Yashica t5

Adobe_Andrew

These have an amazing reputation as a great point and shoot camera. I've seen them on ebay for about $150. Are they worth it?

Art Scott

hopefully my memory is still good on this....yes they were a dynamite p/s.......with carl zeiss glass and all......
found this one at $108 right now..........if that is what you're looking for then it would be very good.

chrisjohnson

I had a Yashica T5 about 10 years ago until the lens cover door thingy got jammed and I made my step into digital with a Canon Ixus 2MP costing over a thousand dollars I recall. I did not miss the Yashica much after that.

The good thing about the Yashica was the lens and it took great outdoor pics of friends and family - exactly P&S territory. The build quality was unspectactular. I did enjoy owning it and did think it was "great" at the time. I would not buy one now unless I was thinking of starting a museum. Even if my copy was still working I don't think I would ever use it.

Good luck finding one and let us know how she goes.

ziggy53

The Yashica T4/T4 Super/T5 all used Carl Zeiss "designed", Tessar formula, Yashica manufactured lenses. The quality standards that Carl Zeiss "manufactured" lenses enjoyed were not employed by Yashica. As such there are very good and not-so-very-good copies of the Yashica "T" series cameras.

One person that drove the Yashica T cameras to success was Terry Richardson, who used off-the-shelf Yashica T4 P&S cameras for his glamour and swimsuit photography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8i3VETLflk

A very similar image quality, but ostensibly better built, P&S camera with a similar lens design (Tessar design) is the Olympus "Trip 35".

If you want a "much" better film camera overall, but you desire the Tessar lens properties, I can recommend the Russian built Fed 5 with an Industar 61, 55mm, f2.8 L/D lens. The 55mm is much better suited to people photography IMO and the Tessar design and f2.8 aperture has the special bokeh qualities that everyone lusts after.

InsuredDisaster

Hey Ziggy, do you own one of them thar Russian cameras? Still use it? How would you say it compares to the FED 3, which I'm on the lookout for?

ziggy53

InsuredDisaster wrote: »

Hey Ziggy, do you own one of them thar Russian cameras? Still use it? How would you say it compares to the FED 3, which I'm on the lookout for?

I chose the Russian built Fed 5 based on cost, reliability and features. I have 2 bodies and each was selected by how well it works with the particular lens mounted to the body. (Rangefinder focus accuracy was a primary consideration and focus accuracy was determined using a hand-made ground glass at the film gate.)

1 body is dedicated to the 55mm, f2.8 Industar, while the other is dedicated to the 5cm, Jupiter f2.

The Fed 5 is considerably easier to load than most of the earlier Fed bodies, and much, much easier than the earlier Leica rangefinders. The Fed 5 has a built-in selenium meter, no batteries, and has a fair reputation for reliability. My 2 copies are tough little cameras and I did use them for a bit while Boy Scout camping with my son. They also have a viable hot shoe, making it a usable camera indoors and after dark. I even used the Fed 5/Industar to shoot parts of a wedding rehearsal dinner in 2004, my last film wedding.

There are 3 versions of the Fed 5 and I believe that both of mine are the first version in that series. That's also the version I recommend for the reasons above, but the Fed 3 is very collectible. Regardless of model make sure to always cock the shutter before changing shutter speed as damage can occur otherwise.

All Fed bodies are subject to individual variations in quality, and quality control is almost non-existent. If you purchase a Fed body, it's best to be able to inspect the camera first, or at least purchase from a vendor with return/exchange privileges. I purchased both of my copies via EBay and I was just lucky that they both have tested nicely.

Informational links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FED_(camera)

http://www.mattdentonphoto.com/cameras/rangefinders.html

http://www.thecamerasite.net/02_Rangefinders/rangefinders.htm

chrisjohnson

Olympus trip 35
Very interesting, Ziggy53.

I used the Olympus Trip 35 for years. The Trip I still have and it still works. I used it mostly with slide film and it was often difficult to tell the difference between those shots and those taken with my SLR. Reading your piece made me wonder whether my memories of the Yashica are partly a result of the Trip being so good.

The Trip 35 has a following still - www-olympus-trip.co.uk. It is a rugged and extremely simple camera to operate. A real classic. Entirely manual operation - no batteries.

Adobe_Andrew

Thanks for the replies. This is some great information. I was primarily interested because I'm really into skateboarding photographery and numerous skate photographers have mentioned this as their favorite P&S camera.