Sun YS-85 fails to make MFL club posting

guardian · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 1746

I was going to post this YS-85 over at the MFL club:

Click here to see on Ebay

But the more I looked at the lens, the more I liked it. So I bought the lens myself!! Very Happy

One thing:

I realize it's a Minolta thread on that screw mount. It's YS, though, so I can change that out.

But as I gazed longingly at the lens, and then thought about today's worth of a puny US 20 dollar bill, well:

It seemed to me I'd rather have this nice lens than the US$20, 2013 edition, bill in my pocket!

All of that said, I know it's most often wrong to allow the seller to set price, and this was Buy It Now. I broke a rule.

So, OK guys, lay it on me. I can handle the derision and I did buy knowing about that M thread. I can't have gone wrong by more than US$20. How much did I over pay by? Smile

DigiChromeEd · Joined: 29 Dec 2009 Posts: 3462 Location: Northern Ireland

casualcollector · Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 1:38 pm Post subject:

If you want it, I consider that very reasonable. I've bought lenses for more than what I considered their intrinsic value because they fit a camera I had or belonged in a group I was collecting for research.

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

imho you got a good deal for that lens -- wait until you try it! Wink

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Its the "space age" repackaging of the very popular Sun 85-205/4.8

Like this -
http://forum.mflenses.com/sun-85-210-4-8-preset-t-mount-zoom-with-pistol-grip-t12610,highlight,%2Bsun.html

This was made in many versions from the mid-1960's on; some were preset (T-mounts), some in that pistol-grip version, some auto, and the late ones were YS mount like yours.
There was even a version sold by Topcon as a Topcor !
Performance on these seems very variable.

The model seems to have been replaced by the 70-210/4, also "space age" styling and made in YS.

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

I have that lens (but with a pistol grip -- oooooooh) It's okay but doesn't interface well on modern cameras (at least mine doesn't) because I have to manually close the aperture for metering AND image capture with the trigger grip. The sharpness is good and the color transmission and contrast are also good (especially at the price you paid.)

I got mine for $10 with a Petri bayonette and sold the Petri mount for $5.

Could you get a sharper lens in that range? And a faster lens? Yes to both, but that's a light enough lens for that range and should be sharp enough to use on smaller sensors (like 4/3) as a longer tele zoom.