Ken Rockwell says Electro 35 better than Leica & Nikon RF's

I used my Dads Yashica Lynx (something or other) back in the late 60' or early 70's and I was just OK - no big deal. Decent optics, but very marginal mechanics. I see them at garage sales and thrift stores now, usually with problems (banged-up or whatever). All the better Japanese fixed lens rangefinders I've used are similar: nice lenses (especially if they are fast), so-so mechanics (they all need repairs when they get older) and the mechanisms are lightly built. The goal then was to get a NIkon F or a Spotmatic, both fantastically expensive at the time for a youth. It was a worthy goal - we knew what was good even if it was beyond our budget.

The Yashica's and similar cameras are all OK if you're are lucky enough to get one that still works and has not been abused. They can be fun to use, but they will not stand up to the rigors of heavy use nor are their optics or flexibility on a par with, for example, the Canon or Leica rangefinder systems of any era. They are what they are: consumer-grade cameras for holiday and family snapshots. This they did pretty well.
 
I think to be really honest they are a good camera ... for fifty dollars!

They're kind of big for what they offer and the viwfinder isn't great in poor light ... I'm not a huge fan of cameras that are limited to a top shutter speed of 1/500 ... especially ones that come with a f1.7 lens! 😛
 
Well that settles it for me. If Ken Rockwell said that, I'm selling the rest of my gear as soon as I get home. (Does he mention what you should do when the batteries fail and you don't have any extras with you? - Never mind. I'm sure that can't happen anyway.)
 
You have some control

You have some control

You can know by the arrow lights where 1/500 and where 1/30th are if your aperture is centered, so you can somewhat estimate where 1/250, 1/125, 1/60 are as well, and confirm with a meter or p&s digicam side by side.

Since the shutter steps are 1/11th or so you won't know the exact speed.

I don't think it's better than an M, but I haven't heard of any rewind problems with these, and I think as many or more of these were made than Ms.

The lens is like a Summilux 50, which is why some people have them cut off and put on M or LTM mounts.

Anupam Basu said:
I would rather do without a meter than give up full control or fool around with the ISO. Plus the RF was crap when I had the camera. They are nice P&S cameras - granted. But this better than an M or a Nikon rhetoric that goes around every now and then is way over the top.
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looks like a Summilux 50 to me

looks like a Summilux 50 to me

Some like the lens, others don't, and there are some variations on that lens.

In any case, on a GSN, you get it for $50, instead of $2K or so.

myoptic3 said:
One of the best reviews I have read on one of my favorite cameras. Ken's photos of the Electro are pretty good! I had to sell my Electro for 2 reasons. I didn't like not knowing what exposure the camera had decided on, and the lens was a actually a little too sharp. If you took a head shot sometimes the edges were so defined it looked like you had cut and pasted the face onto the background. But for the price it is definitely a winner, and if you are willing to put a little gaussian blur on your portraits so they don't show every tiny pimple it is a fine camera.

To answer you question on how do you change the lens Trius, the short answer is you don't. It lives on the camera full time.
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myoptic3: My tongue was in my cheek. I didn't use a smiley because that would be too obvious; I like subtlety that can be misunderstood, thus reinforcing the reputation of the Internets as a place where arguments and flaming are de rigeur.
 
I have a mean looking Electro GT with an old school flash and a really nice Vivitar shade.

Its a decent camera for evenly lit and low contrast light.

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A while back Mr. Rockwell praised the good old Olympus Trip and as a result you could see their prices on Ebay go up significantly. I think his writings are fun to read, and he surely knows how to stir the pot on forums like this one, that's all though.

Before you go out to buy a GSN/GTN and pay inflated prices, just consider a Konica Auto S2, or perhaps a Minolta Hi-Matic E that has the same kind of auto exposure system as the Yashica, looks a lot like the Yashica GX (which is a lot more expensive) and has a nice Rokkor lens. Perhaps you want some Zuiko glass, then a 35RC might fit the bill and prices have come down some recently and it weighs about half of what the GSN does.

Most importantly, if you buy a used GSN or GTN you should know how to perform laparoscopic surgery on that camera to replace the 'pad of death' (this is the google search term you need to find info on how to do it). Because there is about a 90% chance that your camera will have that problem and will stop working half way through the first roll.
 
I lucked out and had our own greyhoundman service my GSN before he stopped doing that and it now purrs like a kitten. That man is a magician!
 
monemmer said:
Most importantly, if you buy a used GSN or GTN you should know how to perform laparoscopic surgery on that camera to replace the 'pad of death' (this is the google search term you need to find info on how to do it).
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I have impression that electrical shutter of YEG35 in very few cases suffers from stuck shutter or aperture (is this assumption true?), so this combined with statement "replacing POD with surgery method is easy task" makes some credits to YEG35.

Ones mileage may vary though I believe that POD is easy for beginner tinkerer like I'm and once changed, it just works instead of mechanical shutters cleaned lazily without full disassembly - they may require next and next cleaning sessions because main dirt is hidden and not easily accessible with just glass off.

So I just want to say "don't be afraid from gooey POD". It's your chance to grab fine Av FL RF for sweet nothing.
 
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You're right that if you are a tinkerer, this is probably a good cheap project camera to buy. I just wanted to make the point that one should not assume to be able to buy a camera that just works.

I forgot to mention that you will likely have to replace the light seals. (Jon Goodman is your man for the materials as well as some very detailed descriptions on how to do it, see the classic camera repair forum http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/articles.html). And if the prices stay down, you can easily buy a second one if something goes wrong while you 'repair' the first one (I am speaking from experience, here).
 
pesphoto said:
I lucked out and had our own greyhoundman service my GSN before he stopped doing that and it now purrs like a kitten. That man is a magician!
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I also have one cleaned up by greyhounman, and I agree he did excellent work. I do hope all is well with him, if he still lurks here, and I thank him for working on them for us when he did that sort of thing.
 
Al Patterson said:
I also have one cleaned up by greyhounman, and I agree he did excellent work. I do hope all is well with him, if he still lurks here, and I thank him for working on them for us when he did that sort of thing.
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I just looked him up in the member's list and sadly under "last visit" it just says "NA"
 
jan normandale said:
this is not really news.. our man Nick Trop already put this forward in our very own RFF Forums
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Yeap Jan, you stole my thoughts.

I still have to read Ken's article, but I am beforehand preconditioned he will not match our Nick high level of argumentation, nor humour.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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