Yashica 50mm f/1.7 Yashinon-DS Auto M42 Screw Mount Lens Review

The Yashica 50mm f/1.7 Yashinon-DS Auto is a vintage M42 screw mount lens from Yashica's film era, now available used through retailers like KEH. With its fast f/1.7 aperture and classic 50mm focal length, it's designed for manual focus shooting on cameras with M42 mount compatibility or via adapter on modern mirrorless bodies. The M42 screw mount was a standard threading system used across many brands in the 1960s and 70s, making these lenses broadly adaptable today.

As a legacy optic, it lacks modern conveniences like autofocus or electronic contacts, but offers the manual control and character many creators seek for video work, stills with vintage rendering, or as an affordable entry into adapted glass. At $81 for an excellent-condition example, it sits in the accessible range of vintage M42 primes. Without user reviews to draw from, its real-world performance and optical quirks remain to be documented, but the 50mm f/1.7 formula has long been a workhorse focal length for portraiture and general use.