Anybody with experience shooting the 'lesser' Yashicas?

farlymac

farlymac

PF McFarland
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Anybody with experience shooting the Yashica MF? How about the ME-1? I know BTGC loves the MC, and as soon as I can get mine resealed, I'll probably love it too. And If I can get a repair part for my ME, I might like it too. Let me know how you feel about your small Yashica, what kind of photos you take. Do you use it a lot, or just occasionally? Any dislikes? Are they reliable? Whatever you can come up with, put it here.

PF
 
I have also ME-1, love it because were able to repair it, though as too careful father I'm not using it much :D MC is my beloved son because of Av mode and longer times. Lens of ME-1 is nice, but it vignettes more than on MC. Cool touch is ME-1 has hot shoe. I absolutely love left thumb advance wheel, too - just like on Yashica 72-E halfframe camera.
 
I picked up a Yashica Minister II the other day from the thrift store. Copal SVL shutter and LVS exposure meter both working fine, albeit speeds below 15th are slow/sluggish.

Anybody that can show me shots from that? I got the 45mm f2.8 version (1962).
 
Well, instead of getting a part for my ME, I got a whole 'nother camera. The second ME is a newer model with the hotshoe, and self timer. Everything was looking good, cleaned out the battery well, seals are nice, lens clean, shutter works in all modes. Then I put a roll of film in it. Aaarghhh! The transport gears are stripped! You don't notice it when the camera is empty, since the take-up spool rotates as it should, but the pressure of having film in it let that illusion go away.

So I guess the older model won't be spending it's days as a shelf queen, since I'll be stripping it for parts. That is IF it has a good transport drive.

Look for the post 'Need a part for Yashice ME' in 'Repair' where I'll chronical the teardown and rebuild. I'll be flying blind as I can't find a repair manual, or even an assembly chart.

PF
 
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The ME survived the operation, and is loaded with film. Just have to wait for daylight to go test it out. Turns out I didn't really have to do the part swap, it is the way the film transport operates if the sprocket gears aren't engaged correctly with the film while loading. But the camera is back together and operating properly, and I will post the repair process on my Flickr page when I get all the photos run through PSE and MS Publisher (for anotation purposes).

PF
 
Tell me what you think.
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Very nice. What I think is there might be a trout stream in those hills. If I had not saw that it was in Virginia, I would have said the Adirondaks or Vermont. Looks like places where I have chased brookies.

Ken
 
buzzardkid said:
I picked up a Yashica Minister II the other day from the thrift store. Copal SVL shutter and LVS exposure meter both working fine, albeit speeds below 15th are slow/sluggish.

Anybody that can show me shots from that? I got the 45mm f2.8 version (1962).
Click to expand...
I've got all the Ministers now -- Minister (original) through Minister D. Unfortunately the Minister I and the Minister II are awaiting me to get stuck in and fix them (shutter on the I and rangefinder/viewfinder on the II. Seals on both).

The lens/shutter is the same as the Minister D. I do have some photos at home. It seems to be sharper than the Yashinon I shoot the most -- my Lynx 1000. I think the f2.8 Yashinons are four-element Tessar, and the faster Yashinons (like my Lynx 1000 with f1.8 and the big daddy f1.4 Lynx 14) are 6-element lenses.

The Minister II has the same body as the Lynx 1000, just a different lens/shutter and top plate/meter. If you take it apart and clean the wind and shutter release (maybe even a TINY bit of grease on the wind and frame-counter gears :eek: -- take the bottom plate off and do the same), it'll be very, very smooth, and the shutter release, if adjusted correctly, is amazing. Far, far better than those electric Electro things with their horrible *CLUNK*.
 
You guys seem to know so I'll ask off topic a bit. What is the scene of the 5cm f2.8 ltm lens. I have one on a yashica YE that I have yet to try out. The build looks similar to the ltm f1.8 50mm yashinon but the glass looks different.
 
Ken,

Big Pine Trout Farm and lodge is located in Craig County. As far as the streams, you need to be downstream when the hatchery trucks unload. I was never good at fishing, so I don't keep up on where they're biting, but Craig Creek does look like the kind of place to be.

PF
 
farlymac said:
Here is a sample photo from the test roll I put through the ME.


Link to the rest of the series.

[...]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Tell me what you think.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]PF[/FONT][/QUOTE]

I think you're cheating, is what I think. :D

It's a great shot, and the Yashica takes nice pictures.
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If you think those look good, I wish I'd have opted for the higher resolution scans. Here is an example of what the little thing can do on a rainy day,with Kodak BW400cn. Got the higher scan on this one. Only thing done to it was correcting the color ( the C41 stuff always has a bit of a cast to it like it's been toned), and cropped to 8x10 which does drop the resolution a touch.


Cooking Class by br1078phot, on Flickr

PF
 
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