xwhatsit
Well-known
Over the past year or so since I discovered cameras, I've become sort of a minor "collector" of Yashica gear. While I love my Voigtländers and my Rolleicords, the cameras that always jump out at me have been the Yashicas.
My first camera was the Minister D. I now have the entire Minister and Lynx series. 90% of my shooting is from my trusty Lynx 1000 -- a very smooth example with a beautiful wind and shutter release.
So when one of only two Yashica LTM models popped up on a local auction for a decent price I jumped at it. It's a Yashica YF, a redesign of the Nicca IIIL (and still bearing the Nicca badge). Only a few were made in 1959 and early 1960 before Yashica gave into the Nikon F which had just been released. The YF, unlike the YE (a dead ringer for a IIIF, except with a lever wind), is an intriguing half-way model; combined M3-style finder with projected framelines (50mm and 100mm), yet a 39mm thread mount, and the old-style LTM shutter, with a pick-up-and-drop 30-1000 shutter speed dial on top and the slow speeds on the front.
Mine has been in the wars somewhat. The crappy aluminium trim around the top (which rather spoils the lines of an otherwise handsome camera) has been scratched and gouged by something. I have half a mind to smooth it out with a file and some wet and dry...
The famous wind lever. It's not anywhere near as nice as that on my Lynx 1000. I think most of the reason is cocking the focal plane shutter, which requires a bit more effort than an exquisite little leaf shutter.
The shutter release is marvelous. There's no "click" or stiffness, you can just squeeze the wide button and it lets go whenever. The frame counter needs manually resetting, and reading can be a little bit of an effort.
The Yashinon 50/1.8 was the original included lens. This one is in absolute perfect condition, not a "cleaning" mark on it anywhere. A naïve inspection suggests that it's the same formula as the 50/1.8 in the Lynx 1000 and Lynx 5000 and (I think) the 50/1.9 in the Minister I (seems to be the leaf shutter size restricting the aperture in the Minister I). However, because there's no leaf shutter to wrap around it, it's a tiny jewel-like thing, quite a gorgeous thing to look at and hold. The aperture ring is beautifully damped and clicks at each stop. However, the focus throw is rather long (as was the fashion at the time -- the Minister I is the same), and feels awkward after the super-fast Lynx 1000 helicoid. Also, the infinity lock is causing me no end of grief!
It takes 43mm filters. Now I have to wait for a 43-46mm step-up ring so I can use all of my filters and lenshoods!
Love the lens cap. Will actually come in handy as I don't have an ever-ready case for the YF, and as it's Leica III-based, it fits none of my other Yashica ever-ready cases. So getting it home from work meant wrapping it in a sweater before chucking it on the back of my bike 🙂
I think I'm going to enjoy this! For the price I got it, I can sell it on eBay for more than I paid for it if I don't bond with it. But so far the inconvenience of this type of camera over my fixed-lens RFs hasn't swayed me away from its charm. The bottom-loading is easy (with the M3-style back door), although somewhat longer to do so far. And the dual shutter-speed dials haven't annoyed me too much yet. The re-wind knob is hardly slower than a lever. And sunny-16 is about as good as the selenium meter in the Lynx 1000 anyway.
Now I just need to find a 90mm lens! Any cheap LTM suggestions? A 35 might be interesting too... the outside of the (not 1:1! More like 0.72x) finder is apparently 35mm.
My first camera was the Minister D. I now have the entire Minister and Lynx series. 90% of my shooting is from my trusty Lynx 1000 -- a very smooth example with a beautiful wind and shutter release.
So when one of only two Yashica LTM models popped up on a local auction for a decent price I jumped at it. It's a Yashica YF, a redesign of the Nicca IIIL (and still bearing the Nicca badge). Only a few were made in 1959 and early 1960 before Yashica gave into the Nikon F which had just been released. The YF, unlike the YE (a dead ringer for a IIIF, except with a lever wind), is an intriguing half-way model; combined M3-style finder with projected framelines (50mm and 100mm), yet a 39mm thread mount, and the old-style LTM shutter, with a pick-up-and-drop 30-1000 shutter speed dial on top and the slow speeds on the front.
Mine has been in the wars somewhat. The crappy aluminium trim around the top (which rather spoils the lines of an otherwise handsome camera) has been scratched and gouged by something. I have half a mind to smooth it out with a file and some wet and dry...
The famous wind lever. It's not anywhere near as nice as that on my Lynx 1000. I think most of the reason is cocking the focal plane shutter, which requires a bit more effort than an exquisite little leaf shutter.
The shutter release is marvelous. There's no "click" or stiffness, you can just squeeze the wide button and it lets go whenever. The frame counter needs manually resetting, and reading can be a little bit of an effort.
The Yashinon 50/1.8 was the original included lens. This one is in absolute perfect condition, not a "cleaning" mark on it anywhere. A naïve inspection suggests that it's the same formula as the 50/1.8 in the Lynx 1000 and Lynx 5000 and (I think) the 50/1.9 in the Minister I (seems to be the leaf shutter size restricting the aperture in the Minister I). However, because there's no leaf shutter to wrap around it, it's a tiny jewel-like thing, quite a gorgeous thing to look at and hold. The aperture ring is beautifully damped and clicks at each stop. However, the focus throw is rather long (as was the fashion at the time -- the Minister I is the same), and feels awkward after the super-fast Lynx 1000 helicoid. Also, the infinity lock is causing me no end of grief!
It takes 43mm filters. Now I have to wait for a 43-46mm step-up ring so I can use all of my filters and lenshoods!
Love the lens cap. Will actually come in handy as I don't have an ever-ready case for the YF, and as it's Leica III-based, it fits none of my other Yashica ever-ready cases. So getting it home from work meant wrapping it in a sweater before chucking it on the back of my bike 🙂
I think I'm going to enjoy this! For the price I got it, I can sell it on eBay for more than I paid for it if I don't bond with it. But so far the inconvenience of this type of camera over my fixed-lens RFs hasn't swayed me away from its charm. The bottom-loading is easy (with the M3-style back door), although somewhat longer to do so far. And the dual shutter-speed dials haven't annoyed me too much yet. The re-wind knob is hardly slower than a lever. And sunny-16 is about as good as the selenium meter in the Lynx 1000 anyway.
Now I just need to find a 90mm lens! Any cheap LTM suggestions? A 35 might be interesting too... the outside of the (not 1:1! More like 0.72x) finder is apparently 35mm.
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