Imagine you had a roll of film. And maybe it was, I don’t know, some Kodak Portra 400. And let’s say you put it in a camera. Perhaps like a Yashica Electro GSN or something. Now picture yourself taking this set-up outside and using it to make some photographs. My question is, with the ~36 shots you have, do you tend to go for quality or quantity?
The Yashica Electro 35 is one of those cameras that the “in-the-know” rangefinder experts insist we must own. It’s a classically styled full-frame 35mm camera with a nice lens that’s similar to many other cameras of the era (think of the Olympus 35RC, or the Canonet QL-17). A very nice, sharp, fast lens (f 1.7!) at a nice focal length (45mm) that’s perfect for everyday snapshots or street shooting.
I have been filling my kickstarter orders for the last month for the CAMERADACTYL 4×5 Field Camera, which has imprisoned me in my own house, a victim of my own mild success, babysitter to a small print farm. I’ve used that time to do some prototyping on some other cameras that I am working on, some upgrades to the first camera, and some general tinkering… and of course bringing Butter Grip into the world…
Regular readers of this website will be aware of my interest in modified and modifying lenses to work on Leica cameras. I guess this is why Ellis, or f1.420 as he goes by on Instagram got in touch to see if I’d like him to loan me a couple of his m-mount modified lenses – most notably the Yashica 45mm f1.7 off an Electro 35.
