Hexar AF or Yashica T4?

[p.giannakis]

I have had plenty of Yashica T4/5, I find them on car boot sales and sell them online. Samples vary from very good performers to average - personally I gave up on these camera, I think there are much better compacts out there to have with much less money.
Never had a Hexar - I would love one day to own one but they are way out of my price range.

 

[taomei]

The Hexar has a much faster lens and is more comparable to a Contax G than most other compacts size-wise. Lens renders nice and sharp but not as harsh micro-contrast bite as the T* Tessar on the T4/T5/D. Viewfinder is comfortable and AF is decently fast and activates on 1/2 press.

The T4/T5/D doesn't move the lens until full-press, and half-press is impossible to get by feel (only the light by the vf lights up on 1/2 press for focus aquisition), but having weather seals, a very biting contrast in the lens, and built in flash make for a great carry-everywhere combo.

Different purposes for each, and you can find a bargain Hexar silver or black in the $400-500 range, or an (overpriced) T4/T5/D for the same, but often closer to $300.

 

[DrMcCoy]

I will say that calling the T4/5 "overpriced" is a little silly. It cost approximately $270 to buy a new one in 1994 (inflation adjusted, converted from GBP). Plenty of people bought them then because that was a fair price. The Contax T2 was approximately $970 at that time (inflation adjusted, USD prices).

Given that 20 years have past since then, and the relatively sparse field of professional-grade compacts, it's not really a shocker that the prices are what they are today. They're honestly still relatively in line with their original price - which makes sense since the demand for them seems to be proportionally equal.