RetroCamera » manual focus

Review of Yashica MC Zoom 35-70mm/3.5-4.5

Mattias — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:37:58 +0000

This is a lens I bought on ebay after hearing good things about it, well at least the small amount of information I could find. The price was $22. I have discovered that Yashica zooms is very hard to find information about, specially now since earlier source of information cdegroot.com is gone. Well, here are my thoughts on this…

The lens
This is a slim little zoom. Filter threads are 52mm. The zoom is wide when you slide it out, tele when you slide it back – quite the opposit(?) to the normal, modern zooms which is tele when extended. The aperture range is from f 3.5 – f 22. My copy of the lens was in very, very good shape. In fact it feels new.

Rumours and guesses
According to (now removed) website cdegroot.com Fotomagazin had said “almost as good as Zeiss“. I also remember reading that it was made in the same place the similar Zeiss-lens, but I now I can’t find the source for that statement. Keep in mind that there are several simliar Yashica-lenses with just slightly different names, there are several versions in the same focal length.

My thoughts
I believe this to be a good lens. Sharp. But I rarely use it, since I’ve become used to fast primes with short minimum focus distance. This zoom is also a bit hard to focus, and my camera is not the easiest on this (the Canon EOS 350D has a very small viewfinder and I don’t use any focusing aids).

Still, I managed to get some very nice images with the Yashica zoom, the winter landscape (see below) is one of my favorites. As you might suspect, I’m not sure on my feelings towards this lens. But it is most certainly worth a try!

Pros

Good sharp images
Nice quality feeling
Slim and lightweight

Cons

Hard to focus on the Canon EOS 350D.
Minimum focus quite long.
Uncertain about the bokeh.

Images I’ve produced with this lens:
(clicking opens a new page with the image on Flickr)

Reading
Sadly most things I can find is my own posts on other forums ;) Here they are anyway:

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Do you need autofocus for moving objects

Mattias — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:14:15 +0000

As you know I use manual focus, but do you need autofocus for moving objects? It’s an argument often raised by people when I write for exemple my article “5 resons to love manual lenses”. Well then, I guessmanual focusing is not a skill to learn, and I should really avoid photos like these since they are impossible to take with the lenses I use. Or…? ;)

(clicking on the images opens Flickr in a new window)

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How to remember your manual lenses without EXIF

Mattias — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:50:45 +0000

When you use a digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) with modern lenses, you can always go back and look in the Exif to see what lens you used for each picture. But with the manual, old lenses there is no Exif-data from the lens. So if I use my Canon EOS 350D on a photosession, and 3 manual lenses – how do I remember which one I used for a single picture?

Well, I have come up with this rutine. Simple, I know – but useful. Take a picture of the lens before you mount it. If you use some kind of filter, take a picture when you mount it and when you dismount it and put it back in the bag.

Heres from my session the other day… I started with Pentax Super Takumar 35mm/3.5. Added macroring to shoot some flowers.

Add macroring

I took my flower-pictures. Removed the macroring.

Remove macroring

Took some pictures without the macroring. Then changed to Yashica ML 35mm/2.8

Change to Yashica ML 35mm

Shot some images. Changed back to Super Takumar.

Changed back to Super Takumar

A new change to Yashica ML 50mm/2. Well, I think you get the hang of it now? ;)

Change to Yashica ML 50mm

Pros

You dont have to remember a thing… well, almost nothing.
The pictures of lenses don’t need to be good, as long as you can see what they are.
Add keywords in your digital darkroom when you get home, then delete the pictures of lenses.

Cons

You need to know which lens you started with.
Could be a bit clumsy when you’re in a hurry
You dont get the f-stop recorded, so you might want to take notes anyway.

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Exercise: manual focus the fastest thing around

Mattias — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:26:25 +0000

Why not try to catch a swallow with a 50mm lens? Good practice, don’t know how the image turned out though ;) Show me your’s! This is taken with Canon EOS 350D and Yashinon DX 50mm/1.7 (m42):

Fast fast fast birdie

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