Baffled; can you help?

[David Hughes]

Hi,

I was baffled by this camera; it's a Yashica MF-2 super and what baffled me was that it only has a single DX contact. So what good is just one contact?

There's other baffling aspects to it, like a sliding plate with a couple of holes in it to give f/3.8 for flash and f/8 or so for everything else. You switch the flash on by sliding the unit to one side and the aperture changes.

It seems to be fixed focus and might just have one shutter speed, as they look and sound the same. The batteries, 2x AA, seem to be for the flash only. That being the only thing that changes when firing the camera with the batteries in or out.

Doing a search and reading a lot of pages on the WWW I can only say that it gets advertised a lot in Banglaesh, India, Pakistan and Turkey. One or two suggest it has a 100th or 125th shutter speed and takes ASA/ISO film 100, 200 or 400.

My experience is that it needs at least 4 DX contacts to determine the film speed from that range.

Anyway, does anyone know anything about it, from actual experience?

Regards, David

 

[sevo]

Many cameras do not bother to resolve each DX speed, but only use as many contacts as they need to discriminate between the two or three speeds they support. Here, it is field 5 (the fourth within the fields assigned to sensitivity) - the most significant bit in the sensitivity code. This works out as "400 or less", and was often used as the only DX contact on point-and-shoots that only had two settings (usually for 100 and 400), exposing any other film as one or the other.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Thanks for the input but one of the points that baffles me is that it could be one of eight different film speeds up to 400 ASA/ISO from 25 ASA. And that raises all sort of questions about the camera and what film to use. And what it would do on the flash setting.

Since most basic DX settings (the 3 or 4 contact versions) take 100, 200 or 400 ASA the temptation is to use 200 ASA and be dammed but I thought it best to ask here given the level and range of expertise.

Regards, David

 

[sevo]

Hi,

Thanks for the input but one of the points that baffles me is that it could be one of eight different film speeds up to 400 ASA/ISO from 25 ASA. And that raises all sort of questions about the camera and what film to use.

Where does it say that supports 25? It can only do two speeds on the strength of that single DX switch. In all probability that will be 100/400, as the 200 era did not start until around 1990 and 50 or below were already extinct as consumer films by 1980.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

As I see it, looking at the DX charts, contact no 4 is for 25ASA but occurs in eight other fields. I'm assuming the two "prongs" of the contact establish the contact and the earth/ground is not used. But that alone means just one unusual film speed.

And 100/400 is a little strange for a reading. So I'm still baffled.

I see it as G 1 2 3 4 5 - just in case we are at cross purposes.

Regards, David

 

[sevo]

I see it as G 1 2 3 4 5 - just in case we are at cross purposes.

If you count that way, that would make it 3. The one that switches from isolated to blank at 400. Technically that is the 400+ switch - the assumption being that point-and-shoot consumer film at that point in time only existed in 100 and 400, so that that single switch covered all options...

 

[David Hughes]

Many thanks, that makes a lot of sense and explains a few other things.

Sorry I couldn't reply sooner but I've had 3 days of chaos.

Regards, David

 

[charjohncarter]

Yes, I have a Canon AS-6 that is the same.

 

[BLKRCAT]

are you sure its DX? Perhaps its just a spring to keep the film from rattling around in the camera.

 

[sevo]

are you sure its DX? Perhaps its just a spring to keep the film from rattling around in the camera.

Unlikely. There would not be any point on making it a contact pair if it merely was a spring. And I have come across that same minimal DX layout in several cheap cameras.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Even rarer are cameras with 12 contacts. So far I've seen just one and that was the Minolta Dynax 7000i.

Regards, David

 

[Dwig]

Where does it say that supports 25? It can only do two speeds on the strength of that single DX switch. In all probability that will be 100/400, as the 200 era did not start until around 1990 and 50 or below were already extinct as consumer films by 1980.

Correct. The camera was a very low end model made at a time when 99% of the snap-shooters that would purchase such a camera shot color negative (AKA "print") film and at a time when the only commonly available color negative films were either ISO 100 or 400.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

I said 25 ASA/ISO as my original reading of the charts was that it and the earth/ground were for that speed and so the same would apply to a single double contact...

Regards, David