Yashica 135mm f2.8 ML - Lens review

  Last winter I bought three Yashica lenses and a camera body fo quite cheap, because they were not in the best conditions, especially the 135mm.

 The optical elements were dirty, the aperture had been poorly de-clicked and, worst of all, the focusing helicoid was completely off and needed to be recalibrated and lubricated, so I gave it to a lab to be fixed and cleaned and now it works perfectly.

 Yashica is one of those well know names in the industry, with a history dating back to the late '40s and in 1975 they introduced the Contax Yashica bayonet mount in collaboration with Carl Zeiss. They had three ranges of lenses: the basic one was the DSB, which had single coatings, above that was the ML, with multi coatings, and the top of the line was the Zeiss AE series.

 Now, back to this lens.

 The body is made of metal and weights 410 grams; it is 76mm long when focused to infinity and 90mm when fully extended, with a 52mm front thread and, my favorite feature, a built in sun hood.

 The focusing ring is textured and it turns 180 degrees and minimum focusing distance is average around 1.5 meters. The iris has six blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f22. The Contax Yashica mount flange distance is 45,5mm.

 Sharpness is what you would expect from a vintage lens: not the best wide open, but it gets better as you stop down. Same can be said for halation and blooming, which are present at f2.8 but mostly disappear by f4.

 Background blur is soft and pleasant and boke ball are clean but might have some hard edges and turn into soft hexagons when closing down.

 Chromatic aberration is present and can be distracting at times, especially longitudinal CA, with a strong shift from magenta to green.

 I also did a quick test comparing the Yashica to the Tokina 2.8 and the Konica Hexanon 2.5.

Yashica VS Tokina VS Konica

 The Yashica and the Tokina are very similar, both in size and image quality, with the Tokina having a stronger green tint.

 The Konica is the biggest and heaviest of the bunch, but also the brightest and sharpest. Compared to the Yashica, coloer verge towards yellows and greens.

 Truth be told, I don't have a strong opinion about this lens. It is not bad by any means and it checks all the boxes for what people usually like in vintage lenses, but at the same time it has nothing special, so I think I will postpone my final judgement until I have the chance to use it on film.

 Meanwhile, as always, check out the full video for all the samples, let me know your opinion and if you have question feel free to ask in the comments below.