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Yashinon 2/50 - talk about an overlooked gem!
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 10:19 am    Post subject: Yashinon 2/50 - talk about an overlooked gem! Reply with quote
I'm going to put my Oreston away for a while - this Yashinon is a great lens. The 2/50 is usually overlooked for the faster more exotic Yashinons, but it's a beauty of a lens - and cheap! I paid $9 for mine. Very Happy It is an Ultron type with six elements in five groups. I've heard rumor that the lens is a copy of the Isco Westagon, but I think this is fanciful thinking. The Yashinon is noticeably sharper wide open, and if the diagrams are to be believed the Yashinon has much smaller airspaces between the front elements too.

Anyway I don't have a slide scanner - so don't judge sharpness - but look at how beautiful the rendering of this lens is. At middle apertures the OOF areas are extremely pleasant.













I'll have to get proper scans when I go about scanning all of my slides. Anyway, I'm really impressed with how nicely this lens renders OOF areas both foreground and background. It is also decently sharp, even wide open (although I guess one should expect it to be with an F2 max aperture). Stopped down some it looks to be as sharp as any other 50 from this era that I've owned.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 12:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
+1

It's also very small, almost pancake.
And works with FF bodies too!
(well, I took the aperture lever away but it's a reversible fix)


PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Mine is the DX version, it's actually in a rather large barrel considering it is "only" F2.



PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 7:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sorry, I was talking about Yasihca ML 50/2.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
They are probably the same lens optically. Cool well, aside from more modern coatings anyway.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yashica lenses are very good ones. With the time the coated was better, no more. Mamiya is another example of lenses underrated and they are very good too.

All yashica normals do well their job.

And.........Mos6502 I like your edixa very much.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 10:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
sonyrokkor wrote:
Yashica lenses are very good ones.


erm the 28mm and 55m DSB ones aren't, in fact after finding that the ML 135mm f2.8 is nothing special will not waste another penny on Yashica lenses.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 11:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The only Yashica lens that I've had was ML 1.7/50 and it was a pretty good one: on the level of similarly specced FD/MD/Hexanons. Based on that I would expect ML line to be on the level of first tier Japanese brands. DSB is a budget line, so lower performance is expected. Surprised that you didn't like ML 135, even lesser brands do well at this FL. Perhaps a lemon?


PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 12:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
sonyrokkor wrote:
Yashica lenses are very good ones.


Let's not go overboard now....


PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 7:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
fermy wrote:
The only Yashica lens that I've had was ML 1.7/50 and it was a pretty good one: on the level of similarly specced FD/MD/Hexanons. Based on that I would expect ML line to be on the level of first tier Japanese brands. DSB is a budget line, so lower performance is expected. Surprised that you didn't like ML 135, even lesser brands do well at this FL. Perhaps a lemon?


Well I not saying the ML line is rubbish as some members have praised some of these lenses, but my ML 135mm lens was just another boring sharp lens compared to say a less sharp Vivitar 135mm f2.8 that overall gave better results. For me I rarely use my lenses wide open so a lens has to have something different (special) to retain my interest.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 8:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Oreste wrote:
sonyrokkor wrote:
Yashica lenses are very good ones.


Let's not go overboard now....


There are people who claim the Trioplan 2.8/100 is "very good" and nobody seems to tell them not to go overboard. Laughing

Some Yashica lenses are very good. Wink

It is always trouble though to paint a brand all with the same brush.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Oreste wrote:
sonyrokkor wrote:
Yashica lenses are very good ones.


Let's not go overboard now....


Overboad to you? Well. Not for me.

Somebody tell us, lightely, determinate lens isn't good or, poorly, it's a bad lens.

Tell us why, please.

For example, take the flare issue. Lens with some flare isn`t good enough? I don't think so. A lot of old lenses have flare and they are good lenses yet.

"the 28mm and 55m DSB ones aren't, ...." Please, again, tell us why. As is expresed previously, is a flare issue? So much warm colors or excesive cool ones? no much resolution power? Very low contrast? Strong distortion? I don't know, and I want to. Should be very ilustrative. The design of the 28, 50 and 135 (like the others yashica lenses) are the same of others brands - or almost the same-. It's very difficult find a lens of those F.L.s in formulas not used by the rest of the brands.

Differences between the rendering of the brands lenses? Yes of course. But in the range 28-135, it 's very difficult find not good lenses.

Let me see:

http://forum.mflenses.com/mimi-yashica-dsb-28mm-f-2-8-t9294.html

I see a good lens there, don't you?


PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
You can't compare DSB & ML lenses and label them the same, the optics/coatings in the ML are much better then the DSB's, my only problem with the ML 50/2 is the elements are glued in, and if fungus takes hold like in mine, there is no way to fix it.
The 55/2.8 macro is very nice, and faster than most macros(3.5).


PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
sonyrokkor wrote:
Oreste wrote:
sonyrokkor wrote:
Yashica lenses are very good ones.


Let's not go overboard now....


Overboad to you? Well. Not for me.

Somebody tell us, lightely, determinate lens isn't good or, poorly, it's a bad lens.

Tell us why, please.

For example, take the flare issue. Lens with some flare isn`t good enough? I don't think so. A lot of old lenses have flare and they are good lenses yet.

"the 28mm and 55m DSB ones aren't, ...." Please, again, tell us why. As is expresed previously, is a flare issue? So much warm colors or excesive cool ones? no much resolution power? Very low contrast? Strong distortion? I don't know, and I want to. Should be very ilustrative. The design of the 28, 50 and 135 (like the others yashica lenses) are the same of others brands - or almost the same-. It's very difficult find a lens of those F.L.s in formulas not used by the rest of the brands.

Differences between the rendering of the brands lenses? Yes of course. But in the range 28-135, it 's very difficult find not good lenses.

Let me see:

http://forum.mflenses.com/mimi-yashica-dsb-28mm-f-2-8-t9294.html

I see a good lens there, don't you?


Why settle for an inferior lens unless you (meaning anyone) are a hard-up student, there are plenty of 28mm lenses better than the DSB 28mm or DSB 55mm f2, even if you have to pay a few £££s more.
I started a thread about the 28mm dsb and it was so bad I took it apart and assumed someone had put an element in the wrong way so I reversed it and the results were good for a test shot of 5 ft and thought problem solved, but the other week I used it again and the results over 5 ft were crap just like before I reversed the element.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I'd actually say there are quite a few bad 28mm and 35mm lenses out there... although some of them fetch high prices for no other apparent reason than that they were made in Germany. Confused I won't name names though. Very Happy

There's also of course the hoards of el-cheapo T mount wide angles, a lot of which are bad.

Anyway back on topic, I've been pleasantly surprised by the Yashinon 2/50. It's well made, it's pretty sharp, it has very smooth boke' qualities and it's not hard to find or very expensive. I think I like it better than my Oreston or Helios lenses. It lacks some of the nice features of the Oreston though, it doesn't focus as close and there are no half stops - but that's really nitpicking. I think the Oreston renders colors on slide film better though. In addition to busier boke' the Oreston also has straight cut aperture blades, whereas in the Yashinon they're curved. Curved enough for a perfectly round aperture at f2.8, and only slightly polygonal at f4. The manual/auto switch is also a nice touch I suppose, although less crucial in these days of better adapters for digital cameras. It might come in handy if I ever want to use one of my really old M42 cameras.

I wish I still had my Mamiya 2/50 so I could compare it to that.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 7:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nice pictures. I have the Yashica ML 2/50 & 1.7/50. I should take them out more often for shooting.
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