So there you have it! One of the best of the original super fast 55 mm lenses for the M42 mount.

Have a great Yashica Day!

Wow! Hard to believe that June is almost over! The summer is going to be long (always) and hot (yep)… no forecasting needed there.

We’ve been reviewing some of our early 1960s photography magazines… always looking for any mention of the Yashica Pentamatic ’35’ that we may have missed in the first glance. The May 1960 issue of ‘Modern Photography’ magazine… on page 48 the new Pentamatic makes its appearance in an article titled ‘Behind the Scenes’. It is incorrectly listed as having a f/1.9 55mm automatic lens (the image clearly shows the f/1.8 5.5cm lens). But at least it’s recognition!

Another note we would like to share with you is that we recently discovered a new Japan Shopping Service… Zen Market. Their site is super easy to navigate and offers a wide variety of different outlets to shop from. You can find them at http://www.zenmarket.jp/

The translations are very good and the searches are easy. Give them a look!

Stay well and thanks for checking us out! C&C

We’ve recently discovered a neat magazine advertisement for what appears to be Yashica’s full line of film cameras from sometime in 1962.

I personally haven’t seen an ad from this period in an English language magazine… I feel that ads like this help to date and understand Yashica’s thinking when it came to production and marketing.

An interesting mix of cameras… 35mm SLRs, 6x6cm TLRs, 4x4cm TLRs, 8mm movie cameras and some lenses, flashes and of course 35mm rangefinder cameras.

We are looking into acquiring the ad so we can present a higher quality image.

Thanks for looking!

Chris and Carol

 

 

 

We found this lens recently while surfing various sites. It’s the first time I’ve seen the famous f/ 1.2 M42 mount lens with the original maker’s marks and serial number. Just a really nice find!

Nope… it’s not our lens (wish it was) and we can’t afford it but at the time of this blog post it was for sale on one of the well known auction sites ($1,450.00)…

Go for it!!!

Thanks for looking… Chris and Carol

Another big step in Yashica’s growth was the groundbreaking introduction of the TL-Super in 1966. Yashica started making 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras in 1959 with the Pentamatic ’35’. The Pentamatic was a solid first offering by Yashica but it was a timid first step. On one hand, the Pentamatic was a beast but lacked some serious upgrades… no self timer and no built-in exposure meter. The self timer was not much of an issue as Yashica made an accessory timer that could be used on many of their camera platforms and was simple to use. There was an option to buy a separate exposure meter (more money) and slide it on the accessory shoe so that at least you didn’t have to hold a meter in your hand to take a meter reading. Awkward. What was groundbreaking for the TL-Super is the fact that two CdS resistors were mounted inside the finder and would accurately measure the amount of light actually reaching the film. The ‘TL’ part was for through-the-lens metering (TTL) and it became the standard practice from that point forward.

Two other firsts for the TL-Super… first camera in the world to use silver-oxide 1.5v batteries and the Super marked the first time Yashica permanently mounted an accessory shoe (hot shoe) to the top of the pentaprism. Small stuff but big for Yashica.

Over the course of production for the TL-Super, two versions (3 actually) were made. V1 still used a baseplate locking system similar to the previous ‘J’ series of SLRs. The film advance lever was a rather plain but elegant lever much like some very early Yashicas used. The lenses were chrome nosed Auto Yashinons and came in two different apertures… f/ 1.7 and f/ 1.4 50mm. V2 changed the baseplate to a new cleaner style that no longer had the locking lever to open the film back. Instead the back was opened by lifting the rewind lever upwards and that would release the door. The film advance lever changed to a part metal and part plastic design which looked more like the more modern cameras at the time (1967-1970). The lenses became the black nosed Auto Yashinon-DX 50mm in both f/ 1.7 and f/ 1.4. The third unofficial version? Mine. Caught between part upgrades my Super has the old style film advance lever but has the later baseplate and uses the rewind knob to pop open the film back. My Super also came with a black nosed f/ 1.4 lens and a much later edition of the instruction booklet. So I’ll call it V1 (a).

Thanks again for your visit! Chris and Carol

Please feel free to comment or add items that we may have overlooked.

A little info about a Yashica Pentamatic II that was spotted the other day. Well today actually! It sold for around $112 with the f/ 1.7 lens and the original leather case. As best as we can tell it was far from ‘nice’. That price gives you some idea on how infrequently the Model II shows up for sale.

The body serial number is No. 86000631… that would put it in line with the serial numbering system established for the Pentamatic I. Not very many of the Model IIs were sold as the production run was extremely short as best we can tell. The Pentamatic S “replaced” the Model II by late 1961. We haven’t found concrete evidence as to why Yashica brought out the Pentamatic Model II to begin with (with so few changes). Was the Model I that much of a failure?

This serial number would decode to: ‘860’ = August 1960 and the ‘00631’ = the 631st in the production sequence.

The lens appears to be a “newly designed” lens that Yashica asked Tomioka Optical to build… a unique 5.8cm f/ 1.7 Auto Yashinon (rather odd size for a normal lens on a 35mm SLR). The lens was an early replacement (?) for the recently made Auto Yashinon 5.5cm f/ 1.8 lens which was the normal lens for the Model I. We haven’t cracked Yashica’s serial number code yet on these lenses as there are not many to look at. At first glance it would appear that the ’42’ is a model number of the lens with the ‘4065’ being the 465th lens made. A Japanese sales brochure for the Model II (dated 02/1961) has a clear serial number on the lens: 424106. Remember that the brochure had to have at least a month or two lead time so the image of that lens and body were more than likely taken in the August-September period of 1960.

As always… we appreciate any and all comments you may have and would love for you to share them with us. Especially if you have new information about the Pentamatic series of cameras.

Thanks… Chris & Carol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Yashicaflex Rookie or more simply the Rookie, was released in early 1956 and was destined for the domestic market only. There is some evidence that it may have been initially designed as a super inexpensive camera that would be sold worldwide (mostly because of the name and the fact that the presentation box has ‘for Jr.’ on it which would have little or no meaning inside Japan). The camera was in fact only available in Japan and all of the literature is in Japanese with no English ads found.

Back to the case or as they are often referred to as an ever ready case. The marks on the bottom of the leather case have a very distinct K.K in a box design (image 1 below). We believe that in the early days of Yashima-Yashica that they did not have they capability to produce their own leather goods. Nothing we have proves that theory but it’s just a hunch on our part. We believe that this mark and other marks similar to it are the trademarks or makers marks of the leather goods company that provided them to Yashica. During this same time period Japanese tin toy makers had similar marks on them and the coincidence is not all that coincidental.

As Yashica grew it is possible that they did in fact take over the manufacturing of leather goods in their factory in Suwa as the cases of the early 1960s rarely if ever had these trademarks.

As we find others we’ll be sure to share them here.

Comments? Please feel free to add them as you see fit.

Many thanks… C&C