How did you get your Yashica?

Got given my GT by my father when I was a 'poor' student 16 years ago. Never let me down, however it is in need of a CLA after travelling around Europe, being used (and abused) for most of that time!
 
Hey guys.

Found my Yachica IC at a antique store run by an OLD but suprisingly spry man in the middle of a dead-economy town in georgia. I drove by, and for some reason, was like, "hell, I'll stop and see if he's got any camera's."

Had alot of the usual brownie's and polaroids, mostly junk. But burried in the back of the box was the Yachica, aparently the old man's friend owned it and left it at his shop (20 years ago). After 20 years of it sitting on the counter, he decided to throw it in the box with all the others. That's aparently where it's been for years until I came along.

I just got done tearing it completely down, might have seen my post earlier in the Yachica section. Unfortunately, the rear lens element was frozen up, so I can't get in to fix the aperture blades that are fubar. It's too bad too, camera is in Pristine condition. Maybe if I come across another lens for the IC, I'll switch it out.

I have a Yachica CNN Wide coming from ebay, and a Electro 35 in the mail. Lets hope they work.
 
Some how started craving a rangefinder, a Yashica Electro 35 seemed like a good place to start. Got my fiance to get me one for christmas, off trademe.co.nz. I acted suprised when I opened the gift, then shot two rolls to establish that the film transport and auto exposure were shot. It spent four months in a shop in Sydney before it was fixed. Apparently some non-standard wiring made diagnosis difficult. Seems to be working fine now.

It's a fun shooter but I'm still trying to adjust to the shift from my Canonet, which I had just picked up off shelf in a store in Singapore, totally functional, albeit light leaks.
 
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Back in their day, I thought the Electro 35's were neat. My Son bought one at a St. Vincent DePaul store in 2002, and carried it in his truck just to have a camera along. As he works construction, it was getting pretty dirty. I told him he needs a less neat camera to use under such dirty conditions.
In 2004, he cleaned it up and gave it to me for my birthday. All it needed was new light seals, which I did, and I love it. (He carried it in the lower half of the case to prevent light leaks.
I've since found the correct flash, Auto-Up, and wide and tele lens supplements, with view finder, for it. Also use a vintage leather camera bag to carry everything in. It can be a conversation starter! :cool:
 
My dad gave me his old Electro 35 when I was 12, way back in the early 80s. That was my first REAL camera and as a child, I really loved the fact that it was manual focus. I made good use of it, but I'd always hankered after an SLR, in my teenage ignorance. ;) Years later, they moved house and the Electro 35 disappeared somewhere, never to be found again. :(

A friend of mine knew how much I rued the loss of my Electro 35, so when a good specimen came up on eBay, he got it for me. It's still one of my favourite rangefinders by a long shot.
 
I had just been discovering the Yashica's on the internet and was reading up on them thinking it would be cool to have one. So I walk in one day to the photo store and wouldnt you know it they had one sitting in the used section. Bought it for $25 and it worked perfectly for a year. Still works, though not perfectly.
 
My first Yashica was a TL Electro-X with 50 and 135mm lens bought from the base exchange at Barbers Point NAS Hawaii in the early 70's. Wish I still had it.
My next was a Yashica D from a pawn shop. My brother has that one now.
My next was a Yashica G black body picked up from a local flea market a couple of weekends ago along with an Agfa Karat.
 
I got my Yashica Electro GS for 15 bucks on ebay ... it worked fine at first but the wires connected to the battery housing oxidized and had to resolder them.

also replaced the light seals myself; since then its been amazing
 
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I bought a Lynx 1000 out of a "bargain bin" at a local camera storefor $20. on lunch one day. They were clearing out old stuff I guess, and there were a large number of rangefinder and point and shoot cameras, (no Electros though) so I just poked around looking for one that seemed to work, and I found the Lynx. The rangefinder seemed accurate, the meter responded to light, and the film advance worked, so I bought it! Then I ran film through it, and it REALLY does WORK! Also I got an even older Ricoh 35 from the same place at the same price, not as nice looking, but it works too.
Then I bought an Electro 35 GS off of ebay, which also also works well, after a new battery was installed.
 
Last Sunday, my father (87 years old, went digital a few years ago) gave me his Yashica GSN, which was sitting unused in some closet. I gave up digital about a year ago.

I reckon he must have bought it new around 1974. I always thought his Yashica looked rather impressive. I remember one shot he took with it in an almost totally dark crypt of an abbey. Thanks to the Yashica's auto-exposure capability of up to 30 seconds, the picture came out fine, as if there had been normal daylight available.

Just discovered some GSN-websites. Haven't got around to buying a battery yet. I hope the electronics are still OK. Looking forward to using the camera...
 
Got my GSN and both MG-1s (one silver, one black) on the bay. They have all worked fine since day one. I also have a black MG-1 that I have explored since it did not work anyway.
 
I inherited my Minimatic C from my father, great little camera, I don`t use it as often as I should.
 
I got my GSN from my great uncle's estate in absolutley mint condition complete with case, strap, lens cap and instruction book. Sent it off to G'Man for a CLA. I consider this the ultimate camera for candid shots. Used it at a street fair shooting from the waist. Simply zone focused and set the aperature according to the over/under lights and pressed the shutter release without bringing the camera to my eye . No one realized they were being photographed. Exposure was right on and all compositions were acceptable.
 
I hate to admit but the first Yashica RF I ever had was some type of Electro that I bought years ago from a second hand store. It didn't work of course so I gave it to my then 3 year old son so he'd have a camera to play with when I was playing with my various digitals. Needless to say it's been abused in ways that are hard to describe.

Just recently I was searching thru various Nikon prime listings on eBay when I noticed a seller with a Yashica Lynx 14 that appeared in pretty good shape for practically nothing. I couldn't let it pass. 45mm is my favorite focal length and the thought of a fast lens (f/1.4) in this focal length was a too much for me. I've finally run more than a few rolls thru it and everything works (metering, transport, apeture, even low shutter speeds) although it is suffering from a few light leaks.

Now I've got a Yashica ME (according to the seller and the pictures of it, brand new in the original display box still) and a Yashica MG-1 (recently gone thru by Mark Hama and with the Yashica guy battery adapter) so once those come in off the Lynx will go for the going thru it deserves.
 
Well, I guess my first post here should rightly be about how I acquired my first (and so far, only) Yashica.

For starters, it’s a Yashica YF, and (as far as I know) is in pretty darn good condition, and has very little wear at all. To the best of my knowledge, it was purchased new by my father…at least my mother thinks that he owned it before they were married (in 1965 I think). Personally, I don’t remember dad ever actually using it, my first recollection of it was just as an item up on the shelf, sometimes accessible to my sister and I as a fragile toy. The only thing I ever heard about it from my dad was something about the film advance being “off”, and later that he had had it fixed, but still never used the camera.

So, it pretty much sat on the shelf, or in the closet, for something in excess of 30 years that I know of. When my father passed away in 2000, I was in the process of moving from Southern California to Central Oregon, and while packing decided to take it with me. Since then, it has still sat on the shelf, since I had a pocket digital camera (an Olympus), and my wife and I received a little nicer digital for our wedding in 2004 (a Sony).

Recently, I have been thinking about stepping up to a digital SLR (I work for a publishing company that produces visitor guides to areas, and good pictures are a big thing with me now). I decided to take out the old camera and find out exactly what it was, and if it was still useable.

Lo and behold, I found out it was actually a rather rare find, and apparently quite a decent camera. Certainly not like my dad’s luck with purchases at all. As far as I can tell, everything appears to work (all the shutter speed dials, winding stuff, lens is scratch free, etc.), but I’ll know better after I put a roll of film through it.

Considering how it had been used in my youth, I was surprised to find it basically scratch and dent free, with the brass showing through on one of the knobs very faintly, and with the lens cover and two-part case still intact and present. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the pictures turn out to be good as well.
 
Well, my first Yashica was a TLR, a Yashica A bought on eB*y. Put a roll through it, but wasn't particularly impressed. Did my research a little better and decided I should have got a Yashica-Mat. Sold the Yashica A back on eB*y (for a slight profit!) and got a Yashica-Mat LM (whose meter is still suprising good, if tapped a little...)

My subsequent love affair with the Yashinon lens:

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.. led me to consider the electro 35 range of RF cameras when looking at trying a semi-automatic in the canonet style bracket a little while ago. Again on eB*y, I found a rather nice looking GT, plus case, plus tele/wide lenses, plus add-on viewfinder, plus filters, flash and cable release... all for the princely sum of £25. Which didn't seem bad :cool:

Cleaned up nicely, everything seems smooth and the metering is the same as my hand-held so I'm expecting great things..

First roll will be out of it soon! :)
 
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