We don’t have an exact date on this brochure – we’re mainly basing it on the recognized release date in the United States. Since this is a Japanese brochure it could have been earlier or later.

Of interest, the first M42 screw mount camera made by Yashica was the Penta J which was also known in Japan as the “Jaguar”. The name Jaguar never appeared on the camera body, just in advertising. It is possible that the “J” in the J-3 could have been for Jaguar but the marketers from Yashica decided to shorten it to just “J” at the last minute.

These images (below) are from two different J-3 instruction booklets that we have in our collection. The one on the left appears to be from a rare early version of the book with the image on the right from the later and more common book. Of note, the camera in the left image does not have a name on the body while the camera in the book on the right shows J-3. It’s an entirely different picture of the J-3. Our guess is that the book on the left has either a prototype or pre-production camera before Yashica finalized the name for the camera. They may have still been up in the air about naming it J-3 or possibly Jaguar something.

Well, there you have a bit of Yashica controversy discovered 56 years after the fact! lol

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