Review of Yashica ML 50mm/2

Mattias — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:41:55 +0000

Introduction
As you might now I’m a fan of Yashica cameras and lenses (the reason I started YashicaForum.com offcourse). It all started out with a couple of old rangefinders and reading about the greatness of ML-series of lenses on forum.mflenses.com … at the time I think it was the ML 24mm that was being discussed. I decided to get an adapter for Contax/Yashica and try this manual lenses on my Canon DSLR.

Yashica ML 50mm/2 Front

The purchase
I got this lens from Richard for free – thanks :) I also bought one on swedish ebay Tradera, just because it was so cheap and I didn’t wan’t it to go unsold. They are easy to find, buy one if you can!

Side of the lens Yashica ML 50mm/f2

The lens
This is perhaps the most common Yashica ML 50mm lens, but there are other faster versions also f1.4, f1.7, f1.9. It is small in size. The build quality seems good – turning rings feels smooth and reminds me of the feeling with some Pentax-lenses. It is multicoated and fully manual (it has no auto/manual-swtich or preset or anything like that). It is Contax/Yashica-mount so you need such a camera or adapter. I have used the lens on a Canon EOS 350D, for which I bought an adapter from China.

Mount of this manual lens

Results
It’s very sharp. The bokeh is soft and wideopen it reminds me of some russian lenses, with almost a spinning feeling in the background. Good saturated colours. It gives a clear bright image in the viewfinder to focus on. Imagewise I can’t find anything to complain about with this lens.

Yashica ML 50 f2 from front

The Yashica ML 50mm/2 is small. The size feels nice but there is one thing that can be annoying sometimes: the aperturering is the most inner thing on the lens, that is it sist nearest the camerabody and can be hard to get a grip on. The focusring is easy to grip and feels very well built.

As mentioned above there are faster Yashica ML 50mm. However, I think many underestimates this lens because it’s the slowest in the series. In fact I think it can match many faster lenses I’ve tried.

Images

Bokeh example

Long exposure on water

Tree and branch

Autumn tree

Ice with bokeh

Post your Yashica ML 50mm/2 images on YashicaForum.com :)

Pros

+ Sharp, like most wide and normal ML-lenses I’ve tried.
+ Good bokeh, similar to some expensive russian lenses.
+ Saturated colours.

Cons

- Not the fastest 50mm lens, but f2 is often enough.
- Aperture ring very close mount (and therefore camerabody).

Reading & images
On pbase
My flickr-set

Cheap Yashica lens and it’s bokeh

Mattias — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:01:58 +0000

The DSB range of the Yashica brand is not supposed to be that good. It was their lowcost alternative and single coated. But this Yashica DSB 50mm/1.9 has surprised me a lot. I love the ML 50mm/2, but it would be hard to compare these two. The DSB is a little bigger which makes it easier to handle the rings.

Flowers with Yashica DSB 50mm/1.9

I will soon post some more on the yashicaforum.

RetroCamera » c/y-mount

Review of Yashica ML 50mm/2

Cheap Yashica lens and it’s bokeh