I did it -- I put the cart before the horse.

[cooltouch]

I suppose that when most folks buy a used camera that didn't come with a user manual, if they feel the need for one, they will attempt to locate one for it later. But I don't know of many folks who get the manual first and then feel compelled to buy a camera to go with it. That sort of behavior is called "putting the cart before the horse," as we say in English.

Several months ago, I bought a camera bag at a thrift store that contained a couple of off-brand lenses for Pentax, a MEII winder, and a couple of manuals, one of which was for a Yashica Electro 35 GSN/GTN. The other manual was for a Pentax ME Super. It didn't speak to me, but for some reason, the Electro manual did. I knew it was only a matter of time before I bought one.

So today I did. But what was really cool was I bought a GT model -- the black one. Found it at shopgoodwill.com:

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/viewItem.asp?ItemID=7280325

Well, I was close. Not a GTN -- the difference being the "N" has a hot shoe, while the GT doesn't have the flash contact on its shoe. I can live with that difference. I've probably seen at least a thousand Electro 35s from when I used to buy and sell photo equipment. But I can't recall ever seeing a black one before. So I'm thinking they gotta be as rare as the black Canon QL17s. But for some reason, the bidding was very light on this item. So I jumped in and grabbed it. Sorry if any of you guys were bidding on it, but as the price shows, there was no serious bidding interest.

So here's hoping everything works. It's not always easy to tell from the pics, but it looks to be reasonably clean. Now I get to read up on modern battery replacements for the NLA mercury battery these cameras used to take.

I'll update things once the camera arrives.

[mo]

Sounds good...looking forward to the images of this little beauty and from her (I assume she is she... )

[cooltouch]

I dunno. I know people -- my daughter being one of them -- who personify their possessions. And as a result of being given a name, they have also been assigned a sex. Usually.

I've never been one to name my possessions. I'm a guitarist -- played guitar since 1965 -- and of all the many guitars I've owned, I've never named a one of them. Although I've known lots of other guitarists who have. Actually, I have named a couple of my possessions -- two of my motorcycles. But I did so only at my daughter's urgings.

So, the Yashica GT will remain without a new name. Actually I like Yashica GT just fine. Sounds like a fast Japanese car.

Actually it occurs to me that I should wait on this. If the camera arrives in much worse condition than it appears in the photos, then it probably will get a name, like Piece of S**t. But I prefer to think positively about it, and anticipate a cool photographic tool.

[Nesster]

I hope you'll call yours "Yashica GT" rather than "Piece of S**t"

I've bought a camera because I had a roll of 127 film for it. I've also bought a camera because I had a vintage ad for it...

[cooltouch]

Ah, another "cart before the horse" person!

[goombles]

[mo]

[cooltouch]

Well, the Yashica GT arrived yesterday. And it is in much nicer condition than I had been expecting, based on the description at Goodwill. I suspect the previous owner took it out if its case only to load and unload film, and by all appearances, it would seem that there wasn't even much of that that had occurred.





No brassing anywhere. Just a couple of very minor rub marks on the lens body and around some of the edges. A bit of dust in the viewfinder. And some corrosion in the battery compartment, but not too bad. The compartment had a now-extinct PX32 battery in it, but fortunately it hadn't leaked.

The shutter fires, but without a battery it does so at 1/500 second only. And the self timer works. Haven't tried the flash contact yet, but I don't see why it shouldn't work also. It has a nice, big brightline viewfinder with a contrasty focusing spot. The two images are just a touch out of sync vertically, but so what else is new. I don't think I've ever owned a rangefinder camera where the images lined up vertically in the rangefinder. The film compartment is spotless. And the lens is perfect.

I've been doing some reading up on what people are using to power these cameras nowadays, and apparently the Electro 35's circuits can handle 6 volts (instead of the original 5.4v) without it affecting the meter. So I've got a 6v battery sitting inside my Canon AE-1P right now, and I think I'll just cobble up an adapter using that battery just to see if I can get the camera up and working.

Unlike its biggest competitor, the Canon QL-17, the Electro 35 doesn't have a manual mode. Just aperture-priority auto. But everything I've read about its exposure accuracy is that it is excellent.

Once I get the battery situation sorted out, I plan to run a roll of Plus-X B&W through it, and if that turns out okay, I'll try some color film and see how it works out.

The only problem the camera has is one that I caused apparently. After I checked the film compartment I glanced at the top of the camera and noticed that the film rewind crank was missing. Looked around for it and found it on the floor, and I also found a small piece of bright metal on the floor close to it. Apparently what happened was this: there's a flat, spring-like piece of metal that puts pressure on the underside of the film rewind crank, and the crank is held in position by a small pin. But when I lifted the rewind crank to pop open the back, metal fatigue must have set in, and the flat metal spring broke. With the tension off, the crank slipped out of its slot and fell out, and the little pin that located the crank in its slot fell out too.

As I mentioned above, I'm pretty sure I've found the broken off piece of the flat spring, but I haven't been able to find the little pin. So it looks like I'm gonna be needing some parts -- namely that flat spring and the little pin.

So if you have a junker Electro 35 laying around that has a complete rewind crank, if you don't mind cannibalizing it for those parts, I'll buy them from you -- or if you'll be willing to sell the whole crank top part, that's fine too.

[Farside]

I don't know, he's not had it five minutes and he's broken it already.

[cooltouch]

Geez, Dave, methinks you were reading my mind!

[mo]

It looks great...shame about the missing parts.It was like my husband pulling down on the Black MX self timer...I thought he had broken it and was not amused...but thankfully after its service all is well..

[cooltouch]

Self timers -- mechanical ones -- can often be balky if they haven't been used in a decade or two. This GT's self timer was balky when I first tried it. I just gently forced it to complete its cycle, then charged it again, and voila! It worked great. And has worked great every time I've tried it since.

Really, I'm not gonna dwell on losing the crank parts. I'll find what I need eventually. In the mean time, it will take a bit more effort to rewind the film but it will still be imminently possible.

So my main priority is still coming up with an adapter or something for a 6v battery so I can burn a roll of film through the camera.

[mo]

Would this post help about the adapter?
http://forum.mflenses.com/hi-just-picked-up-an-mg-1-yashica-t20508,highlight,%2Byashica+%2Bmg1.html

[visualopsins]

Battery Bob to the rescue

[nrparsons]

I saw that GT on shopgoodwill.com. Congratulations on getting it!

I have two Electro 35s, a GSN and a first-model pre-G (without gold on the electrical contacts) that I got from the same source. I really like them both. I had to put a new pad of death in the older one, but after that, and with a little twisting back and forth of the lens rings and pumping of the shutter button (to wear corrosion off the contacts), the camera works fine now.

Too bad about the broken rewind handle spring. It was held onto the rewind cap by a small screw in the center under the handle. Is the screw still in the camera, or did it fall out, too?

My GSN came with a broken rangefinder window, which I've unsatisfactorily replaced with a piece of clear plastic and some frosted tape. But I'm looking for a parts camera for a more satisfactory replacement, and if I find one with the rewind handle spring intact, I'll let you know.

[cooltouch]

[mo]

It worked well for me...let us know what you come up with...photos expected...

[nrparsons]

A quick way to get the camera powered up and running is with two V625Us (1.5 V each) and a CR32 (3 V) stacked and wrapped in a piece of paper 37mm by 100mm. The length of the stack is almost the same as the old mercury PX32, so you don't need a new spring. Make sure you have the polarity of all three batteries right.

You may need to reach into the battery compartment with a pair of needle-nose pliers and stretch the old spring a bit to improve contact. Don't pull on it too hard, though, and don't pull it if it's corroded!

A Finnish site describes wrapping the batteries. I can't read it, but the pictures show everything: http://www.warthog.fi/askartelut/gsnparisto/kuutonen.html

Seems like I've seen it described in English somewhere, too, but I can't find that site again.

Here's a shot of the local pond I took with the GSN:

Evening lake 3 by nrparsons, on Flickr

N.R.

[cooltouch]

Yes, Moira, I will take pics. Probably later today.

NR, thanks for the photo. I went to your flickr page to view it at the large setting. Really the detail is very nice! What flavor of film were you using for that shot?

The weather here today is miserable. Rainy and cold. So even if I do get the camera up and running, there's not gonna be much of any interest to take photos of. I plan on running a roll of B&W through it first, cuz I can develop that myself, and scan it to check the results.

I have an old Yashica 50-DX (or maybe DX-50?) flash that I've owned for . . . well, a long time. Probably was built back when this GT was new. I'll try the camera out with the flash too, see how that combination works out.

[nrparsons]