Yashinon 1.4/45 - How Good? How Hard?

Oldhand

This is a lens from a rangefinder (14E) camera and is unusual for its speed.
Has anyone used this lens as an adapted lens on DSLR, and what were your impressions of its IQ?
How difficult is the adaptation?
If I am not mistaken Carsten may have, or may have had one of these - so I hope he is able to comment.
Many thanks
OH

Layer-cake · Joined: 18 Mar 2013 Posts: 560 Location: Cape Town

it has quite a thick body but I don't think it would clear the registration distance for a DSLR, it would be possible for a mirror less cam.

personally I don't think it would do better than a good 50mm in that range, I love my 45mm 1.7 yashinon for its colour reproduction but I still mainly reach for my other 50's

Lightshow · Joined: 04 Nov 2011 Posts: 3669 Location: Calgary

Macro only on DSLR, for mirrorless it might be worth adapting/transplanting.
The body looks to be in bad shape, does it clean up at all? If it's unsalvagable, go to town. Smile

newst · Joined: 21 Oct 2014 Posts: 617 Location: Troy, MI USA

There is a vendor who is selling these lenses on Ebay, modified to Sony E Mount.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Modified-Yashica-Electro-35-45mm-F-1-7-Lens-for-Full-Frame-E-Mount-/281475430522?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item41893e387a

I bought one, particularly for the high speed and to add a unique native E mount lens to my collection. My copy has to be stopped down to 2.8 or so to get sharp so there isn't much value to the 1.4. I get much better performance at 2.8 from the Contax/Zeiss 45/2.8.

Edit: The lens is sharp enough at the center at 1.4 but not at the edges. There is even a small amount of vignetting at the corners on a Sony A7.

Oldhand · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 4:19 am Post subject:

Thanks fellas - I appreciate your comments.
The camera may or may not be usable, but I am interested in doing something with the lens if it is worth pursuing.
OH

Layer-cake · Joined: 18 Mar 2013 Posts: 560 Location: Cape Town

there's no harm in doing it, here's a nice walk through link from a previous thread for MGT : http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=2&hl=fr&ie=UTF8&nv=1&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http://www.bigeye.url.tw/big5/d_ya45_14.htm&usg=ALkJrhgQL6oAwd3qFllWXxyeVEZUoVmgbQ

you can actually remove the metal behind the threading that was used for the original guide rail and use a pin placed into one of the original holes that's fixed to the mount to allow the helicoid to still operate correctly.

Oldhand · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 6:35 am Post subject:

std · Joined: 09 Feb 2010 Posts: 1827 Location: Bulgaria

I had one of those - too big and heavy for Nex.

Quality is nice especially bokeh.

http://forum.mflenses.com/thinking-to-convert-a-lens-from-a-fixed-fr-camera-to-nex-t34258.html
https://www.flickr.com/photos/s_dyakov/sets/72157630059303715/

But still it is not worthed - you will be better with a SLR 1.4/50 lens and you will not have to butcher the camera.