Tag Tomioka Lenses

Super Rare Yashica Flex S Brochure… 1954

Chris and Carol Leave a comment

We’ve recently acquired a super rare (here in the US) Yashima sales flyer (pamphlet) that covers one of Yashima’s most advanced cameras at the time. The Yashica Flex S was the first TLR with an attached exposure meter in the world! The meter was made and supplied by Sekonic. And if you had great eyesight and were good with sliding scales, you could actually set the proper aperture and shutter speed for your film. Cool! Yashima-Yashica was the first to do it! One of our Yashica Flex S models has a working exposure meter even after six decades! Double cool!

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From 1954.

The next scan is the reverse side of the flyer and featured a contest!

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Out of 3,200 entrants these ladies were chosen to vie for the title of “Miss Yashima”. All you had to do was vote at your favorite trading company (camera store). We chose Miss Kimiko Yamaguchi (front left) as our Miss Yashima.

We hope you enjoyed these glimpses into Yashima-Yashica’s past. We like that we can share them. In the spirit of all things fair, we ask that you do not copy them or use them in another blog or post without asking for permission first.

Many thanks for your visit! Chris & Carol

New Pentamatic Brochure

Chris and Carol Leave a comment

Recently we’ve come across a nice Yashica Pentamatic sales brochure from Germany. It looks to have been printed around early 1961 as another brochure that was with it (same style) is for the Yashica Rapide camera and it was introduced in 1961.

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Yashica sales brochure for the Pentamatic. Nothing new about the Pentamatic is noted… probably came out in early 1961.

What is surprising to me is that only two other lenses are shown in this brochure besides the standard 5.5 cm f/1.8 normal lens. Surprising because by early 1961 Yashica had at least three other lenses for the Pentamatic that we are aware of. The 35 mm f/2.8 and the 100 mm f/2.8 pictured are fantastic lenses designed and built for Yashica by Tomioka Optical of Tokyo. It is possible that in Germany the other lenses were not available in 1961. Just a guess.

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Full front and back cover scan of the brochure. The back cover shows various accessories available for the Pentamatic.

The Yashica Rapide brochure pictures two different flashes for the Rapide. The one on the right of the camera is identified as the Yashica Quick Lite 11 (or is it II)? Not sure on these as we’ve yet to find them in another brochure.

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Scan of the back cover of the Rapide brochure showing two flash units for the Yashica Rapide camera. One identified as the Yashica Quick Lite 11 (???).

Prior to seeing this brochure, we were not aware of Yashica branded flashbulbs. We would love to find those and add them to our collection. Hint hint!

Thanks for the visit!

C&C

Yashica Pentamatic Lenses – Update 8.27.2017

Chris and Carol 9 Comments

As Yashica was designing their first 35mm single-lens reflex camera during the Summer of 1959 (with help more than likely from the newly acquired Nicca Company) they faced another challenge… since it was decided to use an exclusive lens mounting system (Pentamatic bayonet mount) and not go with the more common M42 screw-in mount, they put Tomioka Optical Company in a bit of a spot.

Tomioka was their exclusive lens supplier through the 1950s but Tomioka also supplied a wide variety of lenses to other manufacturers as well. That meant that Tomioka would have to start building a new lens series with an exclusive mount very quickly in order to have enough lenses available to meet the demands of a new camera hitting the marketplace by the Spring of 1960.

Here is but a small collection of Pentamatic lenses that were available in the early 1960 time period.

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One of the earliest examples in our collection of the standard lens supplied with the Pentamatic ’35’ starting in 1959. We interpret the serial number to read: 1959, December and the 1,630th lens made by Tomioka.

017

This lens is the standard lens for the Pentamatic II which came out in August 1960 (Yashica was still building and selling the Pentamatic I at that time. It was a rather odd lens to use as the normal focal length… 5.8cm (58mm) but with a slightly faster f/ 1.7 aperture.

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Front view of the standard lens for the Pentamatic II. It is a very beautiful lens and it does provide a bright clear view wide open. Here it’s mounted on the Pentamatic I.

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One of the earliest medium telephoto lenses for the Pentamatic. We don’t know what the ‘K.C.’ stands for… our guess would be that it applies to the coating on the surface of the lens. The serial number decodes to 135mm and the 927th made in the production run. We feel that this lens was made in 1959.

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Original lens shade (as Yashica calls them) from the early days of production. The lens is the standard f/ 1.8 5.5cm lens for the Pentamatic I and S. From about mid year 1960.

003

A highly desirable early Tomioka branded lens for the Pentamatic. Another issue from 1959… the serial number 35 = 35mm and 246 indicates the production sequence. This lens is super bright and sharp. An excellent wide-angle lens for general photography.

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The latest lens of the original production run that we now have is No. 60521000. The lens (above) shows that it is number 15,001 in the run which would put the lens into early 1961 production. 

We hope to expand on more details of the early Pentamatic lenses in the near future. Stay tuned and thanks for reading our little blog!

Chris & Carol