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Yashica 635??
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 11:28 pm    Post subject: Yashica 635?? Reply with quote
Hi, I have given up on the "Pentacon six TL": too expensive for what it is, and too complicated and breakdown prone (according to the web). You need to undertake a special certificate course just to load the film . Sad

I'm now considering a Yashica 635 (just a step above a Box Brownie, I know Razz , but uncomplicated and inexpensive (like me Wink ).)

What do people think?
Smile


PostPosted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 11:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I would say a hop skip and jump from a brownie. Uncomplicated is good, the camera is one I'd love to use.


PostPosted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 7:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yes, just a step from brownie would be a Lubitel. Smile

EDIT: This is a joke, really. Lubitels are over-priced crap.


PostPosted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 3:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The 635 is a perfectly fine camera. Its all you need for 6x6 really, unless you have some performance requirements beyond what it can do, or want lens options (but see below).

Its no box camera, you have a very full set of photographic controls and accessories available. You get lots of shutter speeds, full aperture control, and precise focus - what more could anyone need ?

Good shutter, 1 sec to 1/500
Very rarely would you want more.

Good lens. Some have the 4-element Tessar-type Yashinon, but even the 3-element Yashikor is sharp except right at the corners maybe.

The finder/focus system is excellent, very bright.

It takes standard TLR Rollei-type bayonet filters and accessories. Look for a third-party auxilary tele (make sure it comes with the small lens for the focusing); these are great for portraits, you get about a 120mm equivalent with "pictorial" character. You can find wide adapters too, but I find these are just poor with no useful features.

Synced for electronic flash with standard PC terminal. AND this thing syncs flash at all speeds, try that with a Pentacon.

Several members here have them. This is mine -

http://forum.mflenses.com/yashica-635-t29323,highlight,yashica+635.html


PostPosted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The yashica 635 is a good cam.

My father had one before purchase a rollei.

You can buy the mask to use it in 35 mm format.

The yashikor lens is good. Better aperture is F/11 (very good center and corners too). At F/8 the center is good and the corner are almost good too.

Perhaps the finder is something difficult to focus in low light. It's small and heavy camera.

Here, in Argentina the price is near the u$s 250. Actually I saw only one to sell.

There are two yashica's auxiliary lenses to attach, a wide angle and a tele lenses to put over the normal yashikor with two compensatory lenses to the viewer lens.

Good luck

Rino.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 7:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
estudleon wrote:
Here, in Argentina the price is near the u$s 250. Actually I saw only one to sell.


If you don't need the 135 film option then older Yashicaflexes are almost as good but they can be bought for about 50 €.
EDIT: this was couple a years ago. Prices have since gone mad. Shocked


PostPosted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 8:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
kansalliskala wrote:
Yes, just a step from brownie would be a Lubitel. Smile

EDIT: This is a joke, really. Lubitels are over-priced crap.


Mine was free and I have been stunned how sharp the lens is. The Lomo remakes are dire from what I have seen on the web but the original metal bodied Lubitel 2 is a much better proposition. I wouldn't pay much more than I did for mine Very Happy but it actually is quite fun, and because it is a fraction of the size and weight of my Yashica I have run 10 films through it since the Spring compared to one film in four years for the Yash...


PostPosted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 10:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
kansalliskala wrote:
estudleon wrote:
Here, in Argentina the price is near the u$s 250. Actually I saw only one to sell.


If you don't need the 135 film option then older Yashicaflexes are almost as good but they can be bought for about 50 €.
EDIT: this was couple a years ago. Prices have since gone mad. Shocked


Yes, another yashicas are good. Minolta autocord and ricoh are good too. Almos all the 3/4 elements triplet lenses are good user. And not very different. Tessar, xenar, rokkor, yashinon, yashikor, etc. But collector items (mint or near mint cams) went up prices madly, as you said.

Long time ago (in the 90's), I saw some pics taken with voigtlander brillant (with 3 elements voigtar) and WOW !!! Good images !!

Rino.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 2:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I forgot the walzflex with the nitto kominor lens 3,5/75. I didn't use it, but the lens seems to be atractive to try, isn't it?

Rino


PostPosted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 11:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
luisalegria wrote:
The 635 is a perfectly fine camera. Its all you need for 6x6 really, unless you have some performance requirements beyond what it can do, or want lens options (but see below). ...http://forum.mflenses.com/yashica-635-t29323,highlight,yashica+635.html


Thanks to all of you for your encouraging responses and particularly to louisalegria (nice shots, BTW Smile ) for a most interesting link. Smile

Well, I've gone and done it!

I have purchased a Yashica 635 TLR (as cheap as they come ) with a set of #2 close-up lenses, in order to check out if MF is for me or not.

I have already run a roll of Fuji 120 400 H through it (with the help of a Gossen Lunasix-3) and it's with the processors as we speak (back Friday: I can't wait to see it )

So far, the experience has been quite pleasant: easy to load, all the controls are handy and intuitive, nice generous, adequately bright, focusing screen with a very useful, built in, enlarger lens. The shutter button is easy to access and release (easy to hand-hold) and the shutter is very quiet and quick (no long train of mirror lift, first shutter, second shutter, mirror down etc): just a barely audible click, and that's it!

I found the knob-style film advance lever no problem, as I already have a number of knob film advance styled 35mm cameras (Vito II, Retina II, Olympus Trip 35) in my "collection". In anycase, there is an advance lock (with release button) which is a big plus. The only "problem" is remembering whether you have already advanced the film or not, as the shutter is cocked independently of advancing the film. All part of the fun! Smile

Mine is with the triplet Yashikor lens and without its 35mm kit.

Since my 635 came without a lens-hood (and since I like to shoot either across or against the light), I had some fun juggling an umbrella in one hand and the camera (attached to a neckstrap) in the other while releasing the shutter (with a third?) Anyway, it turned out to be quite easy, and I didn't have to resort to my tripod even once after all -though I did have it with me, just in case I needed it.

(Although people question the purpose of the 35mm kit, I have heard it may have been intended solely for portraiture, in which case it may have made quite good sense?)

Now waiting to see if it all worked. Very Happy


PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 8:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Banjo wrote:
The only "problem" is remembering whether you have already advanced the film or not, as the shutter is cocked independently of advancing the film.


It is a philosphical question. Does the number represent something happened in the past (causal reason) or something that you plan to do (teleological explanation).

Smile


PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
... Laughing or indeed, is the counter a part of the archaic time of the Eternal Return, and so registers both exposures you make on the frame, and the ones where you skip a frame as well because you forget whether you did or not.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
In my very young days using a Brownie 127, which has no wind-on lock and needs no shutter cocking, I got into the habit of winding the film immediately before every shot, never after. That way there's less chance of double exposing, although you might waste a few frames before it becomes 2nd nature. Even with modern cams I still haven't kicked this habit.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 4:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
peterqd wrote:
In my very young days using a Brownie 127, which has no wind-on lock and needs no shutter cocking, I got into the habit of winding the film immediately before every shot, never after. That way there's less chance of double exposing, although you might waste a few frames before it becomes 2nd nature. Even with modern cams I still haven't kicked this habit.


Yes, if you think the sequence: 1) compose the picture and exposure, 2) wind the film, 3) focus, 4) oh crap, now there is a cloud in front of the sun .. That way it is easier to just forget if you took the last frame or not.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 5:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Quote:
Yes, if you think the sequence: 1) compose the picture and exposure, 2) wind the film, 3) focus, 4) oh crap, now there is a cloud in front of the sun .. That way it is easier to just forget if you took the last frame or not.

Wind the film immediately before firing the shutter, after focussing and waiting for the sun. That's often a very long wait here! Smile


PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 7:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Conglats.

Yashica 635 is a lovely camera work with! Some shots I shot using this camera:


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