The camera came to me really quick, after a few days long travel from Ireland. I was shocked when postman told me he has something for me. 🙂
First impressions were pretty bad. Plastic, plastic, plastic. And even not the best one. My Olympus AF-10 is better built, seriously. Then: the shutter button. It’s nearly impossible to “lock-and-recompose” with this camera. I just touched button and BANG! Shoot is taken. I believe I’m used to Fed 5b, maybe that’s why I had this problem.
Next: the lens. I don’t know why, but I was sure that it has f2.8 lens. Sadly, it doesn’t. F3.5? Please, my Canon Prima has f3.6 and mentioned AF-10 f3.5…
I was really disappointed.
I put a film in Jaśka (it’s a feminine name, similar in pronunciation with “Yashica” – Jaśka – Jaszika). It is my favourite film – the cheapest – re-branded Konica VX200, expired in 2011. I’m shooting on it since 2011, so I can compare different cameras.
I took Jaśka to my fiancée, Ada. I shoot some pictures there, but I was still thinking: what’s this all about? This camera feels so cheap, so fragile, shutter button is too sensitive, winding the film isn’t the most silent…
I took it with me on my way to university. Shoot some *boring* photos.
Oh God, this camera is really boring.
The week was coming to the end. I needed to finish that roll (I had only 8 exposures taken). I told Ada that we are going to the park to take some pictures. She was pretty excited, as I told her this is the most expensive film camera from what I’ve ever had in my hands.
We shoot some photos, but after all I told her: “I don’t know if anything will look right from it”.
The next day I’ve send the camera to Ben and I drop the roll to the lab.
On Saturday I’ve had some time so I’ve scanned the roll.
And after first scan I was like “OH MY GOD I NEED THIS CAMERA BACK”.
The scans are gorgeous. I know there’s grain and colors are somewhat shifted, but it’s fault of my old scanner (Canoscan 5000f) and cheap film. But! The lens is RAZOR SHARP, focus is spot on, so-called rendering is classical Carl Zeiss… Whoa, I’ve scanned second photo and I was already checking the prices of Yashica T… 😀
So I’ve spend 5 hours scanning and reading about Yashica T series. I reminded myself about Yashica Minitec and J series, which were the poor man’s Ts… I’ve read everything what I could find about it (collection-appareils.fr is really helpful if you understand French!). I’ve found out that Yashica J2 is a T3 without some functions and with the lens from T2… And I’ve found one amazingly cheap, so I’ll be bidding! (huh, remember, I’m a student :d)
It’s all about the lens.
Thank you Hamish for the chance to try this camera!
And here you have the photos.
OF COURSE.
The hedgehog is our pet. She lives in Ada’s house, but we take care of her together. 🙂 She’s an African pygmy hedgehog. 🙂 Her name is Biscuit and she likes sleep 😀 Biscuit was pretty interested in Yashica, look at her eyes!
Anyway, I’ve bought Yashica T-AF, the first one. 😉
To be honest Dominik I think I’ll stick with the Nikon AF600. It’s also quite quick to focus and even smaller than the Yashica. Yes, it’s really cheaply made, but you can get it for less than 10€. Pictures to follow.
These are just lovely! I am completely blown away by the photos I am seeing from this camera!
I love a story with a happy ending :´)
When you say the cameras has the same lens as the T2 (which was also used in the 1, 4, and 5) do you mean that it’s a clone of those lenses? I don’t believe this is a Zeiss, or at least that isn’t indicated anywhere.
It says it in two places on the front of the camera – https://www.35mmc.com/18/09/2013/the-traveling-yashica-2/
“I’ve found out that Yashica J2 is a T3 without some functions and with the lens from T2” – Same question as IAN. I have a Yashica J2 and am looking for some concrete specifications for quite some time. So is Dominic reffering to Yashica J2 or is it a typo? Cheers!
Just bought one for a very small amount and from your review looking forwards to getting some results as good as yours