My collection of cameras keeps growing! Every time I see a bargain on an auction site, particularly of a camera that I think looks attractive, I am tempted to put in a cheeky offer or bid. This lovely Yashica Mimy 35mm half-frame came to me for about £20. The rear covering on the camera was peeling, so I removed it, cleaned the residue and re-glued it, and fitted new light seals.
This is my second half-frame camera, following on from the original Olympus Pen, the results from which were rather mixed. On this occasion though, the Mimy performed superbly. First hitting the camera shop shelves in the early ’60s, the Mimy features a 28mm fixed-focus f2.8 Yashinon lens and a selenium light meter. No batteries required, and as long as the exposure meter needle is “out of the red” you just point and shoot.
Every time I use a half-frame, I remind myself just how long it can take to fill 72 frames, so I did do some frivolous shooting, as well as composed shots, in order to run a film through and check it out. So, in went a roll of Kentmere 200 and off I went with my wife to Arlington Court, near Barnstaple on the North Devon coast here in the UK. This is a National Trust property we hadn’t visited before.
And my fifth frame is from somewhere else. Pictured are the Seven Sisters, a group of seven trees on Cothelstone Hill in the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This is one of my favourite walks and the hills can be seen from my house, some 8 miles away.
The Kentmere 200 was developed in Pyro510 and digitised using my OM5 and 60mm Macro lens. The Yashica Mimy was a pleasure to use and gave what I consider to be very nice results. This might have to come on holiday with me when I visit Krakow, Poland, in a week or two’s time!
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Andrew on 5 Frames with a Yashica Mimy
Comment posted: 23/05/2026
I made an interesting (at least to me) observation the other day. I had reason to get out my old exposure meter which must be at least 40 years old ( battery driven CdS). To my surprise, alongside it was a cheapo Boots selenium cell exposure meter that I inherited from my father-in-law. I thought I would try them both out, so I put new batteries in the CdS meter and discovered they indicated an exposure almost 2 stops different to the Boots device.
Time to check, so I used a modern digicam against a neural grey background to check. To my surprise, the Boots selenium meter was spot on, and it was the fancier CdS meter which was almost 2 stops out, despite appearing to work perfectly and have the battery check correct.
It got me thinking, and confirmed an observation I have made before, which is that these simple selenium cell meters (like the old Weston Master) seem to deteriorate very little if at all, and it’s fancier electronic technology that tends to die on you.
Anyone else had similar experience?