, this is actually better than some of the cheap primes I have.





PostPosted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 6:42 pm    Post subject: yashinon 75-230mm Reply with quote
hello MF
I see you've been writing some interesting stuff about this huge lens...
Which camera can it be used on?

thanks a lot


PostPosted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 7:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
These were made with several lens mounts, so they should be usable on any camera with that mount or for which you can get an adapter.
We would need details for an accurate answer.

The one discussed by Ian is M42, which is easy to adapt. Pretty much anything except a Nikon.


PostPosted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Since this old thread got bumped.....

Just wanted to add that I decided to pick one of these up for cheap after finding this thread. The beast is huge and heavy for a f/4.5.
My glass looks quite good with only a bit of fungus on the edge of an inner element. Should not affect test photos.

My results are inline with the photos posted. Can't say it's as good as shots from the Tokina mentioned, but as a Yashinon fan, it's a fun conversation piece.

It does have hints of Sigma...the tripod collar looks similar to two other Sigmas I have. But it's built like no Sigma I've handled.
This one could be mistaken for a grenade launcher!
Smile
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