A series of
Japanese Medium Format cameras which were more or less exact copies of the
Rolleiflex. But one shouldn't necessarially be put off by
imitations. The Yashica is an excellent and
inexpensive camera. Whereas the Rolleiflexes still tend to sell for
hundreds of dollars
used due to their value as
classics, most Yashicas can be acquired for a hundred or less.
Be warned, the meters on the Yashicas are notoriously bad. I recommend just forgetting about them being on the cameras.
All Yashicas listed here use the 6cm x 6cm format and come with 80mm 3.5 lenses.
Models in particular worth mentioning:
- YashicaMat 124G is really the high point of the series with a multi-coated lens and a more reliable meter (the G stands for gold plated contact switches on the meter). I still wouldn't trust it though. The 124G accepts either 120 film or 220 film
- Yashica 12 - less expensive than the 124G, only accepts 120 film and I believe the lens is only coated, not multi-coated.
- Yashica 24 - released at the same time as the Yashica 12 and was essentially the same camera save that it only accepted 220 film. It tended to have winding problems due to always using the heavier and longer film stock without the design substantially compensating for this.
I give thanks to the Medium Format Digest for all research data.