The Yashica Pentamatic ’35’ was Yashica’s first single-lens reflex (SLR) camera – introduced in early 1960.
There’s a chance that this was the first brochure released in the U.S. Maybe March 1960.Take note that besides the standard f1.8 5.5cm lens there were only two other lenses offered. (the brochure has them reversed)Such a striking design – the first cameras were made in January 1960.
Thanks for stopping by! If you’re looking for an interesting camera to chase down, the Pentamatic is worth a go. – 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.
Mamiya C33 twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera from 1965.
Studio Camera – Fujifilm X-A10 with Fujinon Super EBC XC 16-50mm Lens
Thanks for stopping by! – 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.
In celebration of my mom, Mary on this Mother’s Day 2022. She was born on September 10, 1916, at home on East 74th Street in Manhattan (just down the street from Central Park). She told me that the rooftops and streets of the Upper East Side were her playgrounds and the East River (yes, THAT river!) was where she splashed in the heat of summer. She would go on to become a secretary for some of the biggest corporations in America which were headquartered in New York. She would meet my dad (Paul) at the wedding of her best friend and fall in love with him at first sight. She married my dad on November 3, 1943, just a few blocks from where she grew up. During the war, she worked at Columbia University and would go on to receive recognition for her work on the Manhattan Project receiving a Silver ‘A’ Pin for her contributions. By the middle 1950’s she was a suburban housewife (not a bad thing to say then but if you said it today you’d catch heck) and be the best mom in the world to me… she was at every baseball game and at my school functions and she taught me the ropes of New York and life. My mom was the strongest person I knew… in less than twenty years she would lose the man she loved with all her heart and fight on to see me through those difficult years that came after. Sadly she left way too soon herself but her love of the City, of life, of adventure, and her courage, are with me today. My mom’s Kodak from 1938 and a host of images she took with it are special to me… my parent’s love of photography was passed down to me (foto DNA) and that remains an important connection to them.
If you’ve read this through I thank you… it is only a small gesture that I can make in her memory today.
Together at Jensen Beach, Florida (December 1976).
Just before I deployed to Japan for three years.
Las Vegas 1961.
My first camera and my mom is holding a recently taken Polaroid print.
Wishing everyone a very Happy Mother’s Day! – 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.
Yashicamat, Yashica-Mat, YashicaMat – they’re all the same camera, and as was typical for Yashima (later Yashica) they had a difficult time staying consistent when it came to the way they named their cameras. At this point in time, Yashima had only been around since 1953 so I’ll cut them some slack. By 1958, Yashima became Yashica as the company adopted the name of its cameras.
So here is a super early sales brochure (Spring 1957) for the new YashicaMat 120 roll film twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera, the YashicaMat.
High-res scans are posted below from my own brochure.
Front cover.
What I find interesting is that the camera that’s depicted is the very first version of the model with a 75mm Lumaxar f3.5 taking lens (bottom lens) that were only available for a very short time before being replaced by the lens described in the brochure – 80mm Lumaxar f3.5 lens. There’s no written history to definitively know why the change was made so quickly or why they switched at all. It’s possible Tomioka Optical had difficulty providing enough 75mm lenses to meet the production demands of Yashima.
Inside centerspread. Look closely and you can just barely see 75mm on the bottom portion of the lens retaining ring (bottom lens). Both lenses say Lumaxar with the viewing lens (top lens) the clearest of the two.
Back cover scan below.
Back cover. Yashima’s camera line-up as of early 1957 (newest models).
If you look closely at this back cover you can see Yashima’s full corporate name – Yashima Optical Industries, Company, Limited, and their headquarters were located in Shibuya in Tokyo. The factory was in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, and later Shimosuwa.
Thanks for stopping by and if you chase down a nice Yashica-Mat that you like be sure to check out my good friend Paul Sokk’s excellent TLR site at http://www.yashicatlr.com to learn more about the camera that you’re about to purchase. – 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.
You can visit me on Instagram @ccphotographyai and thanks for stopping by! – 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.
This one is from 1968. It features an 80mm f3.5 Yashinon taking lens (bottom) and an 80mm f3.2 viewing lens (top) with a Copal MXV shutter. This was Yashima-Yashica’s first crank film advance TLR introduced in 1957.
Thanks for stopping by and be sure to follow me on Instagram @ccphotographyai – 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.
Souvenir book from the 1964 Summer Olympics that were held in Tokyo.
It was a wonderful time for the people of Japan to show the world how far they had come since the end of the War.
Olympic grounds and village.
The site used by the Olympics was once used by the JIA during WWII as a training ground. Later, the U.S. Government took control of the area. Here’s an excerpt from an article written at the time of the Olympics…
TOKYO, Sept. 15 — If the members of the United States squad at the Olympic Games think that the Olympic Village, formally opened today, was designed especially to make Americans feel at home, they will be right. It was.
The conversion of the former Washington Heights United States military housing area has not substantially altered the intentional resemblance of the 165‐acre site to an American suburb. Wide green lawns bordered by evergreens, cement sidewalks and the buildings themselves reproduced an American town so faithfully that the Americans who lived there needed to foot no contact with an alien land outside the guarded gates. The presence of Japanese servants supplied the only local touch.
The athletes from other countries, who have never been to the United States, will find in Tokyo’s Olympic Village a complete sampling of American suburban living. The principal difference is that the new refrigerators, washing machines, television sets and other household equipment being installed in the tidy cottages bear Japanese instead of American trademarks—but the design is essentially American, part of the debt owed to United States industry by Japan’s booming economy.
The 249 cottages built for American servicemen and their families and the 14 block‐like buildings that once were bachelor officers’ quarters and residences for single women employed by the United States forces will house more than 8,000 athletes and officials from 98 nations.
The book was originally purchased at the large Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo.
Occasionally these books will pop up on various online auction sites like eBay and Yahoo Japan Auction. Thanks for stopping by! – 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.
Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris 