who made spiratone YS lenses

<p>I understood that the spiratone "accura diamatic" lenses were made by Sigme.<br>

and that later Sigma fixed mount lenses were actually YS lenses as Sigma offered rep;lacement of the mount.<br>

I asked Sigma ( I wanted to see if I coud find a ys adapter in pentax K )<br>

here is the answer<br>

====================================</p>

Thank you for your interest in Sigma products.

I spoke with our corporate office in Japan on this issue and they said Sigma never manufactured the YS lenses.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

<br />

Desiree Gaige

Customer Service/Technical Support

Sigma Corporation of America

15 Fleetwood Court

Ronkonkoma, NY 11779

(631)585-1144

dgaige@sigmaphoto.com

<a href="http://www.sigmaphoto.com/">www.sigmaphoto.com</a>

-----------------------------------------

I replied and said after 30-=40 years people forget.<br />

<p>Many companies made lenses for Spiratone. In some cases a lens would be marked with one focal length with the Spiratone name and with another focal length under a different name. I also thought that Sigma made the YS lenses. The YS mount system was not very successful when compared to the plain T system or the T4, TX, Adaptamatic and Adaptall systems. I'm not sure that YS lenses and mount adapters were still being made by the time the K mount appeared. If you must use a YS lens on a K mount camera you could find an M42 adapter and then use an M42 to K adapter. Somewhere I have what I think is a 135mm YS mount lens with a Canon adapter. I think it has regular focusing and a second helicoid up front for even closer focusing and also has the Sigma name. It would need quite a lot of work before I could us it and it is probably not my sharpest 135 but the distance and magnification markings are interesting. By now both Spiratone and Fred Spira himself have passed into history. I'nsure someone else on photo.net will have a better answer.</p>

<p>Accura was an accessory co. that started to make lenses. Later on it became Sigma. There was also a German co. around the same time named Accura that made accessories. Or, at least, I do have a few Accura thing stamped "Made in Germany". </p>

<p>I thought Sun Optical did the YS. </p>

<p>sun lentar sigma rokunar<br>

but not the kalimar auto-t (quite different)<br>

I have a sick ys zoom that was a canon fd<br>

but the setup is klugy<br>

someone who shall remain nameless ( to avoid a million emails)<br>

offered to adapt and adjust the canon ys fd mount to work with one of my ys lenses<br>

as he patiently explained to me the second prong on the fd lens tells the camera the max aperture.<br>

he would file or adjust it<br>

I apologize in advance, I should have deleted the ladie's email or she will get 100 marriage proposals<br>

( just send chocolate guys)<br>

when I buy a lottery ticket and win, I will come back and find out who will machine me an adapter.</p>

 

<p>Sigma most certainly did make YS mount lenses - I have notes on one that I disassembled, a 16mm fisheye. Another brand of YS mount lenses was Upsilon, which I understand was a Sigma nom de guerre .... I have two of those. As to who made the Spiratones, I'm not sure.</p>

<p>I have a Spiratone YS Mount 18mm 3.5 lens. It has the Greek Sigma letter "S" right on the lens ring.</p>

 

<p>I was going to mention the Sigma on Spiratone lenses, but this is not because Sigma made them in this case, it is a brand used for a time by Σpiratone itself. I don't think that Sigma themselves ever used this typeface of Greek for their logo, whoever may have made the lens. There is plenty of evidence that Sigma did make some Spiratone lenses, but so did Tamron and others who may now be too proud to admit it.</p><div></div>

<p>I have three<br>

a 18mm & a 85mm bought new and a huge zoom<br>

finally I have a zoom for the miranda.<br>

I wanted a tx 35-105 or similar as I can use it with a t4 adapter.<br>

the 135mm f/1.8 has eluded me the price goes too high.</p>

<p>Just out of curiosity I was doing some eBuy searches last night and I saw a number of<br>

YS mount Sigma labeled lenses that had the Greek letter on them. There was also one<br>

with the letter that was labeled "Accura/Sigma". It's all very confusing, but the one<br>

thing that's obvious is that Sigma would just like everyone to forget about the whole thing!</p>

<p>"I'm not sure that YS lenses and mount adapters were still being made by the time the K mount appeared".<br>

For what it's worth: There definitely were YS-mounts made for Pentax K. I have a Sun Optical 24-40mm f/3.5 zoom that has a YS K-mount.</p>

<p>Sun = Sigma</p>

<p>So what's the image quality like on these Spratone lenses? I saw a 28/2.8 in a pawn shop today for $15. It's a PK mount (perhaps using an included adapter, I didn't look closely), and is labeled E-723559, YS-PET Japan (where the "E" is a Greek sigma). I'd like to have a 28mm prime, but I don't want to waste $15 on crap. I found this thread while searching for info on the lens.</p>

 

<p>So much to clarify...<br>

Spiratone and Sigma had a very close relationship, so close that the son of the founder (Mr Yamaki) spent a year at Spiratone in a kind of internship (at least, that's what we would call it now). <br>

Re YS, the Y stands for Yamaki (head of Sigma) - the S stands for Spira. Anyone care to guess who came up with the idea for YS jointly? So Sigma's reply is simply wrong.<br>

Re Accura, incorrect. Accura did not become Sigma. SFS started Accura as an additional label that we were able to sell through distributors (SFS had a separate importing company, PID, but no distribution arm in the U.S. aside from Spiratone, which was direct). A lot of the items were almost identical to Spiratone items but labeled Accura and sold at different price points. Somehow SFS managed to keep Accura and Spiratone from competing with one another. <br>

Did I miss anything?</p>

<p><a name="00VRQi"></a>

So much to clarify...<br />Spiratone and Sigma had a very close relationship, so close that the son of the founder (Mr Yamaki) spent a year at Spiratone in a kind of internship (at least, that's what we would call it now).</p>

<p>Re: YS, the Y stands for Yamaki (head of Sigma) - the S stands for Spira.

<br /> <br /> <strong>As far as I am aware the Y stands for Yamaki and the S stands for System.</strong><br /> <br />

Anyone care to guess who came up with the idea for YS jointly?

</p>

<p><br /> <strong>What makes you think they did?...Sigma designed the Y/S mount for their early lenses. Every early lens made by Sigma, including the Sigma XQ range, has a Greek Sigma character stamped somewhere on them...If Spiratone lenses also have the same character then they were definitely made by Sigma.</strong></p>

<p>

So Sigma's reply is simply wrong.

<br /> <br /> <strong>Correct.</strong></p>

<p> </p>

<p>Thought I would rejuvinate this thread by posting an image containing the sum of my research into 135mm 1.8 lenses and who made them as of Feb 2013:<br>

<img src="http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/1344/135mmf18optics.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Alf, it's not clear whether you're agreeing or disagreeing with Jonathan Spira, who is probably in a better position than most of us to know the history and minutiae of Spiratone.</p>

<p>Just pointing out that the Sigma XQ 135mm f1.8 and the optically identical Sigmatel Multi Scalematic 135mm f1.8 are not the same optically as the two Spiratone 135mm f1.8 versions and that the Spiratone versions were made by two different makers, neither of them Sigma.</p>