Yashica Lenses

Est. 1949 · Nagano, Japan; later Kyocera and Hong Kong brand ownership · 3 lenses

Yashica began in December 1949 in Nagano as Yashima Seiki, a small company making components for electric clocks before moving into camera parts. Its first complete camera, the Yashimaflex twin-lens reflex, appeared in 1953, and the company soon became Yashima Optical Industry and then Yashica. The Yashica Mat TLRs, especially the Mat-124 and Mat-124G, made the brand a major affordable alternative in 6x6 roll-film photography.

Yashica's lenses were closely tied to Tomioka Optical Works. Early TLR and rangefinder lenses used Yashikor and Yashinon names, and in 1968 Yashica acquired Tomioka outright. The company moved into 35 mm rangefinders and SLRs, including M42 screw-mount cameras and the electronically controlled Electro 35 rangefinder, one of the most successful aperture-priority consumer cameras of the 1960s and 1970s.

The most important system-era shift came from Yashica's collaboration with Carl Zeiss in the 1970s. The Contax RTS launched in 1975 with the shared Contax/Yashica bayonet, pairing Zeiss-designed Contax lenses with Yashica bodies and Yashica ML lenses in a common mount. Kyocera acquired Yashica in 1983 and continued both Yashica and Contax lines, but exited camera production in 2005. The Yashica trademark later passed to Hong Kong-based owners, while the historical photographic legacy remains with the TLRs, Electro rangefinders, Tomioka-made Yashinon lenses, and C/Y SLR system.

Notable designs: Yashica Mat-124G, Yashica Electro 35, Yashinon DX and ML lenses, Yashica FX-3, Contax/Yashica C/Y mount, Tomioka-linked fast normal lenses