Yashica Electro GX open thread

[F16SUNSHINE]

I wanted to just get a thread open here for this camera.
Mathias, Iha, Myself and others have this superstar last of the line Electro.
It is actually the least flexible of the full blown Electro Cameras.
The camera has film speed range between 25-800 and has no bulb setting.
The lens is a super Gem. A slightly wider 40mm from the earliest G/GS/GSN cameras 45mm.
My feeling is the coatings are improved but who knows. Take a look at the pics looking thru water. There is no filter on the lens.
I hope others will contribute to this thread. This is the first color roll that I have and only to date.
These are cheapy lab scans of fuji 160S film.
Camera came in chrome and also Rare Black







A look at Bokeh and skin rendering

Her majesty Bathing (she wishes it was still summer me too )

[koji]

All are nice scenes and good shots.
What tree is having that weird bark?

[Prometheus]

Nice, the riverimages makes me wanna go fishing

I saw one of these on tradera or ebay the other day, but didn't have the money to bid at the moment.

[ryan s]

How is the physical size compared to the GS series?

[F16SUNSHINE]

Hi Ryan
The GX is smaller than the G,GS,GSN group.
It is actually just a tad larger than a Canonet.QL17.

Here is a link to a quick Yashica Rangefinder tour I threw together.

http://forum.mflenses.com/yashica-rangefinders-t9943.html

Please feel free to drop any questions you have on me.

[bawang]

The pictures posted here are making the Yashica Electro too difficult to avoid. I found 2 sellers trying to sell a GX and another CC. Unfortunately, I can only afford to buy one. Which would your recommend?

Thanks.

[Katastrofo]

Of the two, I'd get the CC, wider lens, and much harder to find.

[Sevo]

The late Yashica Electro RFs have some limitations the original series didn't have - stupid "auto" flash features (forcing exposure to 1/30 whenever a flash is connected or mounted) which destroy the excellent fill-in flash capabilities of the original, a much more limited ISO range and the loss of parallax compensation. Rather a lot of missing features for a modest downsizing that still resulted in a camera bigger than many rangefinder contemporaries, like the 7sII (which had time or aperture display in the finder, while Yashica stuck to its mere over/under light).

Among the late Electros, only the 35CC has something to make up for that feature shrink: A high quality 1.8/35mm lens.

[F16SUNSHINE]

Hi Sevo
Please allow me to provide some clarity on some of this.
The GX and CC cams do have some missing features but they are not as limited as you may think.

True Neither have a bulb setting.

The CC has a cold shoe, sync port and, indeed lacks paralax correction. There are a second set of frame lines (corners only) in the VF.
The shutter does default to 1/30th when you plug a flash in to the port.
The longest shutter time on the CC is 15 seconds. Compare that to 30 seconds on most other Electros.

The GX has a hot shoe with a third contact. This is for a dedicated flash that uses Guide number info from the camera to determine flash output.
The GX does have paraalax correction.
The flash will sync at any speed. When the flash is on the camera the slowest speed is 1/30th. The light meter determines the speeds with flash or without. In other words fill flash full time.
My experience is that the GX has the best lens of the entire Electro line up (although all are beyond excellent).
The coatings seem improved and the aperture has six blades rather than 5.

Khidhir if you can take a GX and it is fully functional you should not pass it up. Expect to pay up to $250 depending on who else is looking.
I sold a black one last year for $350 to a guy who could not wait for bidding to finish.
I have 2 chrome ones coming up for sale. Both have had a complete CLA and are fully functional and film tested.
I also have 2 CC's coming up that are also CLA'd and fully functional.
The CC is my favorite low light film shooter. The combo of a sharp wide open 1.8/35 and step-less leaf shutter to 15 seconds is too good.
The CC does have an odd 2 leaf aperture that can be troublesome in sunny conditions.
I don't want to say it is not excellent because it is. It is more specialized and is not a great all around performer.
Don't take it to the beach and expect perfect peformance.

[bawang]

Thanks Andy. I hope the GX seller will reply soon and can complete the transaction. In addition, the CC seller might want more than I would like to spend at the moment even though I would love to have the 1.8/33mm.

[estudleon]

[F16SUNSHINE]

Thank you Rino!
Very kind of you to say.

[bawang]

Got myself another Electro RF, a black GX. It was from a Craigslist listing. Unfortunately it's not working at the moment.

Comparing it to the GL - I like the smaller size of the GX. But the ISO 1600 on the GL will definitely be an advantage (if I can find the film for it in this small student town).

This is its condition when it was received - the film advance lever cannot be advanced (since it's already advanced), the self time is engaged and the shutter release button is free as if it was pressed and waiting for the self timer to start the countdown.

Any idea what to do?

[bawang]

[F16SUNSHINE]

It could be simpler than all that.
Timers are notorious for ruining otherwise perfect cameras.
If a bit of dust or grease gets in the works it can lock up the entire shutter.

here is a link to a page that describes and shows you the shutter assembly.

http://pheugo.com/cameras/index.php?page=copalmxv

The first thing to try is to get back to the timer mechanism and put one drop of lighter fluid on the timer.
You may now gently coax the timer to run and may find the thing gets to buzzing and the shutter fires.

Once you have the timer freed up. NEVER USE IT AGAIN .......Seriously

Here is a link to Matt Dentons Yashica GSN dismantle page. If you scroll down you will see the steps to get back to the shutter.
This should give you the steps required even though the GX is different in many ways.
Just go slow and keep all the parts in order and it will go back together no worries.

http://mattdentonphoto.com/cameras/electro_inside/index.html

[bawang]

Thanks Andy.

I visited those sites earlier and was also wondering about the POD. But after what you wrote, I will give it a shot.

Thanks for the encouragement.

[Attila]

I didn't heard good thing about these aux lenses.