Joe Lopez

The Yashicaflex cameras date to the early to mid-1950's and have no internal electronics or metering. The ASA dial that may be present on the camera is just a visual reminder to the photographer of the speed of the film loaded in the camera. You load the camera and set the ASA dial to the speed of the film. The ASA speed you set, though, has no effect on the pictures you'll take. You need to use and external meter and set the camera's aperture and shutter speed dials manually.

 

I would assume your camera's dial lists film speeds in the older ASA standard because the ISO scale wasn't created until some time in the 1980's, long after your camera was made. The numbers are typically the same under each standard.

Some other vintage SLRs had a similar semi-automatic aperture function. I’ve got a couple of early Topcons (the model R, sold in America as the Beseler Topcon B because the photographic industry loves confusion). Its normal lens will stop down to a pre-selected aperture when the shutter is released, but the user then needs to slide a lever at the base of the lens to open the aperture blades back up and thus re-set the lens for the next frame. The East German branch of Zeiss made similar semi-automatic lenses for Exaktas.

The lenses (as I understand it) are semi-automatic. When you fire the shutter, the lens automatically stops down to whatever aperture you've selected, but it doesn't open back up until you cock the shutter. I say "as I understand it" because I don't own a Pentamatic and never have, but I've collected Yashica TLR's for a while now and I'm running out of models that I don't have so I've occasionally thought about getting into other vintage Yashicas. My understanding about the lens operation of the Pentamatic is thus based on what I've read. Apparently, the Pentamatic II was fully automatic. Paul Sokk's Yashica TLR website has a page devoted to the Yashica Pentamatic that probably has more information about the history of the camera than you may want or need (but it's quite interesting if you like getting into weeds about vintage cameras): Pentamatic & Move to M42

It's the first version of the 3.5E, which you'll sometimes see listed as the 3.5C. This version of the 3.5E does not have a removable viewfinder, though subsequent versions of the camera did (if it were removable, there would be a little tab on either side of the finder; press the tabs and you can then lift the finder off). As to why it doesn't conform to one of the lists of serial numbers and characteristics you can find online, no real answer. Sometimes serial numbers were skipped and then used later after a camera's specifications had changed, or parts ran short and others were for a time substituted, or the factory had a special order for a Xenotar. I have a 2.8B that, according to some lists of Rollei serial numbers, shouldn't exist, but it does, and it sits in my cabinet. For the most part, a serial number was only intended as a unique identifier for a specific camera and there were times when the numbers were somewhat haphazardly doled out.

isn´t there a similar edition of the RB?

 

Yes, and they’re weirdly plentiful on eBay. I just took a look.

My impression is that these special edition cameras were intended to commemorate the end of Mamiya’s production of TLRs (ca. 1994) and were a tribute to the importance of the TLR in Mamiya’s history. But that’s just an impression. Most of the information about the cameras online indicates only that they exist.

As it happens, there are currently not one but two of these gold Mamiya c330 Special Selections selling on eBay! Both sellers are in Japan, and each one is asking thousands of dollars for the camera. Each seller says that only 50 of these special edition cameras was made, but neither quotes any source for that claim. I’ve seen one of these previously on eBay, but couldn’t find any other information about this special edition. Graham Patterson’s website (gapatterson.org), typically the Bible regarding Mamiya’s TLRs, is silent about this special edition. Anyway, congratulations! As a longtime Mamiya TLR enthusiast, I have to say that I’m envious.

A search in Google Books comes up with a book called Photography, Cinema, Memory: The Crystal Image of Time by Damian Sutton who credits Gene McSweeney as the webmaster of the “lost films” web pages found on westfordcomp.com. Not sure if a link to a Google Books search will work or not, but here goes:

 

Photography, Cinema, Memory

<p>The Baird Petri Collector's Guide is claimed.</p>

Hard for me to verify much at this point. I no longer have any Petri lenses, and the only Petri camera I've got left is a 2.8

rangefinder. I did have at one point some later Petri EE SLR's and this lens wouldn't mount on them, but other Petri EE

lenses I had would.

 

I do still have a copy of Baird's Collector's Guide to Petri Cameras and would happily send it to anyone who wants it at no

charge.

<p>My A200 also came with the installation disc for 3 Sony image managment/editing software apps. I'd forgotten about that.</p>

<p>When I got my A200, it came with a print manual and US warranty [along with the 18-70 lens, battery charger and power cord for the charger, quick start guide, battery, USB cable, shoulder strap, body cap, viewfinder cap]. Mine came from B&H, and all of these items were in the Sony box. </p>

<p>I usually find that whenever I'm in the market for some used equipment, the prices ALWAYS seem higher than when I last browsed without the intention of buying.</p>

<p>I bought a Seagull angle finder from an eBay seller in Hong Kong [$40, shipping included], and optically, it's really quite good. Well made, maintains good viewfinder brightness. It's head and shoulders above some of the aftermarket finders that used to show up back in the '80's. The equivalent for my Sony DSLRs would have cost 4 times as much and wasn't worth considering for three or four times a year an angle finder would come in handy. I've heard/read good things about some of third-party battery grips that come out of China, which are also available at low cost, though I haven't used one. </p>

<p>A little leery, though, of some of the $5 multi-coated UV filters that I've seen for sale as well as the $10 polarizers.</p>

<p>The English lyrics to the bossa nova song <em>Desafinado</em> contains the following:</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>I took your picture with my trusty Rolleiflex<br /> And now all I have developed is a complex</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The original lyrics were by Newton Mendonça. The English lyrics were by Jon Hendricks and Jessie Cavanaugh</p>

<dl><dd>

<h4> <!-- mstheme--></h4>

</dd> </dl>

 

<p>I find the claim that Sony has 12% of the entry-level DSLR market encouraging [if it's true and not a number that's been cooked in some fashion]. Most of the people looking for guidance on the Digital Cameras and Casual Photo Conversations forums about what to buy in a first-time DSLR frame the question in terms of two fairly obvious brand choices and no other, and I don't get much sense that retailers do a whole lot to dis-abuse people of the notion that there might be options other than Canon or Nikon. So 12% of a segment of the market Sony wasn't even in beyond 3 years ago is pretty good. Somewhere, and I forget where, I remember someone at Sony commenting that they hoped [needed] to hit a 10% DSLR market share which I took to mean that it was 10% or the plug would get pulled. So 12% of the entry level market segment is pretty encouraging particularly in the current economic climate.</p>

<p>At the same time, I have to say that the only one of that 12% market share that I ever see with an entry-level Sony DSLR is me when I catch sight of my reflection in a store window.</p>

<p>Something's off here. From the Help menu at amazon.com, this time around I found the following policy regarding the return of cameras:</p>

<blockquote>

<p><strong ><em>Returning Camera & Photo Items</em> <em> </em> </strong><br>

<em>Camera & Photo items purchased from Amazon.com, including items from the Target at Amazon.com store, are easily returned to Amazon.com within 30 days of receipt of shipment via our online <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/css/returns/homepage.html">Returns Center</a> . These items must be in new condition with original packaging and accessories.</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Either the people at amazon are seriously misinformed about their own policies, or something about this transaction took it out of the standard return policy [i.e., beyond 30 days of receipt, without some of the paperwork or packaging, etc]. If, on the other hand, the camera was in new condition, with all packaging and paperwork, and the return was within 30 days of receipt, you should probably be complaining to someone up the chain at amazon.</p>

 

<p>I agree with the comments above. At the same time, Amazon's return policy, as I read it, seems to allow the return of opened items within 30 days of purchase for a full refund unless the item shows "obvious signs of use." There are some specific categories of items for which only partial refunds will be granted, but cameras are not among them. B&H's refund policy clearly contemplates the return of items that have been opened, tried, and found wanting. Amazon's seems to as well, though it's certainly far more vague. Maybe there's a bit of a lesson here about not buying vegetables at the butcher's shop.</p>

<p>Given the wording of Amazon's policy, it seems to me that offering no more than 50% of purchase price is unwarranted so long as the item didn't show signs of use and was returned within 30 days. Amazon's policy should be far more explicit than it is if this is their practice.</p>

<p>Sony has compatibilty information on cameras/memory stick combinations on their website:</p>

<p>http://esupport.sony.com/EN/info/mspro-camera.html</p>

<p>If I'm reading it correctly, some 1 and 2GB memory sticks will work, but nothing larger.</p>

<p>Someone on eBay is selling the original Sony grip for $140, which is cheaper than I've seen them elsewhere. Meanwhile, the grip has disappeared from the Sony Style website [along with the A200/300/350 as the successor models are now listed for pre-order], and I suppose that likely means that whatever is out there in the retail distribution channel is all there will be of these accessories.</p>

<p>On the Sony Style website, the A230 is listed as available on or about June 29th of this year. They no longer have the A200 listed for sale. Some of the big online retailers in NY like Adorama and B&H had the A200 priced with some aggressive "instant rebates" a few weeks ago, probably to clear the shelves. It may be worth checking for more discounting of that sort as old stock is moved out to make way for new.<br /> <br /> Price-wise, the A230 appears to retail for about what the A200 did with various kit lens combinations. Note, though, that the kit lenses that will ship with the A230 are new [an 18-55 in place of the 18-70 basic zoom that went with the A200, and what looks like a new version of the 55-200, though I'm not sure what's new about it {B&H lists it as "version 2"}]. In that regard, price comparisons between the A200 and A230 may not amount to much, even if the specifications of the camera body itself remain largely the same.<br>

I went through all of this a few weeks before buying an A200 (my first Sony and first camera using Alpha/Maxxum mount lenses). It's been great fun. Whichever way you go, enjoy!</p>

If the close-up attachment is like the Rolleinars that were made for Rolleiflexes, the "fatter' attachment is for the viewing lens. The viewing lens is fatter because the multiple elements are designed for parallax compensation.

Brian is right. Check your serial number. The Rolleiflex pamphlet "The Practical Accessories" states the Rolleikin II [later labeled the Rolleikin 3.5] is meant for Rolleicords with a serial number above 1,137,xxx, and that number seems to fall within the Rolleicord IV run of serial numbers [i.e., some have a lower number than that]. I believe that the earlier Rolleicords require a different Rolleikin. If you want instructions for the use/installation of the Rolleikin, look for a mid-1950's copy of The Practical Accessories [typically sells on eBay for about $5]. It's got decent [but small] illustrations. I, too, have never installed a Rolleikin, though I've owned a number of Rolleis and Rolleikins over the years. As much as I love the cameras, I've always found some of their accessories [like the Rolleimeter which allows you to rangefinder focus your Rollei] to be a little too eccentric for my tastes, though perhaps that's part of the charm of the brand.

The online directory of camera manuals can be found at <a href="http://www.butkus.org/chinon/ ">Orphaned Cameras</a>

Just as a basis of comparison, here's a photo [from the Petri FTE manual found on www.cameramanuals.com, used by permission of Mike Butkus, the site's owner] of a Petri normal lens from the same period oriented to show the lens mount. It's the same as the 135mm Petri that I've got, except that the tab isn't present.<div></div>