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.)

Yashica Electro 35 GSN

• Type: GSN
• Serial No: H 662891
• Manufactured: 1973 - 1977
• Manufacturer: Yashica
• Shutter: electromagnetically controlled Copal metal leaf shutter
• Shutter speeds: stepless from 1/500 to ~30 s (depends on the aperture) and B
• Lens: Color Yashinon DX 1:1.7 f=45mm
• Aperture: 1.7, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16
• Lens mount: fixed
• Last CLA: none, it's virtually new

I’ve got this camera and the extension lens set in their original boxes, even the protective plastic bags were on them.







Ever ready case, lens holder, straps, user’s manual, auxiliary finder, lens caps, everything. And it was virtually unused. (Ok, there was a film cartridge in the camera and an old battery but there were no other signs of use and the extension set was not even unpacked.) Am I a lucky guy? Yes, I am.

The Yashica Electro 35 GSN is an interesting aperture priority camera which needs an 5.6 V mercury battery (don’t worry, you can find good replacement batteries). The battery is needed by the CdS light sensot and the stepless, semi-electronic shutter which is basically a mechanical metal leaf shutter controlled electro-magnetically (the quietest shutter I’ve ever heard). So you can use the camera without battery but you will lose light metering and will be limited to only one shutter speed: 1/500. Not bad for daylight photography, though.



The camera itself is big and heavy like hell. The body is full metal and ready to make serious injuries if the situation requires. The extension lens kit is quite impressive but almost unusable in the practice because the coupled rangefinder needs post-calculations on focus setting if you put an extension lens on. However, the 45mm focal lenght of the default lens is very comfortable in most of the cases.

I don’t like this Yashinon lens, I have to admit. It can be my fault but I don’t like the way it renders the pictures and the colors. I’m seemingly alone with this opinion because the net is full of praises of its sharpness and other superior qualities. Sorry guys, I still don't like it.





An interesting solution of the light metering: it is adjusted to the film speed with a little aperture on the top left of the camera front. You can see it moving when you set the ISO value on the top. The metering is surprisingly precise, by the way.

• Ken Rockwell about Yashica Electro 35
• Yashica Guy’s Electro 35 chronology page
• Photoethnography on Yashica Electro 35 GSN