Yashica FX-2

• Type: Yashica FX-2
• Serial No: 71003798
• Manufactured: from 1976
• Manufacturer: Yashica
• Shutter: Focal pane curtain 
• Shutter speeds: B, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000
• Lens: Yashica Lens ML 50mm 1:17
• Aperture: 1.7, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16
• Lens Serial No: A20167514
• Lens mount: Y/C
• Last CLA: 01/2012

This quite underrated camera is a cheaper, mechanical and manual pair of the Contax RTS also made by Yashica. Big metal body, great ergonomics, no automation, fully manual shutter. Microprism in the center to help focusing, TTL metering with match needle. Simple, heavy, reliable. Not a beauty but not ugly either. A true workhorse. 

To be honest, the only reason I've bought one was the C/Y mount. Contaxes with C/Y mount are too electronic to my taste but I didn't want to forsake the possibility of using those famous Zeiss lenses. I ended up buying an almost new FX-2 with an f/1.7 Yashica lens and a jammed shutter. Getting it repaired, I wanted to try out the f/1.7 and ran a roll of film through it. It was a love for the first sight. I wasn't impressed of the performance of the Yasinon 45mm/1.7 of my Electro 35 GSN but this lens is a completely different story. This lens have soul.





 On 1.7 the depth of field is really narrow so focusing is not easy. Better to take multiple shots to have one perfectly focused. But this is not the weakness of the lens nor of the camera. Manual focusing with narrow depth of field is challenging. That's why we like it.





So this is a big, heavy, fully manual camera which is easy to use. If you need something reliable: this is it. If you don't want to struggle with the "specialties" of an old camera but want to go analog: choose this one. Cheap. Great lenses. If I must say something against it, there is only one thing: the shutter is inexplicably loud. But that's it. Nothing else. I've tried it for night shots and it was very handy in the dark too. And the photos it took...
















Shall I say more? Go and buy one.

(No links this time because this camera handles so evidently that there is no need for more information. Just get one and enjoy using it.)

Super Paxette

• Type: Super Paxette (II?)
• Serial No: 267828
• Manufactured: 1953-58
• Manufacturer: Carl Braun Camerawerk
• Shutter: Prontor-SVS metal leaf shutter
• Shutter speeds: B, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/300
• Lens: Steinheil München - Cassarit 1:2.8 f=45mm
• Aperture: 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16
• Lens Serial No: 1573545
• Lens is not interchangeable
• Last CLA: 08/2011

This camera is a gem. You can tell it at first sight. The Carl Braun Camerawerk created an outstanding design. (This Braun has nothing to do with the one making hair dryers of course.) It looks beautiful and unique with a very high quality finish. In fact, the whole camera feels to be the highest quality. Every knob and ring works smoothly and firmly. It's like a Voigtlander. Lovely.





The camera is small and heavy. I mean really small and really heavy. The whole body is barely larger than two 135 film cartridges and the 36x24 mm frame. It has been specially designed to be as compact as possible.

The handling is comfortable but needs some practice; everything is so small. The wind lever is almost a knob and it has to be stroken 2 times to forward the film and to cock the shutter. One could say that it was stuck in an earlier stage of the wind lever evolution but it's easy to get to like it after using it for a while. Unique solution for a unique camera.





Shutter speeds up to 1/300 and an f/16 aperture requires a 100 ASA film in sunshine. The coupled rangefinder is easy to use, however the viewfinder is a bit narrow and dark. Not recommended for night photography. Otherwise it's a real joy to use it. It's a small precision equipment.

Film loading is a special experience revealing more of the distinctive character of the camera. Just take a look at the pictures.







Almost everything is adorable on this little machinery except one thing: the lens. This Cassarit performs poorly. It has astonishingly low resolution. It cannot handle strong light. Almost every photo looks like to be overexposed but in fact they are not. Whites burn out immediately and leave a white golve around. The samples above were the best of more than 90 shots but still needed to be strongly enhanced digitally, especially in contrast.









I enjoyed using the Super Paxette very much but getting the film back from the lab was a shock. The photos were unusable. The best thing can be told was that they were so vintage-looking. But if you compare it to other lenses of that age, this performance is simply miserable. However enjoyable and charming little construction it is, I ended up not liking this camera. I would love it with a Tessar or a Trioplan. What a pity.

• Braun Paxette on Camerapedia
• Braun Super Paxette II manual at Butkus.org
• Braun Paxettes at ukcamera.com