Old Yashinon-lenses are not often mentioned in discussions about which M42 SLR-lenses to get. Well, not as often as Takumars and Carl Zeiss anyway. I think this might be bacause they are underrated, or maybe just not as common. Many might associate them with the Contax/Yashica-mount of later Yashica lenses. But there are some great stuff for your M42 camera or adapter if you’ll take a look…
The purchase
I bought a Yashica J-7 here in Sweden with this lens on it. It is the camera I reviewed on YashicaForum and entered in EpicEdits $50-dollar camera challenge. Both the camera and lens are in great shape, no marks and great lenses. It has yellowed a bit but I haven’t noticed any impact on my images.
Yashinon-DX 50mm f1.7 m42
The lens
It’s quit an odd construction, with inner tube alu-metal and focusrings in black plastic. The aperturering is very thin, but has big notches so you can easily turn it any way. It has a manual/auto-switch, that works on old Yashica M42-cameras. The switch is under the lens and hard to use while looking through the lens – so it’s not usable as a shortcut to stopping down the aperture as you can do on some other lenses with such a switch.
Side of Yashinon-lens
This normal lens it’s avarage sized, maybe large, for a 50mm. It takes 52mm filters, which is good because it’s the same filtersize as my Yashica MLs, Helios and Canon EF.
Mount of Yashinon-DX 50mm/1.7
The lens has thorium in it, the radioactive substance that makes many old lenses turn yellow. If you get a yellowed one you can put it in the sun for a few weeks and the tint will go away. The radioactivity is not much to worry about, remember this are lenses constructed to be close to negative film in analogue cameras.
Glass of this Yashinon normal lens
Results
I should use this lens more then I do, because every time I get some great shots! Good soft bokeh, sharp where I want it to be, saturated colours. I feel it suitable for nordic blue dark november for some reason.
Images
Mounted on Canon EOS 350D:
Bumblebee with m42-lens Yashinon-DX 50/1.7
Yashinon Spider
Bumblebee
Leaf with bokeh
Swedish blue november woods
Mounted on Yashica J-7 with Tri-X 400:
Stockholm old town on Tri-X
Old town chair on Tri-X
Pros
+ Lovely bokeh and colours
+ Sharp
+ Big notches on aperturering, so you get a grip eventhough it’s thin and close to camera
+ Fast
+ Good buildquality
(+ On some Yashica SLRs the auto-function works)
Cons
- The yellowing by thorium
- Single coating (although I don’t really think that’s a big con)
- No easy “aperture-open-button”
- Actually, I can’t think of that many cons – it’s a great lens.
Reading
A Photo.net thread on Yashinon-lenses
My review of the Yashica J-7 with this lens
Full roll of Tri-X film with J-7 and this lens
Didn’t I lend this lens to you? ;o)))
I’m pretty sure I did. ;o)))
No no no ;)
There are a few f1.4 on american ebay. I’m tempted to get one of those myself…
Oh, I can understand that… imagine the bokeh! ;o)
it’s a very good lens, and i am very surprises better than the takumar, more sharper than the takumar, and i have confirmed my test on two different takumar 1.4. I think you can correct the yellow color, (same problem than takumar) with a UV lamp,
you must place the lens face a UV lamp
This web page has data that shows the Yashinon DX 50mm/1.7 lens to have only background level radiation, which would not account for your “yellowing”.
http://yashica.org/254-2-Lens+radioactivity+-+measurements.html
Is it possible that your lens has a yellowish factory coating but renders colors accurately?
The above page does show a higher radiation level in the later Yashinon DS 50mm/1.7 and some others
Aha, so it’s only the lenses with higher values that has yellowing.