Month January 2017

Yashima Yashicaflex A-II

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Our Yashicaflex A-II is headed for the finish line – soon! These images were from day one and day 100 (just kidding about the 100). There have been so many issues to deal with restoring this 63 year old camera that it’s been a slow go. While this restoration has been an ongoing process for us, we’ve used some of our time to address some of the other cameras in our collection that needed only small repairs and a good cleaning.

Day one is pictured below. After prying the camera from its leather case (literally), the rust and corrosion were widespread and had eaten deep into the metal. Dirt everywhere! But the camera functioned! Glass was mold and fungus free but dirty and the shutter was accurate.

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The die cast aluminum body and back door were corroded big time. The thin metal parts were rusty and pitted. The leatherette was dry and brittle with many missing pieces.

Below the same area after 3 coats of etching primer and filler putty to “replace” the missing aluminum due to the depth of the corrosion.

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By this point some of the final finish coats of primer and filler could be applied. Lots of sanding between coats. At least the corrosion was gone and something of a finish could be imagined.

The camera will be re-imagined and restored. Since it’s not a rare Yashica model, Carol and I feel free to express some creativity in the re-build. Stay with us as I believe we’ll be able to have the finished product ready to show by early spring. The Yashima Yashicaflex A-II ‘Sakura’.

Thanks for your visit!

Chris and Carol

Yashica Pentamatic

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We haven’t had the opportunity to focus our attention on the Pentamatic lately. Carol is still working and I’m the retired one. I keep the home business rolling in our studios and lately most of my free time has been spent “rescuing vintage film cameras” – cameras that most people would probably throw away rather than restoring them. We just can’t bring ourselves to do that. Now let me be clear, restoring old cameras is as close to the most crazy thing one can do with their spare time. The amount of hours spent stripping old paint, chasing away rust and corrosion, cleaning lenses and restoring leather cases never equals a smart return on the hours and dollars spent. But we love re-imagining a 60 year old camera into a useful machine again and at the same time make it a work of art.

Anyway, we hope to be able to showcase one of our TLR restorations soon here in on blog. In the meantime, I ran across a few forgotten images of one of our Pentamatics today and I thought I would share them. They haven’t been posted elsewhere – when I first downloaded them I wasn’t sure that I liked them so they sat and sat. Today (after a few tweaks) here they are.

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Both images were taken on the same day in our ca. 1911 post office building here in town. The one hundred year old windowsill provided a nice setting for the modern lines of the 1960 Yashica. Strong light flooded the space via the very dirty windows which in turn diffused the light nicely. I reflected some light back at the Yashica via a white shirt I was wearing. The bottom image is the same camera placed on the floor about 10 feet away from the windows. I liked the color and grain of the wood (fir or southern yellow pine) and again the 100 year old wood provided a nice contrast to the Pentamatic.

The Pentamatic remains one of the most invisible of Yashica’s SLRs. I’m drawn to it because of its rather unique styling – a clean pentaprism design, front mounted shutter release button and of course its crazy big lenses.

Thanks for your visit and please feel free to share your comments with us.

Chris & Carol ^.^

Yashica MF-2 Super… 1986

Chris and Carol 12 Comments

We don’t often collect modern Yashica cameras – especially during Yashica’s last days after Kyocera (Kill-a-Yashica) took over.

This one was sent to us by a Flickr friend and as you can see, it’s new in the original box. The MF-2 Super is a DX camera which sensed the DX code on the 35mm film canister and set the appropriate ASA / ISO / DIN.

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Yashica MF-2 Super 35mm film camera set from 1986.

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We haven’t found the time to load a roll of film and check out this little beauty… soon we hope. We like the black, red and gold details on the body and lens and the auto everything (almost) features. As a comparison, we also have the Fujica DL-20 as pictured below in the sales brochure.

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DL-20 in black and red.

The DL-20 is a mid-1990s camera from Fujica. We have the red body model and it would be fun to take the two (Yashica MF-2 Super and the Fujica) out for a side by side photo shoot. Sounds like we’re going to be busy in 2018 shooting a bit more film.

Thanks for your visit!

Chris & Carol

Amboseli N.P., Kenya 1979

Chris and Carol 3 Comments
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Mount Kilimanjaro as seen from Amboseli N.P., Kenya.

After endless weeks and months at sea (Indian Ocean), my U.S. Navy ship arrived in the port city of Mombasa, Kenya for a bit of ‘liberty’. As a Sailor on government pay (1979) there would have been no way I would have been able to go on a photographic safari in Africa – I might have had a better chance at going to the moon. But along with a few of my shipmates we were able to afford (with the Navy’s help), to get out of Mombasa (a good thing) and see sights we might never had the chance to see otherwise. It was November 1979 – just a few days before the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and more endless days, weeks and months at sea for me and about 25,000 other U.S. Navy Sailors.

I traded one distant horizon at sea for another on land – no contest. I can say that my two days touring Amboseli made up for two months at sea (well almost).

These images are but a few from the dozens that I have still need to scan. The film used was Kodak Kodachrome 25 and 64 shot with my trusty Canon F-1 (1978 version) and Canon’s FD lenses.

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Kilimanjaro from our VW safari bus. Canon FD 80-200mm f/ 4 lens at 200mm and a bit of cropping.

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This image was taken from outside the ‘safety’ of our VW bus. Billions of mosquitoes kept me from wandering too close to this beautiful elephant. 

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Amazing animals… not much more to say.

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The exposure was off a tad but elephants and Kilimanjaro are not an easy capture!

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Maasai tribesmen giving me his ‘best’ hunters pose. He was a pretty funny guy and we hung out for a bit until an elder butted in and wanted in on the action (cigarettes for poses).

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I know I say this almost every time I post travel pics from the ancient days – if you ever get the chance to travel to Kenya and Tanzania on a photo safari then jump on it!

Thanks for your visit!

Chris

The often underappreciated Canon T70

Chris and Carol 5 Comments

One of Canon’s little gems! The T70 (1984) was a giant leap forward for Canon and for the entire 35mm camera industry. Coming off the success of the Canon ‘A Series’, the T70 (yes there was a T50 first but the T70 blew it away) was a giant departure from the norms established by Canon. Firstly, it didn’t look like any previous Canon SLR – distinctive style and color, built-in winder, multiple program AE exposure and two metering modes. If you wanted to add a data back, then Canon had a Command Back 70 ready to go.

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This one is from April 1984… still, in our opinion, one of the neatest Canons of all time!

The rubberized right hand grip made the body super easy to hold and the incorporated power winder made manually advancing film a thing of the past. The ‘T’ bodies accepted all of Canon’s FD lenses without exception. Mated with the Canon FD (N) 50mm f/ 1.8 lens made the T70 a rather compact and user friendly camera.

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Simple layout and clean design.

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Optional accessory – the Command Back 70 replaced the often bulky data backs found on the F-1 and A-1. This one can date images until the year 2029! Of note – the common fault with these data backs are you’ll often find that the LCD will sometimes “bleed” the LC in the display. This one, for whatever reason, has escaped that fault.

If you want a great, and we mean great 35mm film camera to use, then by all means find a good T70 and fire away.

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One of our all time favorites from Canon.

Thanks for your visit… your comments are always welcomed and so are your questions.

Chris and Carol ^.^

 

Enjoying the day together –

Chris and Carol 2 Comments

I realized that we haven’t posted an image of the two of us (from this century anyway), so we picked this one. We don’t normally run around taking selfies (nothing against them) so we don’t have a large image pool to draw from. We like this one the best. Attending a spring training game for the New York Mets in St. Lucie West (Florida). They have an awesome field and outstanding facilities there. If you get the chance to catch a spring training game then do so. You’re always close to the action and get to see pretty much everyone on the team. The Mets play at Tradition Field.

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Canon F-1

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First version Canon F-1 with its gorgeous chrome nosed FD 50mm f/ 1.4 lens.

Canon F-1 from April 1972. This was the first version of the F-1 and it sports a rather low serial number. We’ve held this one back all these years with just occasional use (mainly in the studio). Our field tested F-1 (not pictured) was acquired new in 1978 (2nd version F-1) and it’s the one that’s traveled the world – getting seriously wet in Hong Kong, Japan and the US- dropped in a photographic safari bus in Kenya – slid off a train seat in Tokyo – and was briefly “lost” in Diego Garcia!

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All original stuff from 1972.

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Note that this super early FD lens does not have the SC or SSC markings on the lens ring.

I started 35mm SLR photography with a Nikonos II and then purchased my first Yashica (TL Electro-X) and then into Canon we went. We need to find some time to take this one out and put that classic glass to good use! Nothing like holding an old friend again.

Thanks for stopping by!

Chris

Custom Presentation Box for the Tower Type-3… 1953

Chris and Carol 3 Comments
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1953 Tower (Nicca Camera Co.) Type-3 35mm Rangefinder with custom box.

This custom designed box is based on original Tower (Nicca) designed presentation boxes of the early to mid 1950s. The leather case, which is the original from 1953 was reconditioned – the leather was gently cleaned with saddle soap, some loose stitches were properly glued to prevent further separation and the felt interior of the case was also gently cleaned and refreshed. The case hinged flap had become separated so another piece of leather was attached and it’s as good as new. The entire case was conditioned to bring out the vintage patina.

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The 64 year old leather looking great with a wonderful brown color.

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Looking fine after six decades.

As collectors, Carol and I enjoy restoring vintage cameras and when necessary, reconditioning the often neglected leather cases. We love camera sets that include the original boxes, but when they’re not available we like designing custom boxes based on original designs and colors.

Thanks for your visit! We love comments so feel free to share yours!

Chris and Carol