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Leave sleeping gators be…

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Or maybe not…

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Local pond gator doin’ his thing. He’s started to get interested in my presence.

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Here’s Wally out of the pond.

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Pond gators (what I call the local boys) are quite common around my neighborhood – but they are still gators, wild and unpredictable. I give these guys plenty of room and there’s usually a nice escape route available for me. It also helps to have some type of gator barrier (short seawalls work best) between you and your friend. DO NOT stand along the same shoreline of a small pond or swamp area with gators – they are super quick and can actually “climb” small obstacles.

Amelia Island Florida.

Camera: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W170

Chris

Island Life

Chris and Carol 7 Comments

The church looked so beautiful in the late day lighting yesterday, I decided to revisit it this evening a tad bit earlier. I love the silhouette of the peak and steeple as the sun was perfectly placed.

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Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Amelia Island Florida.

Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4

Chris

Pentamatic vs. Pentamatic S – Yashica’s Heavyweights

Chris and Carol 6 Comments

The Pentamatic was Yashica’s first single-lens reflex (SLR) and was released in 1960 (May-June) timeframe. The Pentamatic S was released about mid to late 1961. Not much changed between the two – the S model added a built-in self-timer and most notably, a provision for mounting an exposure meter to the top right of the camera that coupled with the shutter speed dial. Other small changes were to add lugs for holding the neck strap (moving them from the extreme right and left sides of the body on the Pentamatic to a more typical front mounting on the S). Unseen from the exterior is a change to the focusing screen inside the pentaprism. The original fresnel screen in the Pentamatic was replaced with a split image screen in the model S. For me, that change makes the Pentamatic S much easier to focus and improves the brightness inside the viewfinder.

A look at both models shows these changes and the tiny bit of extra weight that the S carries over the original Pentamatic.

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At 978 grams, the original Pentamatic is anything but a lightweight. (2.16 lbs)

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At 1,004 grams, the S shows the slight weight increase from the changes made between the two models. (2.21 lbs)

Both cameras are photographed with the same lens attached – Auto Yashinon 5.5cm f1.8 lens which was the standard lens that came with both models. Only the Pentamatic II (released in September 1960) came with a different lens. (5.8cm f1.7)

Compared to other SLRs from the same time period, the Pentamatic was a bit of a beast to tote around. The buying public never embraced these wonderful cameras and they ended their production run in less than 2 years.

Finding good looking (and still working) Pentamatics is a challenge for any collector with the Pentamatic II being especially difficult to find in any condition.

Of note, if you have an Asahi Pentax, Nikon F or Canoflex camera with the standard lenses from the late 1950s or early 1960s, we would love for you to let us know what their combined weight is. We could be way off in our assumption that the Pentamatic was significantly heavier than the other cameras of that era. Thanks!

Studio Camera: Fujifilm FinePix S9900W

Chris

Yashica’s YT-300 Transistor Radio – 1960

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, calculators, 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 early radios such as the YT-300 and YT-100 is quite difficult. Here we share some of what we’ve been able to collect over the years.

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Yashica YT-300 Radio Brochure

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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.

Studio Camera: Samsung Galaxy S4

Chris