In praise of old lenses #7 - Sigma YS 18mm

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In praise of old lenses #7 - Sigma YS 18mm

Postby peterr » Sat May 02, 2020 7:03 pm

Sigma YS 18mm F3.2 "Widerama"

Well, I thought it was about time that I moved on to a wide-angle lens, so here goes to a real piece of exotica – a Sigma 18mm ultra-wide angle lens dating from circa 1974. This was a time when Sigma was still establishing itself in the top league of independent lens manufacturers. Sigma lenses of this era featured an interchangeable YS lens mount system, compatible with the T2 interchangeable mount but offering the important advantage of mechanical coupling to allow auto diaphragm operation with most SLR cameras. My version of this lens has a 42mm Pentax/Praktica screw YS mount so it easily adapted to my Pentax DLSRs. By 1980, the YS system was no more and hence YS adaptors are now very hard to come by.

The performance of this lens does not compare very favourably with modern equivalents, but it does have one key feature that is hard to match – a minimum focusing distance of just 6.7 inches! This makes for some very interesting effects, although you do need to be aware that the best you can achieve in terms of depth of field when focusing this close is still little more than a few inches.

Another interesting point is that this lens was advertised as being "retro-focus". To cut to the chase, this meant that you could safely use the lens without worrying about the SLR mirror bashing into the rear element of the lens - something that you needed to watch out for in earlier 1960s ultra wide-angle lenses. The way round this problem was to lock up the camera mirror when taking the picture, as long as your camera included this feature of course.

Sigma 18mm lenses of this vintage are as rare as hen’s teeth, but if you do happen to find one in good condition it is currently likely to cost you somewhere between £50 and £70. I picked up mine at the bargain price of £7.99 about 14 years ago, but it does have a bashed filter thread.

The image of the Aeonium below was taken with the lens mounted on my Pentax K1 and set at an aperture of F22.
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peterr
 
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