Yashica Lenses (Page 2): I’m pretty sure that there are ways to get some useful service out of those lenses, but we need more information. What camera do you have? What adapter do you...

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

araia wrote:

a friend gave me two Yashica lenses one long and one short. They are old film lenses. I bought an adapter and connect them to my Nikon camera. But they do not seem to work, or is it something that I have to do. I need some help.

I’m pretty sure that there are ways to get some useful service out of those lenses, but we need more information. What camera do you have? What adapter do you have? What is engraved on each of the lenses? We’re waiting!

BebuLamar

RWR wrote:

I’m pretty sure that there are ways to get some useful service out of those lenses, but we need more information. What camera do you have? What adapter do you have? What is engraved on each of the lenses? We’re waiting!

If the OP can mount the lens and the camera is a Nikon I am quite sure you can get some pictures out of them but it's helpful if the OP tells us more details information.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

araia wrote:

Hello everyone, I always follow the questions, answers, suggestions and educated illustrations in this site and I appreciate it. My question today is: a friend gave me two Yashica lenses one long and one short. They are old film lenses. I bought an adapter and connect them to my Nikon camera. But they do not seem to work, or is it something that I have to do.
I need some help.

Thanks and God bless.

If you are using F mount camera there is a diopter (Perhaps) to get infinity focus.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=Yashica%20To%20Nikon%20Lens%20Adapter&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&gclid=Cj0KCQjwktKFBhCkARIsAJeDT0jQhu5ZTeB0QyuOXvoLNdzOnx399hlhdEuNmCQTaNosAW9792i7HsQaAqkCEALw_wcB

Depending on the quality of the adapter the will be various amounts of image degradation.
No diopter no infinity focus.

The Yashica lens will have to be manually focused and the aperture manually set with no auto stop down etc.
Most all cameras will meter just fine in some modes.
Finally, If you have a D5XXX or D3XXX camera there will be no metering at all.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

CHG_CANON wrote:

If you want to use old film lenses onto a digital camera, especially non-electronic manual focus lenses, using a mirrorless digital rather than a DSLR is actually the best advice to adapt and use these old lenses. Sorry to read you got up full of mistakes when posting this holiday morning. If you had actual experience in this area, you wouldn't be sniping at my comments with this incorrect opinion.

You keep saying things like that about MF lenses on DSLR cameras, yet I use AI and AI-S lenses (Nikkor and Voigtlander) on my Df.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Mac wrote:

You keep saying things like that about MF lenses on DSLR cameras, yet I use AI and AI-S lenses (Nikkor and Voigtlander) on my Df.

You can certainly use them, but DSLR’s are really designed for autofocus. They lack the focusing aids found on old film cameras. They are much easier to use on mirrorless cameras that have things like focus peaking and focus zoom.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

CHG_CANON wrote:

If you want to use old film lenses onto a digital camera, especially non-electronic manual focus lenses, using a mirrorless digital rather than a DSLR is actually the best advice to adapt and use these old lenses. Sorry to read you got up full of mistakes when posting this holiday morning. If you had actual experience in this area, you wouldn't be sniping at my comments with this incorrect opinion.

Well said.

BebuLamar

Mac wrote:

You keep saying things like that about MF lenses on DSLR cameras, yet I use AI and AI-S lenses (Nikkor and Voigtlander) on my Df.

He didn't mean you use Nikkor lenses on a Nikon which works fine. He meant adapting lenses of different mount. Try to mount some Yashica lenses on your Df and see.

BebuLamar

SuperflyTNT wrote:

You can certainly use them, but DSLR’s are really designed for autofocus. They lack the focusing aids found on old film cameras. They are much easier to use on mirrorless cameras that have things like focus peaking and focus zoom.

I never used the focus aid on my SLR. In fact the first accessories I bought for my F2 and F3 back in the days was a plain ground glass focusing screen. That way I can focus on any part of the image, I can focus and compose at the same time not focus and recompose which is the rangefinder way not the SLR way. With that said I must say the DLSR focusing screen is more difficult to focus than the plain ground glass on my F2 and F3.
I don't have the F2 any more but the F3 is right here by the Df side and the plain ground glass in the F3 is much easier to focus than the Df.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

BebuLamar wrote:

He didn't mean you use Nikkor lenses on a Nikon which works fine. He meant adapting lenses of different mount. Try to mount some Yashica lenses on your Df and see.

An adapter would be needed to mount them on my Df just as an adapter would be needed to mount them on a MILC.
Is it the adapter that makes the difference?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

BebuLamar wrote:

I never used the focus aid on my SLR. In fact the ... (show quote)

You know what is easier to manually focus than any DSLR / SLR ever made, including all their focus aid screens?

Yep: the 10x zoomed display of the mirrorless Electronic View Finder (EVF), on a screen held to your eye in a shooting position, or even on the rear LCD like the LiveView of the DSLR.

BebuLamar

Mac wrote:

An adapter would be needed to mount them on my Df just as an adapter would be needed to mount them on a MILC.

But such an adapter either won't allow the lens to focus to infinity or has a lens element that can hurt image quality. With the mirrorless there is no need for such a lens element.
I have a good number of Canon FD lenses, Minolta SR (they called it MD or MC but that they are really SR), Minolta A mount and Pentax K mount. I wouldn't use any of them on my Df because adapting them don't work well. I use even pre AI Nikon lens on my Df and Nikon Bellow and and enlarging lenses on my Df.

steveo52 Loc: Rhode Island and Ocala Florida

I inherited a couple of Mamiya Sekor lenses from my late father. I did get them to work on my Fuji XT1, however I can only focus them manually with the adapter I purchased. The lenses are OK but not worth the effort using them.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

BebuLamar wrote:

But such an adapter either won't allow the lens to focus to infinity or has a lens element that can hurt image quality. With the mirrorless there is no need for such a lens element.
I have a good number of Canon FD lenses, Minolta SR (they called it MD or MC but that they are really SR), Minolta A mount and Pentax K mount. I wouldn't use any of them on my Df because adapting them don't work well. I use even pre AI Nikon lens on my Df and Nikon Bellow and and enlarging lenses on my Df.

The Df is not unique.
The mount is F like all other Nikon SLRs and DSLRs.
Thus you can mount the same lenses regardless of Df or any other Nikon F mount camera.
The only difference is that some lose features of different lenses depending on the model.
My Nikon F has a real hard time auto focusing with my AF lenses for some reason, but they mount and take photos just fine.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

BebuLamar wrote:

But such an adapter either won't allow the lens to focus to infinity or has a lens element that can hurt image quality. With the mirrorless there is no need for such a lens element.
I have a good number of Canon FD lenses, Minolta SR (they called it MD or MC but that they are really SR), Minolta A mount and Pentax K mount. I wouldn't use any of them on my Df because adapting them don't work well. I use even pre AI Nikon lens on my Df and Nikon Bellow and and enlarging lenses on my Df.

Oh. So using an adapter on a DSLR can cause the lens to be unable to focus to infinity, but that doesn’t happen with an adapter on a MILC because the MILC can correct that deficiency?

BebuLamar

Architect1776 wrote:

The Df is not unique.
The mount is F like all other Nikon SLRs and DSLRs.
Thus you can mount the same lenses regardless of Df or any other Nikon F mount camera.
The only difference is that some lose features of different lenses depending on the model.
My Nikon F has a real hard time auto focusing with my AF lenses for some reason, but they mount and take photos just fine.

There is a slight different between the Df and other Nikon DSLR. The AI metering tab can be flip out of the way so you can mount pre AI lens without damaging it. It also has the metering algorithm to meter pre AI lens without the need for the coupling. The D3xxx and 5xxx don't have the coupling so you can mount the lens but they won't meter.