biggles3
Newbie
While working examples of the Yashica Sequelle can still be found, there was one version which is almost impossible to find... The Sequelle was introduced by Yashica in 1962 - a motorised 35mm half-frame camera which looked like an 8mm movie camera, especially when its hand-grip was attached to the base.
The motorised film advance did create an issue however as it was all too easy to accidentally press the shutter button and before you could stop it, the motor had advanced quite a few frames. In 1963 all Sequelles were fitted with a shutter lock, located just beneath the lens. But there was a special model, of which it's believed fewer than 80 were produced and this changed the 28mm f2.8 Yashinon lens to a 4.5cm f4 Yashinon lens; the reason for the modification: it was for taking mug-shots. This was the Sequelle Police version, issued to a number of Japanese police units.
I had been looking for more than a decade to find one and spotted this copy in Japan listed merely as a Sequelle. What is even more fortunate is that all the components are present and working, including the selenium meter. As you can see, the police version is on the left and in addition to the change of lens, the viewfinder has been modified to reflect the longer focal length. The item in front of the standard Sequelle is the uber-rare hood for the Yashinon wide-angle. The front of the 28mm is well-recessed so it's not often you'll need a hood and Yashica was quick to abandon its production - in 20 years of looking, I only found this one.
The motorised film advance did create an issue however as it was all too easy to accidentally press the shutter button and before you could stop it, the motor had advanced quite a few frames. In 1963 all Sequelles were fitted with a shutter lock, located just beneath the lens. But there was a special model, of which it's believed fewer than 80 were produced and this changed the 28mm f2.8 Yashinon lens to a 4.5cm f4 Yashinon lens; the reason for the modification: it was for taking mug-shots. This was the Sequelle Police version, issued to a number of Japanese police units.
I had been looking for more than a decade to find one and spotted this copy in Japan listed merely as a Sequelle. What is even more fortunate is that all the components are present and working, including the selenium meter. As you can see, the police version is on the left and in addition to the change of lens, the viewfinder has been modified to reflect the longer focal length. The item in front of the standard Sequelle is the uber-rare hood for the Yashinon wide-angle. The front of the 28mm is well-recessed so it's not often you'll need a hood and Yashica was quick to abandon its production - in 20 years of looking, I only found this one.
