Different versions of Mamiya 55/1.8

[dimitrygo]

I found there are at least 2 different versions of Mamiya 55/1.8 lens:


A mount of the second one looks exactly like mounts of some Yashika's lenses.
I aslo found a different Rikenon version of 55/1.8 lens. Don't know if it has the same origin though.


Are there any optical differences between these lenses?

[PBFACTS]

[luisalegria]

Interesting. Though there is a great deal of external similarity these have different internals. I have heard of this difference, but I have not seen it.

There is a very great deal of similarity even in minor details among Yashica Mamiya and Ricoh lenses of the 1960's-early 1970's. So there must have been a common source or sources for many of them. No doubt there were multiple sources.

Hi PBfacts,

It does seem to be a complicated subject, made more complicated by the many changes over time. Perhaps its best to look at a fixed period to get a grasp of these.

Taking the year 1968, it seems to me that the following were the origins of the Mamiya and Yashica product lines of taht year -

Mamiya - for 500TL and 1000TL -

400mm - Tokina preset

28,35,135,200,300,90-230 zoom - Early Tokina Auto series in fixed M42 mounts, the same as those sold in T4 mounts in Soligor and Vivitar brands.

60mm macro - Tomioka without a doubt.

55/1.4 - probably Tomioka, or the base unit is Tomioka design made by whoever made them for Yashica and Ricoh.

50/1.4, 50/1.8, 50/2, 50/2.8, 55/1.8 - Tomioka ? Someone else ?
Some of these may be from a slightly later period, from when the DTL series was released.

Yashica - for the TL or TL Super (not electro) is more interesting than Mamiya -

600mm, 800mm - Kawakami/Kawanon

Yashinon-R presets 35,135,200,300,400 - Tokina preset series

Yashinon-DX 50mm's - Yashica (Tomioka?)

Yashinon-R preset 90-190 zoom - no idea

Yashinon-R preset 75-230 zoom - early Sigma ?

Yashinon-DX 35,100(rare),135,200, 80-160(rare) (sold at the same time as the presets) - Yashica (Tomioka?)

[Univer]

Hi,

There's also a Super Yashinon-DX 135/2.8 preset (not Super Yashinon-R); to my eye at least, it doesn't immediately suggest "Tokina". (Apparently there's also a 35mm Super Yashinon-DX preset, but I've never seen that one.)

With respect to Mamiya: I'm aware of the 50/2.8, the 50/2, the 55/1.8, the 50/1.4 (that one was new to me when it popped up in a recent thread) and the 55/1.4, all dating, roughly, from the TL/DTL era, and all, so far as I know, with the "Auto" prefix. I think the 50/1.4 must have predated the 55/1.4, judging by the way the M/S name is used on its beauty ring: all caps and hyphenated (that seems to have been the standard usage in the CWP era; in the TL/DTL era, the standard usage seems to have been upper/lower case, with the hyphen replaced by a slash). Luis, was there really a 50/1.8 as well?

Cheers,

Jon