Yashica-Mat Repair?

I purchased two cameras in a package, one Minolta Autocord in

reasonably good shape (execept for the leatherette) and one Yashica-

Mat. I purchased them on e-bay, knowing that it was chancy. The

Yashica-Mat is DOA with a crank that spins freely in both directions,

not advancing the film or cocking the shutter. The Yashica appears

to be a unit that is sandwiched between the LM and the 124G, however

has no light meter, but has the 4 element Yashanon lens.

 

I took it to my local repair shop who did not seem to want to work on

it, but said that he thought that the film advance gears were

stripped. I then contacted two mail order repair houses (one that

deals specifically with Yashica-Mats and got a price of about $87 for

the repair.

 

I have $137 wrapped up in both cameras. The issue is that I can�t

get a good fix on the value of either the Autocord or Yachica-Mat to

determine if I should make the repair and sell the Yashica, or sell

it for parts. Any advice on values would be appreciated as it will

help me figure out which way to go!

 

Thank you

When I saw the subject "Yashica Mat Repair," I already thought that this must

be about the film advance. I was right. I had a Yashica Mat, and it took very

good pictures when it could advance film, but this was not often. I bought it

used, gave it a CLA because the winding was noisy. This did not help, and I had

many film jams so that I had to open the camera and lose the film. I took it for

repairs 3 times to a repair person who really wanted to work on it, but every

time there was no problem to find. The noises got worse, the film jams got

more and more, and finally I sold it. So my advice is that if you have a camera

with film winding problems, do not waste time trying to fix it. The lens is

very nice when stopped down, but the other problems make it very difficult to

enjoy the camera.

as a wild guess, i'd think that in good shape either camera is probably worth pretty close to what you paid for the pair. the minolta is probably the better of the two, so if it seems to be in good shape, i'd glue the leather down and go with it, and sell the 'mat on ebay as a parts camera.

 

rick :)=

 

rick_oleson.tripod.com

Try Mark Hama in Georgia. He bought all the remaing parts for Yashicamats from Yashica.

 

http://www.markhama.com/

At least I know that I am talking to the right person! Mark Hama is the person who gave me the $80 quote.

 

Does anyone have any idea what this might bring for parts on e-bay?

Good answers here so far. It is very true the weak spot of the YashicaMat series is the film advance. Those that have this camera and use it -to quote my friend Murray Twelves- wind with advance "with care."

 

If it were me, I'd send both to Mark. Fix the Yashica, have him CLA both to insure everything is working properly. With proper lubrication, cleaning and calibration, both will give you years of trouble-free service (the Autocord more so) and excellent images. Again, I think you'll find the Minolta the superior of the two in terms of image quality: corner-to-corner sharpness, and contrast, but I don't want to sell the 'Mat short. I've taken some of my best pictures with the various Yashica lenses over the years. These camera's often have wonderful glass. What is the YashicaMat worth as a parts camera? Not much. Check the prices of "non-working" Yashica TLR's on eBay and I'm sure you'll agree; It may not even fetch a bid over $25.00. If the taking lens is in good repair the camera is worth fixing and should be fixed, its not a throw-away item. Either, or both are great medium format camera's...be it where you start, or finish

I agree - get it fixed! It's worth the $80.

 

Cheers!

Thank you to everyone for your great advice!

 

I bought both cameras as a package with the intent of selling the Yashica-Mat. As this is a low end model (no meter or self timer that I could see) the decision is purely economic although I am tempted to keep them both!

I have 4 Yashica TLR's. The only one that makes me nervous is the Mat because the film advance mechanism feels so fragile. When I was very young, I used a state-of-the-art Yashica 12 for the high school paper. It was a Mat with a match-needle meter but no provision for 220 film. All of the newspaper photographers would tend to snap the wind crank firmly and enthusiastically. It may be that the extra leverage afforded by the long crank is just too much for the gears. A more moderate approach to film winding might make the Yashica last longer. Otherwise, it's a great camera. Yashica's tend to have comparatively bright viewfinders which also makes them nice as you get older and your own optics get harder to focus. These days $80 for a repair seems quite reasonable.