Going through my local flea market, one camera instantly caught my attention. The Yashica T2. With no battery, I wasn’t sure if it was working. However, I negotiated the price down to only 12 euros and bought it. I took the camera home, got a battery, and it worked!
This Yashica T2 is a new pickup that I initially bought to repair and flip. While I was able to repair it (the battery door was bad, as is common on older point-and-shoots), I may no longer be planning on flipping it.
I don’t know if it’s common to T2s, but mine tends to overexpose by at least a stop. Combined with a remarkably mellow lens, this camera simply eats up light and specializes in the filmic “tones” that either galvanize or repulse you in post-ironic horror.
Portra 400 is known for its tolerance of overexposure, so it’s a perfect match for my T2. A bit of golden light in the late spring/early summer is just the thing for this combo. The following images were self-developed with the Cinestill Cs41 kit and scanned on a Pacific Image Primefilm XAs at 5000dpi with Silverfast, minimally adjusted in Lightroom for consistency.
In my pursuit of a point and shoot film camera, I found myself drawn to the Yashica T series because of (A) the high-quality Zeiss lenses and (B) Contax Ts are way out of my budget. I ended up getting my hands on a Yashica T2 through an online auction and, luckily, the camera was in working condition, albeit with some adhesive residue which was easily wiped away with some nail polish remover. Thus, began my Yashica T2’s journey as my everyday camera, always ready for life’s peculiar moments or mind-numbing gridlock traffic.
