Both are readily available on the used market, and robustly built so will last many years’ service. If you’re shooting slide film, use a handheld meter like a Sekonic L508 or the more modern Sekonic L758, which can also be used for digital photography. If you use the meter for shooting negative film, just use the modern p圆25 equivalent and err on the side of overexposure. The Yashicamat has a built in light meter, operated by the famed (and now unavailable) PX625 mercury oxide battery. If you’re shooting at widest aperture, you’re going to be wanting this little fellow out a lot. The focussing is fine tuned by means of a focussing lens which pops out of the viewfinder to help you to nail your focus. Leaf shutters allow you to handhold down to ridiculously low shutter speeds, 1/8s is not unreasonable as long as you haven’t had too many coffees. The copal leaf shutter is one of the great things about fixed lens cameras. Winding the lever is a noisy affair, but the shutter is a near silent click. The WLV can frustrate, and can make composing a frustrating experience until you get accustomed to the inversion. It is a big solid brick of a camera, but as it is sporting an 80mm f3.5 lens, it is actually as small at it gets depth wise for MF. So how is the Yashicamat in action? Pretty good. Rolleinar 1: the taking filter on the left, the viewing filter on the right (with parallax correction). I bought a used Rolleinar set off eBay, and they worked just fine on the yashicamat. +1 is good for 24-36 inches distance, +2 is good for 18-24 inches. You can buy close up sets in Bay 1 fitting, these bolt onto the front of the lenses, there is one for the viewing lens (adjusted for parallax) and one for the taking lens. I think the closest the yashicamat focuses is 1m, which is standard fare for MF cameras. The Yashicamat, and other TLR cameras are not so good when it comes to close focussing. Shame the 124 doesn’t come with an f2.8 lens, that would be dynamite. It makes the world look gorgeous, and shows you what your photos are going to look like. Because you look at a ground glass TLR focussing screen with both eyes, the image has a 3D quality that looking through an SLR viewfinder with a single eye just cannot match. It is just gorgeous, one of the finest a things you will see in photography, especially if you’re used to looking at the world though a digital SLR. What you will also get the hang of is staring at a live picture on the ground glass at f2.8. The viewfinder is a joy to look through, but takes some getting used to The same doesn’t go for shutter speed, but comes in distinct detentes on the dial.
The aperture adjustment operates incrementally rather than in whole stops setting the aperture 1/3 of the way between f8 and f11 gives you f9. The aperture and shutter speed controls are on the front of the camera, to the side of the lenses. The viewfinder incorporates a sports finder for direct shooting, but of course this camera is not designed for sports. The yashicamat 124G comes with a light meter, a focussing knob and a waist level finder with focussing screen. Sorry, where were we? Let’s get back to reality. Of course, if price is important to you, and it is to most people, then the yashicamat can be got on eBay for around £150 in good condition, whereas a Rolleiflex 2.8 is going to set you back the best part of a grand. Unfortunately then they come out with f3.5 DOF rather than than buttery f2.8 look, it’s a little disappointing. Why? That image in the waist level viewfinder is so gorgeous to look at, it’s hard not to feel that you want to see the world that way and you want your images to look that way too. If I was going to buy another TLR, I would get an f2.8 Rolleiflex. The viewing lens on the Yashicamat is a 2.8, but the raking lens is f3.5, whereas some Rolleiflex cameras are available with an f2.8 as well as an f3.5 taking lens. The Yashicamat 124G is based on the Rolleiflex camera, and nearly as good. The Yashicamat is a 6×6 camera, shooting a large 6cm square format negative. The lenses are not interchangeable, fixed at 80mm, which is your nifty fifty in Medium format land.
TLR stands for Twin Lens Reflex, there are two lenses, one for viewing (top one) and one which is directed onto the film. It was a good camera, and I probably could have held on to it as it wasn’t going to lose any value, but truth be told, it didn’t really suit my shooting style. I sold it 2 years later for more than I paid for it. I got it off eBay, and it was in mint condition. The Yashicamat was the first Medium Format Camera I bought. This post has already been read 8333 times!
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