A dream collection of Yashica cameras – if only it was 1975 again! This photo is from the Yashica publication intended for US camera dealers and represents only a small portion of what was available from Yashica in 1975. Conspicuous in its absence is the flagship TL Electro-X ITS with its distinctive gold electron logo on the pentaprism.

From ‘Yashica A New Horizon’ – 1975 marketing brochure. If you look closely at the copy stand in the area just below the bulb on the right you can just make out a piece of black tape. On my copy stand, it says Yashica and since Contax didn’t make one (at the time of this image) they just covered up the Yashica name.
How cool would it be to own everything pictured?

My good friend Graham Buxton-Smither had this to say about the Contax image above – “It was an aspirational piccie back in the late 1970s – one could only dream about owning such gear – even more so when you added the Zeiss lens range. You are absolutely right about the copy stand – it’s Yashica’s Cope Stand II. Two other Yashica items are shown – the Microscope Adapter and the Magnifier. All is not as it seems with other gear too! The motor drive/250 back is the one later used by Olympus with the OM1n; the hammer-head flash is a lower-powered National, quite unlike the RTF540; the bellows is simply a basic Novoflex rebranded (the Contax Auto Bellows is far superior with swing/tilt), and the radio control kit is nothing like the actual one eventually produced under the Contax name. It’s still a great piccie though! I’m adding a photo to the Yashica Group showing the ML 55 2.8 + 27mm Tube on a Contax RTS Fundus that shows the true Contax 250 back and drive.” I’ve included an image of Graham’s Contax that he mentions above (see below).

If you’d like to visit Graham’s Flickr site which is just like visiting a Yashica and Contax museum you can find him at https://www.flickr.com/photos/164456136@N06/

Thank you for stopping by and hopefully, I’ve piqued your curiosity a bit! – Chris

Comments are always welcomed as I’ve learned quite a bit from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by and, while you’re at it, feel free to visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios hosted by Etsy). – Chris Whelan

Please respect that all content, including photos and text, is this blog’s property and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris, Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris.

Copyright © 2015-2022 Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris (Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic), Chris Whelan
All rights reserved.