Compatibility of Yashica/third party lenses with Contax Aria

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I am considering buying a new Contax (or other make -- I have a list) Aria with a small selection of Contax primes. In addition, for the occassional "snapshot" type photo or the pictures I am occassionally asked to take at events/presentations (where ultimate quality for enlargement is secondary to speed and ease of use), I will need 2 zooms. I can't afford the Zeiss zooms. I know Yashica makes some low cost zooms that will mount but no one seems to be able to tell me if these zooms will allow me all of the exposure modes of the Aria(especially TTL flash). How about Tamron and similar?

I posted this question elsewhere and got back the answer that "Yashica zooms are the worst - buy Tamron instead...and we don't know if they are 100% compatible" and that is not the info I need to know...I need to know what Yashica/Third party lenses are 100% compatible with the Aria.

-- g.debord (gdebord@lycos.com), August 06, 2000

Answers

Yashica lenses are compatible with Contax bodies. Except Old 42 MM screw mount lenses and AF lenses. Yashica was the company used to manufactire original RTS and several contax cameras, but Yashica had been taken over by Kyocera Japan.

You may only use AE mode of Aria with some of early Yashica lenses. They are the same as Contax AE (not MM) lenses. TTL flash should work. If you are interested in using other manufacture's bodies, it may be better idea to buy used MF tamron lenses instead. I use Tamron SP series Zoom lenses and primary lenses, and their performances are very good. Their non SP lenses are not good, but acceptable if you do not enlarge your pictures.

-- Hiroshi.unno (hunno@magma.com), August 06, 2000.


I realized I have not anser the question. The Tamron Lenses are compatible with Contax mount, if you use tamron lenses with Contax/Yashica Tamron mounts. I think new mounts are fully conpatible with new contax cameras (MM), but old mounts are only work in A mode (TTL works ofcause). I have not used P(program mode) or S(shutter priority mode), so I did not look for specificaly MM Tamron mounts in used market.

Some of Yashica lenses are not bad at all. But if you can find well priced Contax Carl Zeiss lenses you should try them, you can see deferens if you use slide films (and they are well build).

-- Hiroshi Unno (hunno@magma.ca), August 06, 2000.


With such a fine optic system like Contax, I should only buy Contax/Zeiss lenses. May'be have a look at second-hand markets.

-- Ivan Verschoote (ivan.verschoote@rug.ac.be), August 07, 2000.

I understand that Contax enthusiasts prefer the Zeiss lenses. For my own personal photography, I use only 1-3 prime lenses (28, 50, 85) and enlarge usually to a max of 11 x 14. But I am often called upon to do event/grip-and-grin/public service photography. The size that these things get printed at (and the printing used) does not require expensive Zeiss glass. In the near future they may just end up on the web as 72 dpi jpegs, so then the Zeiss glass will probably really be overkill. I've shopped the used Zeiss stuff for a while and know I cannot afford it - $800 to $900 for a 80-200 mm zoom that I will be using only 2-3 times a year is just too much.

I guess I'll just have to cross Contax off the list.

-- g.debord (gdebord@lycos.com), August 07, 2000.


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