Brand
Yashica film cameras
Yashica started in December 1949 in Nagano as Yashima Seiki, and its first complete camera, the 1953 Yashimaflex, was a twin-lens reflex shooting 6×6 on 120 film. The Yashica-Mat TLR line followed in 1957, and the Mat-124G descends from it. In December 1965 Yashica launched the Electro 35, the first commercially successful electronically controlled 35mm camera, and its variants went on to sell 8 million units. In 1973 a secret project with Carl Zeiss produced the Contax RTS and the shared C/Y mount, so Yashica and Contax SLRs take the same lenses. Kyocera bought Yashica in October 1983 and stopped making Yashica and Contax cameras in 2005. The name was sold to MF Jebsen of Hong Kong in 2008.
3 cameras we cover.
Yashica · 35mm rangefinder
Backup speedsYashica Electro 35
Fixed 45 mm f/1.7 Yashinon (6 elements in 4 groups) · 1965 into the 1970s
$65–$150 typical ask
154 on eBay
Yashica · Medium-format TLR
Meter onlyYashica Mat-124G
Fixed 80 mm f/3.5 four-element Yashinon taking lens, 80 mm f/3.2 Yashinon viewing lens · 1970–1986
$430–$600 typical ask
129 on eBay
Yashica · 35mm compact
Battery neededYashica T4
Fixed 35 mm f/3.5 Carl Zeiss T* Tessar (4 elements in 3 groups) · 1990s
$575–$800 typical ask
156 on eBay
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