Yashica TLR genesis

biggles3 · Joined: 09 Nov 2009 Posts: 61 Location: Crickhowell, Wales

Most people have heard of the Yashica Mat 124G but how many know its connection to a Pigeon?

Well, the photo shows the true genesis of Yashica's top TLR. And it all started with a camera made by Pigeon in 1953, seen on the left: the Pigeonflex. This was manufactured by Yashima Kogaku Seiki and when Pigeon ran into financial difficulties, its assets was acquired by Yashima. And so we move on to the next camera - a Yashimaflex, built in 1953/4. Both cameras used Tomioka Tri-Lausar triplets for viewing and taking; interestingly, in 1968, Yashica bought Tomioka's lens making facilities. We next have the YashicaFlex S with its selenium light-meter and which was first manufactured in late 1954 by Yashima; it's worth noting that we start to see the emergence of the Yashica name. Yashima was then bought by Yashica and we get a series of 6x6 TLRs, initially under the Yashicaflex marque (not YashicaFlex) and then the emergence of both 6x6 and 4x4 TLRs under the Yashica brand (1956), culminating in the 124G you see on the right.
#1

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1571

A great infromative and aestetic post. Thank you for sharing!