Yashica TL lens compatibility

[rossj]

I’ve been collecting vintage Minolta’s for about six years. The XD-11 with an 85mm f2.0 lens has become my favorite. I recently bought a Yashica TL Super with a Yashinon-DX 50mm f1.7 M42 lens. The Yashica was my first 35mm camera back in 1972… purchased in the San Diego Naval Base exchange store.

I’m not familiar with the assortment of compatible lenses for the Yashica TL version of the M42 platform or their nuances and have had very little luck finding a definitive list or discussion. Is there anyone who might a have some experience and knowledge in this area that they’d be willing to share?

Thanks.

Ross

[paulhofseth]

sir,

Yashica bought the famous lens-maker Tomioka and incorporated their products into the yashica cameras while also selling optics to other mkers.

The net is full of dubious and unfounded speculation about which lenses in fact came from Tomioka, so i will not risk speculating on whether yashica kept several different factories for their lenses after the merger. There are, however, some reliable and less gullible authors at netsites speializing in Yashica products

Yashica who mastered early camera electronics was eventually taken over by the precision ceramics company Kyocera who contiued to cooperate with Zeiss designers and quality control in making the Contax SLR optics before they gave up and another venerable japanese company took over. Anyone originally working at the Tomioka plant will by now have been buried.

Whether the ghost of tomioka was imbedded in the products is as dubious as whether the ghosts of Ernst Abbe and mr. Bertele still adheres to the Zeiss label.

Someone who is familiar with japanese culture and language can certainly guide you further.

p.

[raybar]

This may require more work than you would think worthwhile . . .

Search online for old issues of photography magazines which had a lot of mail order advertising, such as "Modern Photography" and "Popular Photography." Then look through the ads to see what was available from the major dealers. You should be able to generate a reasonable estimate of what lenses were offered by looking at couple issues per year during the time your camera was being made.

[rossj]

Thank you both for your responses. I did find this link (https://lens-db.com/system/yashica-m42/) that provides quite a bit of information. While there's some great info, it doesn't state specific compatibilities, but it's still a nice historic guide and a place for me to begin.
My next job is to replace the old light seals and put in a roll of Tri-X 400.