Marco Aries

  Last winter I bought three Yashica lenses and this 28mm is one of them, along the 135 and the 50mm; it’ the most “humble” of the trio, being part of the basic, single coated DSB line. Yet, it doesn’t fall behind it’s sisters, in fact I would say it is better than the 135mm.  The body is made of metal and it weighs 220 grams, it is 40mm long when focused to infinity and 44mm when fully extended, with a 52 mm front thread. The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f16. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 180 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 30 centimeters. Contax Yashica mount flange distance is 45,5mm and adapters are easy to find.  Sharpness is good wide open and it gets even better by stopping down a bit. Same goes for edge falloff. Background blur is not the softest, but it is not distracting either.  Chromatic aberration did show up in some really high contrast areas, but I only noticed it because I was actively looking for it.

 My first fast prime was the Fujian 35mm f1.7, a lens made for security cameras with a quite unique look, and today we are trying out another small and cheap lens but, this time, specifically made for APS-C cameras.  The lens comes in a nice and padded black box that contains the lens itself, obviously, a pouch, a microfiber cloth and some documentation.  The body is made of metal and only weights 165 grams; it is 59mm long when fully extended with a 49mm front thread. It has 6 optical elements ins 4 groups.  The iris has 12 blades, the aperture is stepless and very smooth, with an nice resistance so you won’t accidentally move it, and it goes from f1.6 to f22.  The focusing ring turns 180° and minimum focusing distance is 25 centimeters.  Not needing and adapter is a nice change of pace for me, and the combination of this small and lightweight lens and my Sony APS-C camera bodies makes for a really compact and nimble setup.  There are two reasons that drew me to this lens: it costs le