For those who may have missed this post from two years ago here’s a reblog of it. This is one of the nicest sets we’ve ever come across in all our years of collecting Yashicas.
Pretty close to the way it looked when it was unboxed back in 1960. This one was part of a short production run of only a handful of cameras. It was for sale at US Military Exchanges (stores) in Japan as it is marked *EP* which meant and exempt purchase. No taxes paid but it could not be purchased or sold on the Japanese domestic market.
It was Yashica’s first crank film advance TLR and it had auto cocking of the shutter. First released in April 1957.
The quality of the images taken with a Yashica-Mat are outstanding – Yashica used high quality Yashinon f3.5 80mm lenses made for them by Tomioka Optical of Tokyo.
They are a joy to use and it’s a great camera to get into medium format photography. It produces large 6 x 6 cm negatives or slides.
Thanks for your visit!
Chris and Carol ^.^