1975 – an important year for Yashica

February 11, 2022February 11, 2022Chris and Carol Leave a comment

A dream collection of Yashica cameras – if only it was 1975 again! This photo is from the Yashica publication intended for US camera dealers and represents only a small portion of what was available from Yashica in 1975. Conspicuous in its absence is the flagship TL Electro-X ITS with its distinctive gold electron logo on the pentaprism.

From ‘Yashica A New Horizon’ – 1975 marketing brochure. If you look closely at the copy stand in the area just below the bulb on the right you can just make out a piece of black tape. On my copy stand, it says Yashica and since Contax didn’t make one (at the time of this image) they just covered up the Yashica name.
How cool would it be to own everything pictured?

My good friend Graham Buxton-Smither had this to say about the Contax image above – “It was an aspirational piccie back in the late 1970s – one could only dream about owning such gear – even more so when you added the Zeiss lens range. You are absolutely right about the copy stand – it’s Yashica’s Cope Stand II. Two other Yashica items are shown – the Microscope Adapter and the Magnifier. All is not as it seems with other gear too! The motor drive/250 back is the one later used by Olympus with the OM1n; the hammer-head flash is a lower-powered National, quite unlike the RTF540; the bellows is simply a basic Novoflex rebranded (the Contax Auto Bellows is far superior with swing/tilt), and the radio control kit is nothing like the actual one eventually produced under the Contax name. It’s still a great piccie though! I’m adding a photo to the Yashica Group showing the ML 55 2.8 + 27mm Tube on a Contax RTS Fundus that shows the true Contax 250 back and drive.” I’ve included an image of Graham’s Contax that he mentions above (see below).

This shows the ML 55 2.8 in 1:1 macro mode using Yashica’s 27mm Extension Tube. It’s attached to my lab kit – a Contax RTS Fundus with the Professional Motor Drive and 250 Back. I often use it with the AC Control Box when observing an item over extended periods of days or weeks.

If you’d like to visit Graham’s Flickr site which is just like visiting a Yashica and Contax museum you can find him at https://www.flickr.com/photos/164456136@N06/

Thank you for stopping by and hopefully, I’ve piqued your curiosity a bit! – Chris

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, is this blog’s property and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris, Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris.

Yashica 8E Zoom 8mm Movie Camera

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022Chris and Carol Leave a comment

Yashica 8E Zoom movie camera brochure from November 1960. I like to collect these early Yashica brochures, especially the ones that have a printed date code. Whenever I’m doing research on Yashica’s history having a brochure with a date is invaluable.

The Cover

Closed the brochure is about 195 x 135mm. Yep, that’s one of the ‘Yashica Gals’ drawn on the lower right. There are three different ones and as best as I can tell they were never named by Yashica. They made their appearance around this time across several brochures.

Inside Features

Yashica’s big cine camera with an impressive Yashinon Penta Reflex f1.8 11.5mm to 33mm zoom lens.

Back Cover Pages

The date code is on the extreme lower right – *N11T35* – The 11 is for November and the 35 is the Showa Era in this case Showa 35 (add 25 to the Showa Era = 1960).

Yashica started producing 8mm movie cameras as early as 1956 and was all in by the date of the brochure. Projectors, editors, interchangeable lenses most notably made by Zunow for Yashica, and accessories such as the title pictured above left. Many more brochures to discover from this period.

Zeiss Ikon Contax IIa – 1954

June 4, 2020June 11, 2020Chris and Carol Leave a comment

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Zeiss Ikon Contax brochure from 1954.

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35mm rangefinder camera with interchangeable lenses. Considered by many to be better than a Leica from the same time period.

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The Contax IIa and IIIa from the early 1950s. If you run across one in your travels definitely pick it up – you’ll be very pleased. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to visit my camera shop hosted by Etsy at http://www.ccstudio2380.com – 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.

Happy SUNday! Canon’s “A” Series

September 2, 2018September 2, 2018Chris and Carol Leave a comment

At one point in our collecting, we’ve owned every one of these fine Canon cameras. We’re down to just a nice A-1 and an AE-1 Program. Here’s a couple of ads from around 1982 or so.

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Which one is your favorite in the “A” Series? I like the original AE-1 and the A-1 with the next favorite being the AE-1 Program.

Thanks for stopping by!

Chris

Yashica J-3 Sales Brochure – 1962

January 23, 2018January 23, 2018Chris and Carol 4 Comments

We don’t have an exact date on this brochure – we’re mainly basing it on the recognized release date in the United States. Since this is a Japanese brochure it could have been earlier or later.

Of interest, the first M42 screw mount camera made by Yashica was the Penta J which was also known in Japan as the “Jaguar”. The name Jaguar never appeared on the camera body, just in advertising. It is possible that the “J” in the J-3 could have been for Jaguar but the marketers from Yashica decided to shorten it to just “J” at the last minute.

Front and back covers for the first J-3 brochure.

These images (below) are from two different J-3 instruction booklets that we have in our collection. The one on the left appears to be from a rare early version of the book with the image on the right from the later and more common book. Of note, the camera in the left image does not have a name on the body while the camera in the book on the right shows J-3. It’s an entirely different picture of the J-3. Our guess is that the book on the left has either a prototype or pre-production camera before Yashica finalized the name for the camera. They may have still been up in the air about naming it J-3 or possibly Jaguar something.

The left camera appears without a name and very different (and rather odd looking) accessory shoe. The camera on the right carries the J-3 name and the “correct” accessory shoe that ended up in production.

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Same instruction booklet but with the “J-3” written in on the image. Look closely, notice how crude it is. Another clue that the camera was a pre-production or prototype camera.

Well, there you have a bit of Yashica controversy discovered 56 years after the fact! lol

Thanks for your visit!

Remember to stop by our store at http://www.ccstudio2380.com

C&C ^.^

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.

Early Yashica Sales Brochure & the Debut of Miss Yashica – all 3!

November 23, 2017November 24, 2017Chris and Carol 2 Comments

We’re always trying to determine exactly when Yashica did something – whether it’s exactly when Yashica released a camera or when Yashica printed a sales brochure – we always want to know when.

Sales brochures can be a great source of information for uncovering some of the “whens” associated with Yashica – unfortunately Yashica’s marketing folks weren’t big fans of dating their pamphlets, booklets or brochures (almost never).

Another way to date a brochure is to look at the cameras featured in them. Below is a good example. The cameras featured (front bottom to back right) are: Yashica Minister f/2.8, Nicca-Yashica YF, Yashica YK and the Yashica 35. The “newest” of the four cameras pictured here is the Minister. It was released in February-March 1960. The camera pictured (still on the Minister) was made in January 1960 (going by its serial number). The other cameras were released from late 1958 to middle 1959.

So the earliest date that this brochure could be is the January to March 1960 time frame.

Early sales brochure from Japan. Take note of ‘Yashica Girl‘ on the bottom right of the brochure.
My translation of the title – ‘Yashica 35mm Camera Group Guide’. The bottom left translation – ‘Yashica Products That Always Make Full Use of Your Dreams’. The “newest” model featured (bottom front) is the Yashica Minister (Feb-Mar 1960)

So was this the first appearance of Miss Yashica? She does appear on what may be a few earlier brochures but we’re going to say she made her first public appearance in January 1960 (new year, new decade and Yashica had a ton of new products to introduce). Plus she looks like a girl of the 1960s!

Not one but three Miss Yashica’s! The one on the far right appears frequently in sales brochures during 1960 and early 1961 while the two on the left are variants that we’ve never seen before (clearly different). The ladies pictured here appear on the side of a vinyl shopping bag – Of the camera… ‘Camera Matsue Ota Weight Shop Izunokuni’? Not completely sure about the translation here.

Could be the very first flyer/ad released in Japan for the original Yashica Pentamatic.

It would appear that in this flyer/ad Miss Yashica was paired with the Pentamatic shortly after the release of the Pentamatic in Japan (early 1960). We don’t have the flip side of this flyer/ad so we don’t know if it was a one page presentation or two pages or part of a brochure. Since it has the address of Yashica’s headquarters in Tokyo on the bottom, one could assume that it’s the back page.

Thanks for stopping by! If you can provide a better translation or have more information please let us know!

Remember, Carol and I are always interested in buying interesting items for research and for our collection. If you have something to sell, please contact us at chriscarol@ccstudio2380.com

Please stop by our online store at https://www.ccstudio2380.com

Chris & Carol ^.^

Please respect that all content, including photos and text are property of this blog and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris.

Fujifilm GF670 Professional

October 9, 2017October 9, 2017Chris and Carol Leave a comment

Fujifilm GF670 Sales Brochure

Super hard to find sales brochure from Fujifilm for the popular and desirable GF670 Professional 6x6 / 6x7 medium format film camera. Full color large format about 21x30 cm. All specs, features and accessories. In mint new condition with only the slightest bend on the lower right cover. Add this beautiful brochure to your photographic collection. Mails to the USA for free! International buyers please request a quote for shipping.

$25.00

One of Fujifilm’s most popular (and expensive) modern film cameras. This rare brochure will enhance any photographic library and make a nice addition to your Fujifilm GF670 collection.

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We have a rather large collection of photographic sales brochures. Let us know if there’s one we can find for you.

Thanks,

Chris

Yashica Penta J and the J-P

July 27, 2017Chris and Carol Leave a comment

Yashica’s first 35mm single-lens reflex camera with the Praktica-thread (M42) mount lenses was the Yashica Penta J… at least here in the United States and in Japan. Elsewhere (most of the world) the camera was known as either the Yashica Reflex 35 or Reflex J (Australia and possibly the U.K.). As best we can tell, they were all the same cameras with different top plates to accommodate the different names (logos).

Part of the demise (lack of sales success) of the well-built Pentamatic series of cameras that preceded the Penta J, was that Yashica decided to go with a Pentamatic exclusive bayonet mount lens system. Sturdy and well designed to be sure, but being unique limited the available lenses that could be swapped between cameras. The Praktica design M42 screw thread mounting system was in widespread use at the time and Yashica’s bayonet design just went against the flow.

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Now fast forward to 1965 ish… Yashica introduces the new J-5 AND the J-P! In between those years Yashica had introduced the J-3 and J-4. Why would Yashica go back in time and bring out another 35mm SLR in 1965 that was the cousin to the 1961 Penta J? Notice we say cousins… not brothers. They shared the same platform with one another but as you can see in the image below the top plates were of a different design.

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