Walking my Yashica D after a CLA

[CosteaM]

I?m not new at TLR?s, I started some 20 years ago with a Seagull and I was

somehow nostalgic so I bought this camera couple of years ago off the evilbay

but never had enough time to use it. Reading all sorts of material posted I

noticed that my model has the Yashinon lens, said to be better than the

original Yashikors.

Awkward handlings with a push-and-turn winding knob then lack of a safety

overexposure feature are few things to learn and keep in mind when using this

model.

Playing around with my Yashica D I managed to move the X/M lever into M

position without paying attention; this jamed the shutter as soon as I tried to

use it.

Dean Williams kindly accepted to service my camera and put things back together

for me so I?m happy to show you some pictures from last week-end.

Film used: Ilford Delta 100, developed in Rodinal 1:50

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<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/206/508056239_ee2ec040fc.jpg?v=0">

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<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/218/508056241_7f0254ec16.jpg?v=0">

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Church on Main Street, Newmaket, Ontario.

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<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/196/508056243_bc4397bbb0.jpg?v=0">

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Newmarket Town Hall

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<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/209/508056249_31db745480.jpg?v=0">

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Old House on Davis Drive, NEwmarket

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[gib]

great photos

[johnw436]

Beautiful photos. I love my YashicaMat EM for the same reason, the photos are gorgeous and the camera is an absolute joy to use.

 

I carried mine everywhere I went for two days in New York City. The camera never once imposed on me. The weight is fine, it is very robust, and the quality is excellent.

 

These are scans of prints (neg scanner out of commission at the present time) from several weeks ago:

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/john.jwphoto/NYC

[johnw436]

Like I said, they are very poor scans. The negatives are great. Any shortcomings are with my skill and not with the camera.

[craig_shearman1]

I love Yashicamats. My high school had a couple of them 30 years ago and they were great. About 15 years ago I swapped an unused movie camera for a mint 124G and I still use it from time to time. I also have a Mamiya C330 TLR.

[mskovacs]

Very nice work Mihai. I'm glad Dean worked-out for you :)

[chuck_foreman1]

HEy,

 

Lovely Photos. I love the steps and the Church is really sharp.

I have this model too... well long story!!

I have the older lens, but I love the robust feel it has!

When I find the time to get back to it, I hope I can do as well

 

Dean.. can you colliminate the lens/shutter?

Mihai.. more cool photos!!

[alex macphee]

"I managed to move the X/M lever into M position without paying attention; this jamed the shutter as soon as I tried to use it."

 

I have the Yashica-12, and it's a first-rate camera. One way to avoid this problem is simply to wedge a small pellet of paper, or trimmed matchstick or similar, into the M side of the X-M lever, to stop it being accidentally moved over.

[dean_williams]

I don't know if it was Mihai's doing that caused the proplem with this camera. It could have been a previous user.

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The camera is rarely at fault, but since they are getting long in the tooth, there are few owners manuals to help the user. It's the Copal shutter that usually causes the problem. They aren't made to operate with the M sync and self timer engaged at the same time, and it's easy to bump the M sync lever. The shutter has a lockout to prevent this, but it's not hard to bypass it in use, and you can end up with a stuck shutter.

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When I was in high school, (early 70's) we had Yashica Mats in photo class too. Our teacher had put a small rubber band around the sync and self timer levers on all our photo class cameras to keep us kids from making problems for him. It worked.

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Chuck Foreman; I can re-set infinity to the focal plane, which will put all your focusing settings where they should be. If you haven't taken the lens mount board off the camera, it's not a hard job, and you may like to try it yourself. Or I can do it. If the lens mount board has been removed, and the shim washers messed with, it's a more difficult job, but I can do that too. Send me an email if you want to discuss it.

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Nice shots, Mihai!

Dean

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<a href=http://www.deansphotographica.com>deansphotographica.com</a>

[sw12dz]

Great shots!

[User_502260]

Nice photos. I had a 124G in High School. The Yashinon was extremely sharp. The problem was that the 124G had a lot of plastic in it and was easily damaged. I might have bought a different Yashica model when I gave up on repiring it but I got a Minolta Autocord instead. The Rokkor lens isn't any better than the Yashinon but mechanically the camera is much stronger. Later I added a Yashica A, a Yashica 635 (with the 35mm adapter) and a Yashica 44. Most of my medium format shooting is done now with Bronica SLR cameras but I'm glad to see someone doing nice work with a Yashica.

[dean_williams]

Jeff, what parts of the 124G did you find to have too much plastic? I mean, it's a metal camera...

[ndnbrunei]

Excellent photos! The yashinon lens is a definately a star performer.

 

I see you are using a yellow filter, they really help with improving the tonal range.

 

Do you take an incident light reading with your meter to decide on the exposure? I am starting to wonder if an incident reading is as good as a spot reading (in most situations).

 

Andrew.

[CosteaM]

Mike, thank you again for recommending Dean to service my camera, it was very fast and perfectly done.

Dean, thanks for the nice words but you also contributed to making these shots possible. Great job.

Andrew, I used a Tiffen yellow 2 filter because it darkens the blue sky thus making clouds stand out. I love clouds and I use them in my compositions. I have not used a light meter, exposure was done based on the sunny 16 rule but I exposed the ISO 100 film as ISO 5o and cut normal development time by 25%. This offers a full tonal range from white to black and lots of greys inbetween.

Thank you all for the nice comments. I plan to use the Seagull 6x6 next but I have to adjust the infinity focus first. Keep shooting

[User_502260]

Some of the dials felt like they were made of plastic. I would say that the worst part of the 124G was the winding nechanism.

[steve_bellayr]

The photos are well done and my I add they are also a nice advertisement for the camera. Good Luck

[rosedoodle]

Those are beautiful images, Mihai. The lighting and detail in the church's brickwork are inspiring!

[david_m]

Nice shots. I like the staircase one.