Colorful Yashica Brochures… 1980s

February 1, 2017February 1, 2017Chris and Carol 1 Comment

A small collection of some 1980s Yashica and the Yashica-Kyocera sales brochures. We enjoy collecting brochures as they usually capture a slice of life for that period (at least in the marketing folks view of things). Enjoy!

Cute brochure from around 1980 featuring the Yashica Auto Focus. Yashica’s home office was still in Shibuya-ku Tokyo at this time. Kyocera was in Yashica’s near future and it would signal the beginning of the end!

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Another nice sales brochure from October 1981. The cameras featured in this brochure are the Diary, Flasher, Snap and the Auto Focus Motor.

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Yashica Auto Focus, Auto Focus Motor and Motor-D. These were technological breakthrough cameras for Yashica in the early 1980s. Of course at this same time, Canon had the A-1, AE-1, AE-1 Program and of course the Canon F-1. These cameras from Canon were all SLRs so not a fair comparison but Canon made similar compact rangefinder cameras. It was a tough go for Yashica at this time and a takeover was on the horizon.

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What a cutie! Full color sales brochure from Yashica dated 1 March 1980. Features the Flasher, Auto Focus, Snap and the Diary.

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Neat sales brochure from September 1980. In the early 1980s Yashica promoted its auto focus and auto exposure cameras extensively. This brochure featured the Yashica Snap, Diary, Flasher and the Auto Focus which listed for ¥41,000.

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The dark days of Yashica begin with this very cute sales brochure from February 1984. Yashica by this time was taken over by the Kyocera Corporation which was headquartered in Kyoto. Yashica was now a just a division of Kyocera…Yashica was still in its long time office in Shibuya-ku. This move (Kyocera ownership) was the beginning of the end for the Yashica we knew.

When Kyocera killed Yashica (about 1991) they kept the optical portion of the company which was originally the Tomioka Optical Co., Ltd. of Tokyo. That division is still part of Kyocera and is now called Kyocera Optec Co., Ltd. and is still headquartered in Tokyo.

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There you have it. A nice collection of some of the best of the 1980s Yashica sales brochures. As we mentioned, the Kyocera ownership was just on the horizon and the final days of the once great Yashica were coming to an end. We do own a few cameras from the Kyocera (Kill-a-Yashica) period and some were received as excellent point and shoot compact wonders.

A lovely Yashica-Kyocera L AF Date from 1986. Very nice lines and we’ll be running a roll through it very soon!

This good looking camera (above) was sent to us from a blogger friend and photographer living in Japan. She was very kind to donate it to us for sharing it on our blog. You can see excellent reviews of all sorts of cameras and awesome photographs too at https://cameragocamera.wordpress.com/

Another donated camera comes to us from a friend in Virginia and a fellow Flickr poster.

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We haven’t run film through this beauty yet – it’s on our “catch up” list of things to do. Thanks to Ken for sharing his lovely camera with us so that we could share it with y’all here on the blog.

By the way, if you’ve got a nice Yashica, Kyocera or Fujifilm camera from this period (1980s to mid 1990s) and would like to see it featured here, just contact us through WordPress and we’d be glad to do it.

Many thanks for your visit – comments are always welcomed.

Chris & Carol ^.^

Yashica MF-2 Super… 1986

January 15, 2017July 24, 2018Chris and Carol 12 Comments

We don’t often collect modern Yashica cameras – especially during Yashica’s last days after Kyocera (Kill-a-Yashica) took over.

This one was sent to us by a Flickr friend and as you can see, it’s new in the original box. The MF-2 Super is a DX camera which sensed the DX code on the 35mm film canister and set the appropriate ASA / ISO / DIN.

Yashica MF-2 Super 35mm film camera set from 1986.

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We haven’t found the time to load a roll of film and check out this little beauty… soon we hope. We like the black, red and gold details on the body and lens and the auto everything (almost) features. As a comparison, we also have the Fujica DL-20 as pictured below in the sales brochure.

DL-20 in black and red.

The DL-20 is a mid-1990s camera from Fujica. We have the red body model and it would be fun to take the two (Yashica MF-2 Super and the Fujica) out for a side by side photo shoot. Sounds like we’re going to be busy in 2018 shooting a bit more film.

Thanks for your visit!

Chris & Carol

The often underappreciated Canon T70

January 10, 2017Chris and Carol 5 Comments

One of Canon’s little gems! The T70 (1984) was a giant leap forward for Canon and for the entire 35mm camera industry. Coming off the success of the Canon ‘A Series’, the T70 (yes there was a T50 first but the T70 blew it away) was a giant departure from the norms established by Canon. Firstly, it didn’t look like any previous Canon SLR – distinctive style and color, built-in winder, multiple program AE exposure and two metering modes. If you wanted to add a data back, then Canon had a Command Back 70 ready to go.

This one is from April 1984… still, in our opinion, one of the neatest Canons of all time!

The rubberized right hand grip made the body super easy to hold and the incorporated power winder made manually advancing film a thing of the past. The ‘T’ bodies accepted all of Canon’s FD lenses without exception. Mated with the Canon FD (N) 50mm f/ 1.8 lens made the T70 a rather compact and user friendly camera.

Simple layout and clean design.

Optional accessory – the Command Back 70 replaced the often bulky data backs found on the F-1 and A-1. This one can date images until the year 2029! Of note – the common fault with these data backs are you’ll often find that the LCD will sometimes “bleed” the LC in the display. This one, for whatever reason, has escaped that fault.

If you want a great, and we mean great 35mm film camera to use, then by all means find a good T70 and fire away.

One of our all time favorites from Canon.

Thanks for your visit… your comments are always welcomed and so are your questions.

Chris and Carol ^.^

Florence… 1986

December 21, 2016December 21, 2016Chris and Carol 7 Comments

Nothing says Florence like the Cathedral of Florence. Canon F-1 with FD 24mm f/2.8 lens on Kodak Kodachrome 25.

In presenting a short series of images of Florence (one of the most beautiful of all cities in Italy), it’s a tough call on which images to include. In Pisa, it has to be the most famous bell tower in the world. I imagine for Rome I would choose the Coliseum – Colosseum or the Vatican. Since there’s so much beauty, history, art and architecture at every turn in Florence it’s nearly impossible to choose the one to use first. My visit to the Tuscony Region was in late October 1986 – the weather was perfect and the visibility was awesome!

My camera was the Canon F-1 (1978 version) with three lenses to use: FD 24mm f/2.8, FD 80-200mm f/4 zoom and the normal FD 55mm f/1.4. Since sunlight would be in abundance, Kodak’s Kodachrome 25 fit perfectly with the days shooting plan (no interiors in the plans).

Vista view to the north… FD 24mm while hanging the camera over the side of the railing (wobbly pieces of metal) loosely attached to 600 year old stone.

The Duomo with its instantly identifiable tiled dome. FD 80-200mm at about 150mm

FD 200mm braced on the railing.

Back to earth… Canon FD 24mm wide angle lens at f/22

More FD 24mm… my go to lens in the tight quarters of a city. It’s not easy to get all three in the same image.

The Canon’s light meter (spot) handled this tricky exposure well. Yep, FD 24mm lens.

Of course what would a visit to any city be without the required “People and Pigeon” shot.

Happy people and happy pigeons.

This of course is only a very small sample of what’s available in and around Florence and the Tuscany Region. I had only one short afternoon to visit so I was lucky to see as much as I did. The old “someday” I hope to travel back and do it right.

Thanks for your visit!

Chris

Pisa… 1986

December 19, 2016December 22, 2016Chris and Carol 6 Comments

Pisa… a gorgeous city filled with unbelievable wonders. Photographic eye candy to be sure. In 1986, shooting with a Canon F-1 and Canon lenses on Kodachrome 25 was as close to “perfect” in 35mm photography as one could hope to achieve (sorry Nikon guys and gals). In appreciation of the all the imperfections and limits of film photography (just like vinyl records), analog photography still moves me. Sure I love digital – some images with digital were impossible with film (or nearly so), but film has a softness of color and detail that I love.

These images were taken in mid October 1986. They’ve received only minor post production after scanning – mostly small crops to remove the edges of the 35mm slide mounts and some occasional color balancing and brightness tweaks. Film used was Kodak’s Kodachrome 25 (perfect for bright lighting and known for its fine grain).

My Canon F-1 (1978 version) and three FD lenses were all that I had in my bag: 24mm f/2.8 wide angle, 80-200mm f/4 zoom and the 55mm f/1.4. The weather was perfect – bright sunshine, low humidity with mild temperatures. Visibility was amazing as a recent cold front had passed through the area and cleared the air of haze and pollutants.