The story of Yamasaki Optics photographic lens lab

**mhayashi** · 10-Sep-2020, 08:37

I want to share you all about the story of Yamasaki Optics photographic lens lab.
The page below is in Japanese, but you can use google chrome and translator.

https://camerafan.jp/cc.php?i=152

The page was created in 2013/6/5.
Yamasaki-san must be now 84 years old.
After the WWII, his father spinned out from Yamasaki Optics Lab (not the photographic lens lab above), the maker of Congo lenses, whose owner is his father’s brother.

The Congo lens story is here.
https://chiiden.net/山崎光学/

At first, his father made Taiyo brand LF lenses, but soon stop making the lenses and
focused on lens polishing and coating business.
He still works at the lab with his son.

Old lenses like Leica and LF lenses are brought to his lab from all over the world.

I plan to visit his lab to polish and coat my old zeiss jena tessar 165mm f2.7 as my first visit.
From some of the blogs on the internet, the lens polishing and coating seems to cost starting from 200-300 USD.

山崎光学写真レンズ研究所 4 Chome-4-9 Kitashinjuku, Shinjuku City, Tokyo 169-0074 03-3362-1809 https://g.co/kgs/GvabBi

Address:
Yamasaki Kogaku Shashin Lens Kenkyujo
4-4-9 Kitashinjuku,
Shinjuku, Tokyo
Japan
Postal code 169-0074
phone number +81-3-3362-1809 (probably Japanese only.)

**erian** · 10-Sep-2020, 15:38

Very nice! Thank you for sharing!

**mhayashi** · 25-Sep-2020, 00:48

I went to the workshop today and met Yamasaki-san for the first time.
He inspected my tessar and biotessar.
“No need to polish the biotessar. It’s in a pristine condition.”
“I will keep the tessar for the further inspection.”
“People don’t know what the values of these lenses are and throw away old lenses.”
I asked his son (taken in the forth picture) whether he takes over the family business.
He said “Yes, I will.”
I told him “It is a great thing to maintain the skill and the technology and to contribute to the culture of photography.”
He said “Thank you.”