Yashica’s Y35 Camera is Worse Than Anyone Expected

xayraa33

xayraa33

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Not strange.

1.It used an artsy looking promotion video without any solid technical information about the product.

2.It has been releasing false information throughout the project updates.
 
Amazing to me is that there seems to be an unlimited supply of dopes willing to back these Kickstarter platform scams. Kickstarter just keeps taking it's 5% cut and laughing all the way to the bank.
Can't say I'm any smarter. It took 4 Kickstarter projects to whack me upside the head and finally swear off any Kickstarter forever.
 
Kickstarter is NOT a scam! It is a crowdfunding platform where you can fund a company/individual to make a product or finish a project. You aren't preordering a product, you are funding the company and get a reward for your cash infusion. Venture capital.

I just looked, and I have funded 15 KS campaigns. One was unsuccessful, one is ongoing, one is pending delivery, and the 12 remaining I received the product (or reward) as expected.

As it happens, I backed the Yashica Y35, but then cancelled it before the campaign finished because I decided that the company and campaign looked fishy. This unfortunate situation is NOT an indictment of Kickstarter, nor a reason to not back other projects on Kickstarter. Of course one should do their due diligence when deciding to fund one of these campaigns, but I really dislike seeing comments as if Kickstarter is just one big scam. It's not.
 
I'm not sure where the "scam" comes into play. People bought a $125 digital camera that looks like an old film camera - and they got a $125 digital camera that looks like an old film camera. It's a novelty item, so I'm not sure what people were expecting.

If they just wanted a cheap digital camera they could have spent $110 on a Canon and got something that's not meant to be a novelty - but that's not really here nor there.
 
Corran said:
Kickstarter is NOT a scam! It is a crowdfunding platform where you can fund a company/individual to make a product or finish a project. You aren't preordering a product, you are funding the company and get a reward for your cash infusion. Venture capital..........
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Gotta agree. My wife and I got a $3K car tent that rocked for much less. Sadly her knees and hips started to get bad a few months ago and we had to sell it. We got all of our money back and some nice people got a great deal. It retails for a bit more, we had to wait several months, but damn it was a GREAT product.

From the answers and communications seemed to be dancing all around what should have straightforward information. Maybe it's the nine years living in NYC, having been suckered into some bad deals and catching things before cash traded hands. Perhaps it's the family hobby of politics has sensitized me too much to spin and BS.

The crowd funding sites ROCK. Keep in mind, everything there does not pass the sniff test to a bank. Banks are the most risk averse lending organization there is. Investment bankers want more than banks and will accept parts of the company. Riskier deals require a higher potential return. Crowd funding is even a higher level of risk, smaller investment, worth the gamble, most of the time yes.

The Yashica folks were masters of marketing and misdirection. The delay for reward was masterful. Pretty girl, classic looking camera, hipster pictures, masterful. We are giving you a better product, now just wait while we get some more folks to invest via a different channel. I promise it will be so much better, it will only be a short wait. My gut tells me they are back on the mainland with all funds transfered through several banks to hide the trail.

Said.

B2 (;-<
 
tunalegs said:
...... old film camera - and they got a $125 digital camera that looks like an old film camera. It's a novelty item, so I'm not sure what people were expecting.
......
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No, the pictures it takes have an IQ well under you can get from an iPod Touch 7th Gen refurbished for a few dollars more.

The look alike is about $3.00 of plastic and adapters that basically set a menu option available on just about EVERY digital PHD for the past 10 years.

No, they did not get what they were led to believe they were getting. Read all their marketing material, read the FAQs, ask them questions. I did. I can see how folks who don't know a lot about photography were duped.

B2 (;-<
 
Kickstarter may or may not be a scam depending on who is doing what. Let's face it, we live in a world of advertising misdirection and soft wordage (liars, incompetents and thieves). These people can easily put together a neat sounding project and deliver not much w/o ruffling too many feathers. Compare this to the toaster I buy at a store that doesn't work the way they advertised it to work. I get my money refunded and maybe even an apology. Even ePrey has a basic money back guarantee. You just have to be willing to eat the shipping fees.

I have not seen anything I was willing to gamble on with kickstarter projects. Just because a lot of people DO fund these projects doesn't make them quality products either. Probably billions of people eat at McDonald's, but that doesn't mean that the food is worth much. It isn't. I'm sure there are people that are perfectly happy with their kickstarter investments and that's great, but it seems a strange way to do business so I stick to the conventional "I give you my money and you give me what I want".

Kickstarter investing is sorta the peon of investing. Small amounts of money are usually required and the risk is small. Now if I saw something on a kickstarter project that was something I could not get anywhere else and w/ zero risk, that would be something different. But nearly all I see are variations of bright and shiny hipster stuff that is marketed effectively to a select market. I would rather just buy a product that I know will work right and deliver what I am looking for.
 
Steve M. said:
Kickstarter may or may not be a scam depending on who is doing what.
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No, Kickstarter is a platform. They offer a service to connect creators to investors - with the investors getting future products or "perks" instead of equity.

Steve M. said:
Now if I saw something on a kickstarter project that was something I could not get anywhere else and w/ zero risk, that would be something different. But nearly all I see are variations of bright and shiny hipster stuff that is marketed effectively to a select market. I would rather just buy a product that I know will work right and deliver what I am looking for.
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Firstly, there are plenty of items that have been Kickstarted that were different or unique, and that you wouldn't have been able to get anywhere. You just might not have known about them or they were not of interest to you.

As for "zero risk" - that's a silly request for this type of investment. The disparaging comments about "hipster stuff" is really unnecessary.

As an example of a good company that started by making a Kickstarter, look no further than the Intrepid 4x5 and subsequent projects.

Also, you are completely disregarding the "art" projects that are funded on KS, which are a different kind of thing.
 
This was one project I really wanted to see come to fruition. Even considered fronting some money at the start, but it only took the second video to realize it was not going to be a quality product, if it ever got produced.

I myself toyed around with the idea of using interchangeable modules for different film effects while coming up with the design for converting a film camera to digital. But I never could see a way to make any money off it because regular digital cameras were becoming so much better, and thus it would have been relegated to the novelty market.

As soon as the "Yashica" folks said they had a new design for the sensor that was an improvement, but in actuality took away some functionality of the original proposal, I knew the scam was on.

PF
 
BillBingham2 said:
No, they did not get what they were led to believe they were getting. Read all their marketing material, read the FAQs, ask them questions. I did. I can see how folks who don't know a lot about photography were duped.
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Based on the Kickstarter, and what I have seen of photos of the actual product, it doesn't really look any different. Of course if I had my hands on one, it might be a different story.

Thing is I could see Lomography doing the same concept, charging a higher price and notching the quality up one step and people would be thrilled.
 
tunalegs said:
Based on the Kickstarter, and what I have seen of photos of the actual product, it doesn't really look any different. Of course if I had my hands on one, it might be a different story.

Thing is I could see Lomography doing the same concept, charging a higher price and notching the quality up one step and people would be thrilled.
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I wish those "Yashica" people had done it like lomography because lomography usually present overpriced but ok quality products. Many people have reported this Yashica Y35 falls apart new out of box. It is also hilarious in some cases the cameras were supplied with wrong USB cable and the BW film took colour photos..
 
this was always going to be a triumph of hope over experience, right from the start.

I remember our first Yashica thread, and by the time the first actual real information emerged it was obvious this would be a plasticky toy with a phone-sized sensor.
 
Very surprised to see some people were expecting this thing to live up to the standard set by their "trusty old Electro 35 GSN". They must be ignorant that the later is a 33,500 yen camera back in 1970 - that's US$1000 in today's money.

All these whines are just wishful thinking and blind faith backfiring, with the real bad guys successfully getting away.
 
tunalegs said:
I'm not sure where the "scam" comes into play. People bought a $125 digital camera that looks like an old film camera - and they got a $125 digital camera that looks like an old film camera. It's a novelty item, so I'm not sure what people were expecting.

If they just wanted a cheap digital camera they could have spent $110 on a Canon and got something that's not meant to be a novelty - but that's not really here nor there.
Click to expand...

Exactly...
 
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