Tryout from a Yashica B with Yashikor Lens

I may have shakier hands than you but I thimk the results would be even better at 1/300 sec.

I may have shakier hands than you but I think the results would be even better at 1/300 sec.

I think that business about the Yashikors not being good lenses is a bunch of internet hype. I have used Yashikors, Yashinons and Lumaxars, and while the Yashikors are not quite as sharp, they are no slouches either.

Nice shots.

Yashikors are 3 element lenses that arent bad at all....but the Yashinons have a better Tessar-type 4 element lens. Same with Ricoh TLR's...the 3 element lenses are fine, but the 4 element Rikenon's are better.... I love this Ricoh TLR site

You have to make larger prints to see quality differences between medium format lenses. I have three TLR cameras which take 120 film. They are the Yashica A, the Yashica 635 and the Minolta Autocord (late model, no meter). The Yashica A is the smallest and lightest of the three. If you close down a few stops you can get a very respectable 8X10 with this camera. The 635 is sharper when wide open and the Autocord is the sharpest of the three at or near maximum aperture. How will the corners look if I use the A wide open? Not as sharp as they could be. I a 5X5 print they still look nice.

I had a Yashica Mat 124G in High School and college. It had an extremely sharp lens. The lens might have been better than than the Rokkor in my Autocord. The problem is that the 124G has many plastic parts and mechanically is not very robust. I finally go tired of fixing it and that's when I got the Autocord. I have been shooting with Bronica SLR cameras (6X45, 6X6 and 6X7) but I miss the lighter feel of the TLRs so I have been using an SQ-A with a waist level finder, a crank and the 50/3.5 PS. When you attach a prism finder and a Speed Grip you have something a lot heavier.

I've never had a problem with a Yashikor lens. This was taken with a Yashica A:

The Yashinon is a far better lens than the Yashikor. Just because you took a few so-so shots with a Yashikor means little. A Yashinon will give sharper results over a greater range of apertures and toward the edge of the frame as well as the center. These improved qualities will become more noticeable the more you enlarge the negative. You might get as good results with a Yashikor at certain apertures and if you don't enlarge too much. That said, a Yashikor on a tripod will probably take sharper shots than a hand-held Yashinon at slower shutter speeds.

There are so many factors which affect lens sharpness besides the glass itself. The time of day, direction of light, humidity, type of film, shutter speeds if handheld, lens coatings..... Most TLR Yashicas were considered quality cameras and could take good shots. It's a lot like the Rolleicord line. Some people really dog the 3 element Zeiss Triotar, but I love its unique "bloom". It's likely that if there is something indefinably wrong with your photographs it's not the lens, but who is behind it.

Forget the lens, those are lovely shots! :)

I'd say the other lens is sharper, but sharper is not always better, for dreamy landscape such as these shots, it'll be ruined by a lens too sharp, the same thing applies for portraits.

Crappy lenses has its uses, it's up to the photog to select the tool.