Things have been busy around the ol’ studio lately. I’ll have some neat design work to post soon, but it’s not quite ready yet . . .

So, in the mean time, I was cleaning up my office a bit and I came across a camera that I’ve been using off and on for a while. There was half a roll of film in it (your guess is as good as mine as to what’s on the first half!) so I took it out to do some shooting this weekend. I’ll try and have some photos developed to post soon.

The camera is a Yashica Electro 35 rangefinder which is from the early 1970’s and is considered by some to be a “poor man’s Leica“. It has a beautiful lens which stops down to 1.7 so it’s a great camera for low light and for street photography. Since it’s a rangefinder, there is no mirror that flops up when you press the button, so there’s a barely audible click when the shutter opens which makes it nice for candid photos.

The camera came from my parents who got it as a gift from some friends who bought it new in Japan on a trip. They used it for a while, but soon retired it to the closet where it sat for a decade or two until I pulled it out and looked into getting it up and running again. The biggest problem was that the battery had been discontinued for several years, but upon some internet searching, I stumbled upon the Yashica Guy who sells a homemade adapter that will allow you to use a modern battery in it. A few days and $16 later, I was all set to go and I’ve had a lot of fun with it ever since. A lot of older cameras still have life left in them and they’re a blast to use so a quick internet search is well worth it before you toss your old equipment!

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File under: Photography