Small Talk About a Great Feature of the Lynx 1000

R

ruben

Guest
While I am killing time until a pair of GTs arrive, I have been going to the streets for the last month with different cameras, evaluating for myself their value as street shooters.

Last week has been the week of the Lynx 1000, a sellenium powered camera almost fully manual. Why "almost" ? Because in contrast to the freely moving aperture ring, the rotation of the speed ring is enslaved to the aperture ring. Do you want to change speed ? No problem, but you will moving the the aperture ring accordingly. Who needs this feature, making the Lynx 1000 to stand out among all other cameras ?

Today I discovered for myself what this feature is good for, in fact highly desirable.

I went out to my work, with the Lynx on my chest, noticing the skies are barely cloudy. While walking at the streets I took some Sekonic incident readings arriving to and average of f/8 for 1/125, taking into account to change the camera settings one stop in either direction for different small changes in light intensity. Fine. One pic here, one pic there, when suddenly appears in front of me a man in his 50s riding an extremely cute and comic bycicle of very small wheels.

The movement was too fast and sudden for me to catch. But let's think it had been a bit slower than it was. What would you technically do in such a situation with your aperture priority Electro ?: You will suddenly enlarge your camera apperture, in the hope God will be on your side and the warning lights will not show in your viewfinder.... hmmm

What would you do with your shutter priority Canonet GIII ? You will have to rotate the speed ring to a high speed, also praying to God that when when you click, the shutter button will not block you due to under exposure. Of course, in less of a hurry situations you can glance at the vewfinder scale and be sure about what you are doing.

Since I have selected as examples two of the most quick to manipulate manual cameras, I think there is no need to further examples with either similar auto priority cameras, not to speak about cameras without any priority.

Here comes the Lynx 1000 with its original solution for the fastest way to adapt your shooting according to subject movement. Had I been centered at the slow setting of 1/125 & f/8 ? No problem at all, just turn the speed ring to the fastest available speed and the aperture ring will move accordingly. In this case the 1/125 & f/8 goes to 1/1000 & f/2.8.

But had been my pre set 1/125 & f/4, the full turn of the speed ring to its maximum availability will have taken me to 1/500 7 f/2. Etc.

Quite nice and convenient feature for street shooting !!!

And BTW, the aperture ring is stepless, with the linkage working wherever you are.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
Around 1960 lots of cameras featured an EV exposure system,
i.e. aperture and shutter rings are coupled; increasing one
decreases the other, maintaining the same exposure value.

Manufacturers believed this simplified exposure for amateurs.
Some handheld light meters from the era indicate EV only.

Though I have never owned a Yashica Lynx 1000, I did have
two cameras from this era that use the EV system, a Sawyers
Mark IV (aka Topcon Primo Jr.) 127 TLR and Walz Envoy 35.

Both cameras were just gorgeous - smooth and well-finished.
But using them was exasperating. Uncoupling the controls
was difficult, and required looking at the front of the camera.

Though I may have become more adept with constant use,
for occasional use I found them slow and fiddly to operate.

Chris
 
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ChrisPlatt said:
..........Though I have never owned a Yashica Lynx 1000, I did have
two cameras from this era that use the EV system, a Sawyers
Mark IV (aka Topcon Primo Jr.) 127 TLR and Walz Envoy 35.

Both cameras were just gorgeous - smooth and well-finished.
But using them was exasperating. Uncoupling the controls
was difficult, and required looking at the front of the camera.

Chris
Click to expand...

Hi Chris,
That was my point. That for the first time I see a camera in which the EV linkage, viewed from today's perspective, actively helps the user instead of the user forced to work for the EV, like in Olympus SP, for instance.

Just compare these two cameras from the narrow angle of the EV linkage:

Viewfinder: SP = a mess / Lynx 1000 = the utmost simplicity - dot/needle match
Rings: SP = extremely slow and cumbersome to match the EV / Lynx 1000 = automatically done at the viewing stage.

I am short of words to praise the geniality of the Yashica designers in this issue. But let me try the following:

While the EV way was nothing but a cumbersome fashion of the past, necessarily leading to its own further death, in the Lynx 1000 Yashica designers took the heart of it and put the idea to work on behalf of the photographer for the first time , and not the other way around. From a confusing language they broke it down into a mechanical advantage working intuitively (and the word "EV" is not marked anywhere in the Lynx). By doing this, they trascended their time into the future.

So what is the Lynx 1000 ? an aperture priority, shutter priortiy, no priority fully manual camera?

None of the above. It is unique.


Cheers,
Ruben
 
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Glad you found a situation in which this arrangement is advantageous.
The rest of the time (changing exposure settings) coupled dials are just a PITA...

Chris
 
well, you are right on some level, of course. But you could come up with similar arguments, even better ones, for using a minolta dynax 7 with an 50/1.4 lens..... in aperture or shutter priority. Great layout of controls, shutter speeds between many seconds and 1/8000 s. Extremely reliable meter and quick action.
 
Pherdinand said:
well, you are right on some level, of course. But you could come up with similar arguments, even better ones, for using a minolta dynax 7 with an 50/1.4 lens..... in aperture or shutter priority. Great layout of controls, shutter speeds between many seconds and 1/8000 s. Extremely reliable meter and quick action.
Click to expand...
Or, for that matter, my old pair of Minolta maxxum 9xi's, which, along with your 7, had Program Shift, essentially a teched-up version of what the Lynx 1000 had (and that most modern multi-mode SLRs have had for a while).


- Barrett
 
But of course, these slr's would still cost a bit more than the lynx. Not by much, anymore.
By the way right now i only hae the smaller brother the dynax 5 - just as good but shutter speed max is 1/4000 "only".
 
Well folks the truth is that after drying for years with the OLY SP viewfinder mess, looking what Yashica have done with the Lynx 1000 is quite refreshing.

Yes, the trick will work for situations in which you have to make sudden changes of speed without loosing the shot while fiddling with re-arranging the settings.

Now I imagine myself with a super super SLR. I have been at 1/60 and f/whatever, you suddenly has to change speed for the maximum available one, within the limits of light and film sensitivity. Can I perform an abrupt movement to the end of the fastest speed available? I don't think so. I think I will have to rotate the speed dial quite gradually (slowly) in order not to end out of the exposure range.

If I am wrong, kindly correct me. If I am right, join me in my kudos for Yashica designers.:)

Cheers,
Ruben
 
:) yashica designers definitely deserve the kudos, Ruben.
But you are wrong. It can be done. It does not even need to be a "super super" one. Of course you have to rotate a speed dial. But on many slr's you can do it very very quickly.

But still the yashica'sare good, i agree.
 
Pherdinand, you should detail a bit, otherwise I cannot follow.
With the Lynx you make an abrupt rotation within less than a second. Kindly explain me what do you do for a less than a second reach of the highest exposure available speed with whatever camera you choose.

If you don't detail, it will be ok with me as well. After all I am talking about a single feature of an oldie, and not trying to make an overall evaluation in favour of the oldies. About this, Greyhoundman already convinced me.

Now, if more modern SLRs can match the "abrupt shift" of the Lynx 1000, it will only be another kudo for its designers....:) But I would like nevertheless to hear your example.

Friedly Cheers
Ruben
 
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Ruben, there are two details I can share.
Some of the modern slr's have the possibility for custom settings where e.g. yu can set a shutter speed, that can be the highest available. Then, just by pushing a button, the settings under this "custom" become active. Practically you can switch shutter speed (and many other things) by pushing a button on the top of the camera.
OTOH, my cheap little dynax 5 has a wheel that in sh speed priority mode has to be rotated to vhange the speed. The wheel, "dial", is vertical and positioned very conveniently on the top of the camera in the front, you can keep your middle finger on it naturally. When you need it, you can rotate it in less than a second to the high shutter speed. The speed is visible in the viewfinder so you don't have to take your eye off.
But i don't see the necessity to switch from an "everyday" speed of say 1/125 to 1/4000 or faster within a second. I never met such situations.
Don't misunderstand me...i really like the manual cameras as well, and I think it's a matter of personal preference and, maybe even more important, getting used to the controls.
 
Thanks Pherdinand, for your example about the programed option of maximum available speed by touch of a button.

As for when I would need this feature, besides the example I gave in my first posting, let's suppose you are focusing at the sea and suddenly you notice this on your right:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=13620

cheers,
Ruiben


PS:
True I am a newbie in street photography, but not newbie in war-like photography. I have had the luck to see by my side great photojournalists in action shooting, and at the streets. Speed of camera manipulation is for them an invaluable asset. Or take a look at Beniliam's gallery and guess his speed of camera manipulation.

Of course, above all, in Photgraphy there are no fixed rules and each of us is entitled to find his/her way to approach this or that genre. And we, amateurs (= lovers of Photography), enjoy the widest freedom of all.
 
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hhaha, especially if the camera is loaded with stg less sensitive than delta 3200 you mean? and when it's not a hot summer mid-day?:)
ok, point taken. By the way that was a super ikonta with 1/500 highest speed...and a very slow speed setting ring:) a lovely camera nevertheless.
 
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