Elvis Stamps – issued by the US Postal Service in 1993

June 7, 2019June 7, 2019Chris and Carol Leave a comment

I’m not a collector of stamps but most anyone can appreciate a little Elvis to brighten one’s day. I have this small sheet of 29 cent Elvis stamps issued by the US Postal Service commemorating the life of “The King”. They are in mint new condition and haven’t been used. Makes a great gift for yourself or a fan. They’ll be mailed flat and secure and sent via USPS Priority Mail for free!

They are also available in our shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com

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Genuine US Postal Service Issued Elvis Stamps – Gem Mint Condition

As issued by the US Postal Service in 1993. This colorful Elvis Presley stamp set would make a beautiful addition to any collection. Perfect for even the casual fan. You'll get all 10 stamps in perfect mint new condition. I'll even mail them FOR FREE in the USA via USPS Priority Mail with tracking info and insurance! Pay securely via PayPal.

$19.00

Yashica On Ice

June 7, 2019June 7, 2019Chris and Carol Leave a comment

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Yashica Rookie TLR from 1956. Also known as a Yashicaflex Model R.

Warranty or service guarantee card that was issued with the Yashica Rookie verifying that it was known as the Model R in Japan.

The Rookie was only available for sale in Japan and was released in 1956.

Thanks for stopping by! – Chris

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.

Timeless Tuesday – exploring early digital cameras – Sony Mavica

June 4, 2019June 4, 2019Chris and Carol 4 Comments

As the title implies, I’ve decided to take another look at some early digital cameras and to see if they can find a place in today’s photographic landscape. Here’s a look at what was essentially the first digital camera to use a 3.5-inch floppy disk as “film”. Sony used the advertising tagline “The Fun is in the Floppy” in its late 1990s ads.

The Sony Digital Mavica 1.3 model MVC-FD85 made its way to market in the late days of 1999 with an official release of February 2000. Here’s that camera.

The strength of Sony has always been the sheer size of the company and the ability to do incredible R&D.

Sony lenses in video cameras were almost beyond equal (maybe Canon would disagree) but the Mavica made good use with what it was given.

The film. A standard 3.5-inch floppy. The “MVC” in the camera’s name refers to “Magnetic Video Camera” hence the use of a floppy disk for file storage.

At its highest resolution (1280 x 960) the Mavica FD85 will record only six images on one disk. This led to photographers carrying around a box full of disks if they were expecting to record a number of images. Six disks equaled one roll of 36 exposure 35 mm film.

I acquired this Mavica from the original owner – a local guy that was downsizing his collection of “stuff”. It’s in mint condition with only a few marks indicating gentle past use. From some of the other cameras that I purchased from him, I could tell that he took excellent care of his gear. It fired up perfectly after an overnight charge of the battery and with a fresh disk inserted here’s the first batch of pics. Except for the last photo, none of these images were enhanced in any way.

After nearly 15 years of slumber here’s the first image taken with the Mavica and recorded to floppy. All things considered, the auto exposure and auto focus handled the scene perfectly. Yes, we’ve become accustomed to high def pics from our smartphones and this picture falls way off in that regard but I like it because it appears “film-like” with its softness and lack of mind-shattering contrast. This is a wide angle shot.

Using the telephoto zoom lens this image is not technically bad. Auto focus and auto exposure appear spot on and the scene is pleasing. Remember, back in 2000 the main purpose of this camera was to upload the images to your PC and for emailing them as attachments. Most people had less than cutting edge PC’s at home – remember “Y2K”?

I took the Mavica into my studio and under the harsh studio lighting (5600K) the camera did just great. This was shot using the macro setting but I believe the camera has a pretty broad focusing range. This pic was cropped a bit and I made a slight adjustment in the contrast. It looks like there’s good depth of field and overall it’s reasonably sharp. I would use this image for listings in my various online shops as it’s technically just fine for that venue.

Ads from back in the day suggest that this camera sold for around $700 to $800. That’s crazy big money then and still is today. It will be fun to give the camera a bit of a workout over the coming months – 1.3 megapixels might just be a new way of seeing things.

Thanks for stopping by! – Chris

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.

Fuji Panorama Cardia – a plastic fantastic from 1991

May 27, 2019May 27, 2019Chris and Carol Leave a comment

One of the first dedicated 35 mm panorama compact cameras from Fuji Photo Film Company. It was available only in Japan and was released in December 1991. Actually a sophisticated camera a notch or two above being just a point and shoot – debateable.

There’s so little information about this wonderful camera on the web, I hope this post helps a bit for those interested in this format and camera.

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It’s not as basic as it seems. This camera was released for the Japanese domestic market in December 1991 and listed for 15,800 JPY (about $123 USD).

It’s a dedicated panorama format 35 mm film camera (13 x 36 mm actual image size). The panorama setting is not adjustable.

1. Opens and closes the lens cover and when closed locks the shutter button.

2. Flash on/off switch.

3. Fujinon 28 mm f8 glass lens – 3 elements in 3 groups. The fixed focus lens focuses from 1.5 m to infinity switchable to landscape mode.

4. CdS light receiver.

5. Two position ISO selector switch.

6. Landscape Mode Switch “Far-view Mode Lever”.

7. Albada bright frame finder.

8. Shutter release button.

9. Manual strobe/flash.

The aperture is “automatically” adjusted for lower light levels and the camera will give a low-light warning in the viewfinder. It’s been reported by a Japanese blogger that the aperture was capable of f4 to f16 but that is not backed up by data from Fujifilm that I can find.

The shutter is fixed to fire at 1/100th of a second.

I’ve scanned a few pages from the instruction pamphlet (below).

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Take notice of the clearly marked “CdS light receiver” vice exposure meter. It could be just a difference in the machine translation from what was meant in the original Japanese text.

Specifications from Fuji confirms that the lens is a Fujinon f8 28 mm wide angle with glass optics – 3 elements in 3 groups (you’ll find that info in line 4).

Unboxing a classic.

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This camera set is available in my Etsy studio shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com

Thanks for stopping by! – Chris

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.

In the Shop – Fun with Fuji

May 26, 2019May 26, 2019Chris and Carol Leave a comment

I’ve added these hard to find classic Fuji cameras in my camera shop recently. These are all considered to be still “new in the box” and in factory mint condition. Here’s your chance to add these totally unused (but tested) 35mm film cameras from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

These are available at http://www.ccstudio2380.com

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Full descriptions and additional pictures can be found at http://www.ccstudio2380.com

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In my other Etsy Shop – CC’s Everything Else Shop

May 25, 2019May 25, 2019Chris and Carol Leave a comment

Besides my Etsy camera studio shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com, I have a smaller shop that specializes in non-photographic items from my “world travels”. Almost everything is on sale at 70% off and many items include free or reduced USA shipping. I ship worldwide too at very fair rates.

Here’s a small sample of the eclectic items in the shop which can be found at http://www.etsy.com/shop/CCsEverythingElse

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Full descriptions and additional pictures can be found by visiting the shop. Believe me, there’s a crazy mix of stuff in the shop! At the moment, there’s over 40 items – check it out!

Thanks for stopping by! – Chris

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.

Timeless Tuesday – Yashica 8 U-matic

May 21, 2019May 21, 2019Chris and Carol 2 Comments

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Yashica 8mm film movie camera from 1961. Fast f1.8 Yashinon zoom lens. The camera sold for around $140. in the early 1960s.

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Complete kit. BTW, the little hang tag from LIFE depicts a cover from 1947.

Thanks for stopping by! – Chris

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.

Timeless Tuesday – Hippie Strap

May 21, 2019May 21, 2019Chris and Carol Leave a comment

Here’s a bit of throwback photo gear from my collection – it’s time to pass it along. This one is very lightly used and was actually on display with one of my 1970s Yashicas. It’s about 1.5 inches wide and about 36 to 40 inches long as it is adjusted now so it’s a nice long camera strap that’s perfect as a neck or shoulder strap.

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It has nice leather accents and the metal clips are shiny and bright.

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Great colors and an awesome vintage pattern.

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It holds two film canisters (film cans if you’re going old school) and the underside is a soft suede-like material.

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It’s available in my studio shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com – lots of other neat items in the shop at 10% off too! – Chris

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.

Yashica’s History as reported by Yashica – 1975

May 19, 2019May 19, 2019Chris and Carol Leave a comment

The Yashica marketing team that put this document together back in early 1975 appear to have summarized the history of the company – or were blatantly unaware of the actual dates of important milestones.

But with that said it’s important to “take it all in ” from all sources and to glean whatever good bits that it does offer. Yashica wasn’t a company that seemed to be all that interested in dates anyway. Some of the dates were more than likely dates that were recorded in Japan and may have marked the actual, formal date that the event was finalized. There’s also the possibility that if this brochure was put together in the US there may simply be some instances where meanings were lost in translation.

This excerpt is taken from the Yashica publication ‘Yashica A New Horizon’

It does use the term “highlights” when summarizing the events.

Yashica’s new (1974) headquarters building in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.

Published in early 1975, this brochure was primarily focused on camera dealers located in the United States.

I’ll be sharing additional bits from this interesting brochure over the coming weeks. Previous posts can be found here and here.

Many thanks for stopping by! – Chris

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.

Yashica – A New Horizon 1975

May 18, 2019May 19, 2019Chris and Carol 1 Comment

From the rarely seen sales brochure ‘Yashica A New Horizon’ published in early 1975.

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This booklet was sent to all US camera dealers with a cover letter addressing Yashica’s future plans for distributing their line of cameras and photo equipment directly to dealers in the United States. In all of my years of collecting Yashica related items, this is the first time I’ve seen this publication. It’s a perfect 8.5 x 11 inches, in full color, printed on heavy stock glossy paper with 14-pages filled with photographs never used outside of this book.

Here is the cover letter that accompanied the brochure. It provides some insight into the heart of Yashica and at this point in time, brings to light their attempts to turn the company around and emerge from bankruptcy in a much better place.

The letter is typed on bond paper (with watermark) and was signed by Mr. Kenji Sakuma so I don’t believe it is simply a photocopy casually dashed off to dealers. It shows how important this new program was to Yashica.

My good friend Paul Sokk (https://www.yashicatlr.com) pointed out the gender-specific remark “In the very near future, one of our salesmen, under the direction…”. When read using today’s optics it would appear as though it was out of place and implied that there would be no women calling on you Mr. Camera Dealer. Considering that this is from Japan and written in 1975 I believe it was simply stating the obvious – there probably weren’t females in these positions at this point in time and it would be many decades before the glass ceiling would be broken (struggles exist even to this day). Of course, the term salesmen could also be interpreted as a generic term for the position as the term sales person had not yet come into use.

A view of the back cover which was released without the usual printing data or date.

The Yashica Line as represented in early 1975. Noticeably missing is the TL Electro X ITS model with its distinctive gold electron logo on the pentaprism.

The Yashica line as presented in the brochure. The TL Electro X and TL-E are represented in the SLR category but no TL Electro X ITS which I find very odd.

As always, thanks for stopping by! Please feel free to share anything that may enhance this post or correct any inaccuracies. – Chris

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

Yashica cameras and so much more!

Tag Marketing

Elvis Stamps – issued by the US Postal Service in 1993

Yashica On Ice

Timeless Tuesday – exploring early digital cameras – Sony Mavica

Fuji Panorama Cardia – a plastic fantastic from 1991

One of the first dedicated 35 mm panorama compact cameras from Fuji Photo Film Company. It was available only in Japan and was released in December 1991. Actually a sophisticated camera a notch or two above being just a point and shoot – debateable.

In the Shop – Fun with Fuji

I’ve added these hard to find classic Fuji cameras in my camera shop recently. These are all considered to be still “new in the box” and in factory mint condition. Here’s your chance to add these totally unused (but tested) 35mm film cameras from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In my other Etsy Shop – CC’s Everything Else Shop

Besides my Etsy camera studio shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com, I have a smaller shop that specializes in non-photographic items from my “world travels”. Almost everything is on sale at 70% off and many items include free or reduced USA shipping. I ship worldwide too at very fair rates.

Timeless Tuesday – Yashica 8 U-matic

Timeless Tuesday – Hippie Strap

Yashica’s History as reported by Yashica – 1975

The Yashica marketing team that put this document together back in early 1975 appear to have summarized the history of the company – or were blatantly unaware of the actual dates of important milestones.

Yashica – A New Horizon 1975

From the rarely seen sales brochure ‘Yashica A New Horizon’ published in early 1975.