Yashica YF "in the mail"

[Sonnar Brian]

That's what I get for cruising Ebay late on a Saturday night,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360399170418?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

googling "Yashica YF", and hitting the cameraquest page.

http://www.cameraquest.com/yashiyf.htm

and having "virtual" money sitting in Paypal burning a hole in my virtual pocket.

I've ben interested in these for a while, have not seen one at a reasonable price in years. Now, which lens for it.... Nikkor, Sonnar, or Summicron...

I'll be sure to post some pictures with it after shooting some film. Gotta try out the 105/2.5 Nikkor on it. 1x finder and 100mm parallax corrected framelines. The Nikkor 105 blocks the RF window of the Canon P. But the Canon 7 clears it. We'll see what this one does.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

So now the Japanese Leica screw mount collection adds "Yashica" to the small gathering. Nicca III, Leotax D-IV, Tanack IV, Canon III, Canon P, and Canon 7.

 

[Brian Legge]

I saw that one - looked nice. Congrats on iconic it up. 🙂

Any idea what Tanacks go for? And what do you think of yours? Looks like an interesting camera but I haven't found price info and the ones on eBay at the moment seem on the high end.

 

[David Murphy]

Brian I saw that one and considered going for it - they are nice cameras if working. I bought one from Igor camera not too long ago that had a few problems (undisclosed I might add), not all of which I could be fixed in a CLA. I still have the lens (Yashinon 50mm F1.8) which is a first rate optic.

 

[f16sunshine]

Congrats Brian ! It's a nie little LTM. I have the YE and YF both are super cool.
I have a spare Yashinon 1.8/50 that needs service. If your interested in working something out we could. I've planned to get to it for some time now. It's not happening. I have another that is fully mint. The lens gives that look that we know from the Electro series IMO. Typical DG but with a bit lower contrast.

 

[David Murphy]

I saw that one - looked nice. Congrats on iconic it up. 🙂

Any idea what Tanacks go for? And what do you think of yours? Looks like an interesting camera but I haven't found price info and the ones on eBay at the moment seem on the high end.

Brian there are several Tanack models, and all but the Tanack IV-S are uncommon. I own a IV-S and it's a wonderful camera, probably the most compact LTM camera that has swing-open rear door film loading ever made (like modern cameras that is). They are tiny really for interchangeable lens rangefinders. The YF is more comparable in some respects to a Leica M3 in size and weight, and close in fit and finish in some regards (I'm sure not quite as well made internally however).

Expect to pay $300 or so for a Tanack IV-S body, but more with any of the wonderful Tanack lenses. They are not rare, but not exactly common either. The earlier Tanack models are fairly rare, but do appear for sale on occasion on eBay.

The LTM body that seems to be the most expensive and sort of sets the upper bar for this genre is the Kardon. The Zuiho Honor is a close second - and I need one badly! 🙂

 

[Brian Legge]

Thank you for the info.

The combination of compact size, high quality and door are definitely appealing. I don't mind bottom loaders but door is simpler and faster. If only it had a 35mm finder... I'd be all over it. 😉

With I had more of a background in manufacturing/optics as it seems like it ought to be possible to hack a 35mm finder into a barnack style body somehow, similar to the older Canons and their 50/90?/135 setup.

 

[David Murphy]

Thank you for the info.

The combination of compact size, high quality and door are definitely appealing. I don't mind bottom loaders but door is simpler and faster. If only it had a 35mm finder... I'd be all over it. 😉

With I had more of a background in manufacturing/optics as it seems like it ought to be possible to hack a 35mm finder into a barnack style body somehow, similar to the older Canons and their 50/90?/135 setup.

Yeah I'm with you on that. I think one reason that no bottom loading rangefinder to my knowledge had a 35mm finder is that wide angle lenses in the 1950's were not as popular as today (I'm excluding the M2, which is not really a true bottom loader). They were fairly challenging to build compared to longer lenses with the technology of the time. Just look at the preponderance for example of 135mm lenses compared to any of the wides. The very fast, very wide lenses, like the Canon 28/2.8, were real novelties at the time, and of course collectible today because of it.

Canon caught on pretty quickly in 1958 with modern LTM rangefinders with various frames or frame lines (including 35mm), but none were that compact and light, although the VT's and P's seemed to me (when I owned them) as not too big and heavy. The Bessa R is probably the lightest and most compact LTM camera with a really good flexible finder - not an all metal Swiss-watch-like beast however!

 

[Roger Hicks]

About 30 years ago I bought a YF/Nicca from London Camera Exchange in Bristol, but it jammed, so I took it back. They replaced it with another one! Apparently someone had brought in TWO of them on part-exchange. As far as I recall it had the 50/1.8 Yashinon. It was a nice enough camera but I never saw any real advantage in it over any other good RF (Leica, Canon). Now, I'd REALLY like a Hensoldt or an Ilford Witness!

Cheers,

R.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

My Tanack is the IV-S, with a black 5cm f2 Tanar- picked up at last year a Photorama show. It was marked $235, but the seller refused to take more than $215 for it. The lens is almost identical to a Nikkor 5cm F2. Nice camera.

 

[farlymac]

That's what I get for cruising Ebay late on a Saturday night,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360399170418?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

googling "Yashica YF", and hitting the cameraquest page.

http://www.cameraquest.com/yashiyf.htm

and having "virtual" money sitting in Paypal burning a hole in my virtual pocket.

I've ben interested in these for a while, have not seen one at a reasonable price in years. Now, which lens for it.... Nikkor, Sonnar, or Summicron...

I'll be sure to post some pictures with it after shooting some film. Gotta try out the 105/2.5 Nikkor on it. 1x finder and 100mm parallax corrected framelines. The Nikkor 105 blocks the RF window of the Canon P. But the Canon 7 clears it. We'll see what this one does.

Congrats Brian! And since it's coming from Mark, it should last you a long time before it's next service. (BTW, with the USPS closed Monday, you have an extra day to make up your mind on the lens)

PF