From the archives - Yashica T4 Super on the river

[mrjallen]

<p>Here are some photos I took at dusk on the river back in 2003. I had originally bought a Yashica T4 Super around 1997, and then I replaced it with another in 1998 after the first one was stolen. I still use it.</p>

<p>The first two photos were taken at dusk right after a heavy rainstorm, when fog descended on the river. I took them handheld, when a tripod would have been better. Film was Kodak BW400CN. Note that the film was developed and scanned at Wal-mart back then--quality was marginal, at best.</p><div></div>

[mrjallen]

<p>Here's one when the fog descended. Note the drop of water on the front element. I used the built-in flash since I had no tripod.</p><div></div>

[mrjallen]

<p>I had been cruising down the river in a boat when I decided to stop, float, and enjoy the quiet.</p><div></div>

[Mike Gammill]

Nice results. The T4 has a big enough following that they are quite expensive on the used market. And thanks for helping to keep the Modern

Film Cameras forum going.

[michael_chuang1]

<p>MRJ, thanks for sharing these. Which river was this? (Or I should say what part of the country, since the river name might mean nothing to me!) I quite like "In the Fog" despite the water droplet. Although the T4 is much talked about, for some reason I've not seen many images made with one. Despite more thrift-store crawling than I should admit to I've never found a T4 at any price. (I don't want one badly enough to pay the what I consider exorbitant asking prices these days.) Last year I finally found one, but it clearly had been immersed long enough to defeat the water resistance feature.</p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>The T4 is one of several cameras that were called "precision compact single focal length cameras" The Konica A4 (later the Big Mini), Samsung AF Slim, and Olympus Stylus Epic were several models with comparable features. The T4 seems to have increased in value more than the others (which are also very capable).</p>

[mrjallen]

<p>Thanks, Mike and Michael.</p>

<p>Although I said 1997 up above for my original purchase, I think now that it was 1996. I read about the camera in, perhaps, Outside magazine, and I bought it for its supposed great lens. However, it's the right-angle finder that I liked. Realistically, I am not sure I could tell any qualitative differences with the lens as opposed to any other because I always got my film developed at local labs (Walmart, for example) or the occasional mail-out service. Unfortunately, I cannot find the negatives for those pics, or others I took back in the late 90s and early 2000s--thus, my reliance on low-end Walmart scans for the above pics. I edited the pics a bit on my computer, lightening the shadows to reveal some extra detail and smoothing out the grain just a bit.</p>

<p>I plan on using it more often now and getting the film developed at a "real" place that does high-res scans. Of course, I have toyed with the idea of selling it on the famed auction site, since this camera draws unreasonable prices. Too bad I didn't keep the original packaging for it. By selling the camera, I could buy a nice old Nikkor 135mm or larger lens and have money left over. We'll see.<br>

<br /> The river above is the Black Warrior River in west-central Alabama--the Redneck Riviera, as we call it.</p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>I thought that river looked familiar. I live one state to the west: Mississippi. Been a while since I've been to Alabama, though. Used to go to Tuscaloosa many years ago to take cameras (for our family camera shop) to IPS Camera Repair.</p>