NO. 39

June 3, 2021June 3, 2021Chris and Carol Leave a comment

Fort Clinch State Park. Located on the extreme northern tip of Amelia Island, Florida.

U.S. Civil War era fort. Untested in battle as it was obsolete by the time it was built. That’s Cumberland Island, Georgia off in the distance.

To discover more about the park and Amelia Island check out this site https://www.floridastateparks.org/fortclinch

Camera – Sony Cyber-shot DSC-170

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, are the property of this blog and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris, Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris.

More turtle pics!

June 3, 2021June 3, 2021Chris and Carol Leave a comment

Camera – Fujifilm FinePix S9900W (both pics)

My “front yard turtle” is back at it again – aimlessly digging in dry cypress mulch with her back legs. I hope she’s not ill as it appears to be odd behavior when my back yard is a wetlands. Her shell is also rather odd (see below). This gal appears healthy except for the odd shell. She moves quickly and doesn’t appear sick or have an injury.

I don’t believe I’ve seen this type of turtle with a flaking shell. Camera – Samsung Galaxy S8+

Here’s a recent post about a virus that is killing some of Florida’s freshwater turtles – https://myfwc.com/news/all-news/turtle-disease-220/

Yashica Heavyweights – 1960s glass & brass

June 2, 2021June 2, 2021Chris and Carol 2 Comments

Here is a fun visual comparison between three early Yashica cameras.

Yashica’s first 35mm SLR released in early 1960. The Pentamatic 35 with its fast f/1.8 lens was a neck breaker to be sure.

Yashica’s first modern 35mm SLR released shortly after the end of the Pentamatic series in 1962.

First released in 1964, the Yashica Mat EM (Exposure Meter) was and still is a very popular TLR (twin-lens reflex) 120 roll film camera. It features a built-in exposure meter powered by selenium cells. The meter on mine is still working and is accurate when shooting negative films.

What’s the heaviest camera in your collection? Not pictured here I’d say my fully decked out Canon F-1 with a motor drive and big f/1.2 lens is crazy heavy. I’ll have to dig it out and post the results here soon.

tuesday turtle

June 1, 2021June 1, 2021Chris and Carol Leave a comment

I spotted this beautiful turtle (Florida river cooter) trying to find a good place to maybe lay her eggs. My backyard is a natural habitat with a bog, small pond, and stream and one would think is the perfect wetlands for raising young (which it is). In addition to being a great environment for all sorts of creatures you’d think it would also be the perfect spot for a turtle to make a nest and lay her eggs. My front yard is a suburban yard with only a small patch of grass but lots of mulched areas under the big trees. I often see these turtles wandering around in the neighborhood crossing the streets and digging in lawn grasses in failed attempts at nest building.

Here this gal is trying to dig in the cypress mulch without much success.

Beautiful shell which looks like it’s shedding off an older layer. She’s not doing a great job of blending in with her surroundings though.

I got this one close-up and then let her be. I checked the spot she was digging in latter in the day and there were no eggs.

More info can be found at https://srelherp.uga.edu/turtles/pseflo.htm

Not how you want the box with your new laptop in it to look!

May 31, 2021May 31, 2021Chris and Carol 4 Comments

Looks like Ace Ventura had a hand in this delivery!

The computer arrived safely no thanks to the “excellent” handling by FedEx and the suspect packing by B&H.

My town Fernandina Beach – an odd mix of pics

May 31, 2021May 31, 2021Chris and Carol Leave a comment

Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island, Florida – located between the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Amelia River to the west, that’s why we’re an island.

Florida brown pelican with the Amelia River in the background. Sorry, no fish for you today!

Industrial ugly! One of two paper and pulp mills on the north end of the island near the downtown historic district.

Rusty and crusty old sign along the river.

Ornate doors greet customers in this Center Street business.

More industrial ugly. Looking south towards mill number two and its giant wood chip mountain.

If you’ve got tracks then you’ve got trains.

Center Street landmark since the late 1800s.

The Palace – Florida’s oldest continually operating saloon.

Gracious old oaks frame a business on Center Street (aka Centre Street).

It’s all in the details both large and small.

Camera – Fujifilm FinePix S9900W

Images from April 2014 while on a photo walk about.

Inside a 1960s transistor radio from Japan

May 31, 2021May 31, 2021Chris and Carol 2 Comments

With the back cover removed full 1960s hi-tech is on display. The western looking “Y” was Yashica’s logo during this period. I believe it’s stamped on the back of the speaker.

Yashica Model YT-300 Transistor Radio

Yashica even put their name on the battery connector cap.

Inside the back cover. In addition to making great cameras, Yashica also made some electronic devices such as movie projectors and editors, radios, tape recorders, and even a record player!

The radio with it’s original goodies still intact. It’s a gorgeous piece of electronics that does not power up. I would love to get it fixed if it is even fixable.

Happy SUNday! – weekend project, finished

May 30, 2021May 30, 2021Chris and Carol Leave a comment

…hiding the garbage and recycle bins (and other junk).

The only thing left to do is to let it weather for just a bit before staining it with some cedar tinted wood stain (just like the fence further back). I’m sure the neighbors will appreciate not seeing my bins from the street. Now to do something about the driveway!

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

May 29, 2021May 29, 2021Chris and Carol Leave a comment

It’s time to revisit this early post on my blog. Did you know that Yashica made electronics like radios and even a tape recorder?

Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris

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.

20150716_203028_Richtone(HDR) Nice complete set from around 1960.

Yashica YT-300 Radio Brochure Not a bad price for such a sophisticated…

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HTF Yashica Lens

May 28, 2021May 28, 2021Chris and Carol Leave a comment

This image was scanned from a Yashica TL ELECTRO-X book from 1972 titled *The Creative System of Photography*.

Taken with a Yashica TL Electro-X and Yashinon-DX 21mm f/3.3 lens at f/5.6 at 1/60 second. Image by acclaimed professional photographer Takeji Iwamiya. Titled “Solarization”.

A scan from the Yashica Yashinon Lenses & Accessories booklet dated December 1973.

As you can see in the above scan, as late as late 1973 Yashica was still marketing their 21mm lens alongside the newer and certainly more modern 20mm ultra-wide lens. The 21mm is a retrofocus lens meaning that the mirror on a 35mm SLR would have to be in the up position as the rear element of the lens was just millimeters away from the film plane. A separate matching viewfinder would need to be mounted on the accessory shoe in order to frame your image. Fortunately an ultra-wide lens usually has such a wide view that parallax error would only be a factor at extreme close-up imaging.

Do to the relative scarcity of the 21mm lens, prices are much higher than one would expect to pay for a ultra-wide lens of a more modern design. If you find the lens in excellent physical and optical condition with its matching viewfinder and original lens case, expect to see asking prices generally north of $500 USD. If you’re lucky, you may get a good one with no issues at around half that price. I give this lens set a Chase Factor of 8 (CF-8) for the reasons stated above. I certainly don’t need it in my collection but it would be a nice to have.