i have a yashica camera that the mount ring that holds lens to camera body has come off...(screws that hold it to lens are stripped)....would like to find a lens that is comparable to the original or possibly a zoom lens. when searching auctions i get confused as to the different mounts that are mentioned. why so many different types of mounts and what are they?

thanks

-- Rick Seiver (rseiver@yahoo.com), August 10, 1999

Answers

Hi Rick; you wrote that the lens mounting ring on your camera is broken--it seems to me that you'll need a new camera body rather than a new lens. It's for reasons of marketing, design and patent protection that every major brands of SLR have their own peculiar types of lens mount. It'll take too much space here to elaborate on the different types of lens mount and its sub-variations (for e.g., Nikon's F-mount is further sub-catergorized into pre-AI, AI, AIS, AF, AFD, AFS, etc.). A search on the internet for websites on specific camera brands will usually also give you detailed information of the corresponding types of lens mount. For Yashica SLRs, they share the same len mounts as Contax SLRs (because the two camera manufacturers are partners), which means that you can fit Yashica or Zeiss lenses onto a Yashica body. If you aren't familiar with Zeiss lenses, don't even think about them before you look into the prices first!

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), August 10, 1999.

I suspect that what you have is a "T-mount" lens. The lens screws into an adapter that then fits the lens to the camera body. You can get a replacement T-mount adapter at any good camera store for about $20. There were a couple other adapter systems, notably the Tamron Adaptall system and the Vivitar TX system, so you'll want to be certain you're getting the right replacement adapter for your lens. A trip to your local camera shop is probably in order. I'd avoid the on-line auctions unless you know exactly what you need and how much it's worth.

-- John Kuraoka (kuraoka@home.com), August 11, 1999.