Category Japanese Sales Brochures

Yashica’s YT-300… a neat little radio from 1959

Chris and Carol 3 Comments

Yashica produced more than just cameras during its boom years. As a leader in the field of electronic photography in the middle to late 1960s, Yashica’s early electronic devices ranged from such diverse items as transistor radios, record players, movie projectors, editing equipment and tape recorders to name but a few.

Most of the earliest electronic devices are rather rare now (as one would expect after 50 years) and only occasionally does something come up in auctions both on the web and in estate sales. I suspect that the more common electrical items such as projectors and editing equipment are still flooding eBay and other on-line auction sites.

Finding an early radio such as the YT-300 and YT-100 is a bit harder. Here we share some of what we’ve been able to collect over the years.

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Nice complete set from around 1960.

Yashica YT-300 Radio Brochure

Not a bad price for such a sophisticated radio.

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Really really rare to find a working Yashica tape recorder!

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Yes Yashica even branded their own magnetic tape for their recorders.

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Yashica YT-300 portable transistor radio. Designed in late 1959 it was very popular in the early 1960s and was one of the many electronic devices that helped Yashica develop their hyper successful electronic cameras that followed.

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Yashica YT-300 in its very elegant leather case. The case itself is a work of art and craftsmanship.

Thanks for your visit! If you come across a working Yashica radio or tape recorder snag it! They’re really rare and a fun little reminder of the first transistor radios and how cool they were.

Chris

Pentamatic II Brochure

Chris and Carol 1 Comment

We finally have our proof that the original Pentamatic ’35’ and the Pentamatic II were advertised and sold in the Japanese domestic market. This brochure is dated February 1961 which validates the general release date of the model II. We have proof (via advertisements and brochures) that the Pentamatic S was also available for sale in Japan towards late 1961 (September?). By the way, included is this photo stream is a nice aerial view of Yashica’s factory complex in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture.

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Why the Pentamatic?

Chris and Carol 4 Comments

The Yashica Pentamatic has always fascinated me from the moment I first caught a glimpse of it while doing research on the Yashima / Yashica Company. It was (and still is) a strange-looking camera… so 1960s and it was Yashica’s very first 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) camera. I love its sleek lines and simple design… and it was just a little bit “quirky”. My first 35mm SLR was the very popular and stylish Yashica TL Electro-X (in satin chrome finish) which I purchased in early 1972. That camera was big and heavy just like the Pentamatic… lots of brass and glass as they say. The exposure system was a through the lens (TTL) affair that used two red arrows to guide you in adjusting the shutter speed and aperture to obtain a properly exposed image. It was fairly accurate and easy to use but under some low light conditions the meter would be off as much as 1/2 to 1 full “f stops” especially when shooting with color slide film for transparencies. I used that Yashica through my first year of living in Yokohama before purchasing a Canon F-1 in 1978. Why the departure from Yashica? Simple, when comparing the new Contax RTS to the F-1, in my opinion, there was no contest. I also liked the system that Canon offered and the wide array of professional accessories and lenses.

So back to the Pentamatic. When I started to concentrate my research on the Pentamatic, I found nothing but confusing and contradicting information on the internet (as is typical of anything). No clear images of the camera, no images of its boxes or the accessories available. The release date was especially bothersome as it was all over the map and even now many sites still give the wrong introduction date in the U.S. The specifications of the cameras are often wrong or incomplete and when I did find solid proof of something, it made the existing entries even more out of line with reality. The Pentamatic series of SLRs (the original model I, model II and the model S) never sold in vast quantities (the original Pentamatic model I was produced at around 1,500 units per month at its peak of production) as best as I can tell, so finding a complete set was rare and finding sales brochures was even more daunting.

My quest was simple (I thought)… purchase a few Pentamatics and find a few instruction booklets and I would be all set. Wrong! Yashica normally does not date their cameras, lenses and publications (instruction booklets, warranty cards, accessory pamphlets and sales brochures) so I knew that I had my work cut out for me. On the other side of the coin, my Canon collection has dates everywhere! I can honestly say that I’ve never found something from Canon that was not dated in some way. Why didn’t Yashica do the same? I did discover eventually that from about 1956 or so onward Yashica (then Yashima) did date many of their photography booklets and featured pictures of their factories in Nagano Prefecture and of their headquarters in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. Many of these early booklets even had pictures of the president and founder (Mr. Yoshimasa Ushiyama) of Yashima… not often seen in other camera manufacturer’s publications. The practice of dating publications slowly vanished around late 1958 and by 1960 was basically gone. It wasn’t until the late 1960s and early 1970s that Yashica would occasionally slip in a date on a publication (but never on the camera or lens).

In summary… I don’t have all the answers to my Pentamatic questions and I am constantly updating information as I receive it both here on my blog and on my Flickr page (Yashica Sailor Boy). My goal is to be as accurate as I can, fill in the blanks and share whatever I have with others. I encourage comments and would gladly receive any and all bits of info that you may want to share with me. Thank you for visiting my page!

Chris

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Nice Pentamatic model II page from a Yashica sales brochure from February 1961. Not a bad price in Japan at that time… about $110 (USD) with case. When introduced in mid 1960, the original model I was listed at about $159 (USD) here in the U.S.