Yashica T5 (T4 Super in the USA) mixed impressions

I found the famous Yashica T5 (T4 Super in the USA) for 5 euros in the flea market of Athens.
It is a fully automatic auto focus point and shoot camera, with minor control from the user, mainly flash options and infinity setting.
It is highly praised in the Internet as it has a sharp Zeiss Tessar 35mm lens, with a maximum aperture of f3.5.
There is also an additional viewfinder on the top of the camera that makes for easier composing and shooting from the hip.

I loaded with a Kodak Ultramax 400 ASA film that gives vivid colours but I was not impressed from the scanned photos.
I did not notice the sharp lens, the autofocus missed sometimes in the street - near subjects are out of focus and background is sharp, and while the camera favours faster speeds many of my shot suffered from camera shake.
However I changed the Jpgs in LR3 to have a vintage cinematic effect and the photos looked better.

Some samples from Vienna

 

 Shot from the hip, blurred subject

Shot from the hip

 

 Camera on the floor

 This was converted to B/W

 

Yashica J

This is a Yashica J, a simple manual camera with a 45mm/f2.8 lens. Metering has to be done with an external light meter.
The camera is well made but mine is not in very good condition.
The shutter is not working and will need a complex repair.

However it is a fine looking camera

Canon Ixus M-1, simple and small

This is a low end camera of the Ixus APS series, it is made of plastic and has only a fixed lens of 35mm equivalent in the 135 format. The aperture is not very wide but the camera is fully automatic and does right what it is supposed to do.

I've loaded with a Fujifilm 200 ASA film expired in 2008

At the supermarket

 

 

 

The EXAs

These are two EXA SLR cameras, cheaper models of the Exakta camera series made by Ihagee in Dresden, East Germany.

Exa 1a and Exa camera

The Exa with the Meyer Optik Trioplaan 100mm.f2.8

They all use interchangeble lenses, and have a guillotine type shutter that has the mirror on. In order to compose from the waistlever viewfinder you have to arm the shutter using the film advance lever or knob.
Shutter speeds are few, 1/150, 1/100, 1/50, 1/25 and B.
I bought the cameras in Vienna that have a Ludwig Meritar 50mm/f2.9 lens, together with a Trioplan 100mm telephoto lens. Unfortunately only the EXA works.

Exa 1a, with the interchangeable waist lever viewfinder

Disposable cameras, not for disposal

Disposable cameras are only used once, they have to get broken for the film to be developed, but they can also provide valuable and usable parts. The viewfinder is usually one of a 35-38mm range, the lens can be useful too, perhaps the flash with some caution as the voltage is very high.

There are many new applications of the disposable cameras found in www.youtube.com, at the www.instructables.com and many other sites over the internet.
They also make as a nice decoration...
So maybe there is a usage for you too!

more with the Agat 18

Some more samples taken with the Agat 18 half frame camera

 With the long expired Agfa 100 XRG film, speed set on camera at 16-25 ASA

 

 After the end of the expired Agfa I put a fresh Fuji 200 ASA film and the results were better

Zeiss Super Ikonta C, for professionals

This is a folder camera, with a top build quality.
There are two viewfinders, one for composing and one rangefinder
The lens is a very good quality Zeiss Tessar 105mm, f/3.5. Takes 120 film and produces 6x9 negatives. No doubt this camera was used by professional photographers at the time.

It is heavy, made of metal, but folds and slips nicely into a coat pocket. It is not a very easy to use camera, the numbers on the lens are small, the shutter release is on the left side, the two viewfinders are also a hussle, but overall it is fun to shoot with such a good quality camera.

 

The Soviets copied the camera after WWII and sold it as the Moskva. I also own a Moskva-5 which is a similar very nice camera and difficult camera. I think the Ikonta is better made and is a little easier to use.

I took advantage of the rangefinder and the bright lens to shoot some portraits in the office. The film was Ilford XP-2 suitable for C-41 colour processing in the photo lab. The negative is very large for the lab to scan so I photographed the negatives and just inverted them, the blue cast is a characteristic of this Ilford film.

This one was damaged by the lab processing machine.

Agat 18, a small toy

The Agat 18 is a soviet camera made of plastic. Looks like a toy and it is. It is the size of a cigarette packet, with colourfull plastic parts and an easy semi-automatic way to take pictures.

 

The camera takes 35mm film but makes 72 half frame exposures. Once you set the ASA speed on the orange dial, there are marked weather settings to choose from that set the aperture/speed combination of the camera. Sunny, cloudy, rainy etc. Then focussing is done from a distance scale.
The shutter is in an awkword position that together with the strange framing (camera upright for landscapes and level for portrait shots) and viewfinder position need a lot of practice.
After clicking the shutter, it needs a good amount of pressure in the wind knop to cock the shutter again.

Overall is a fun camera to use, but do not expect high quality photos

Some samples with a long expired Agfa XRG 100 film set to 16-25 ASA on camera

The half frame format can make panoramas, but the viewfinder shows less than what is recorded, so there is a big overlapping.

The door latch was loose and had some light leaks, I fixed later.

Hofburg, Vienna

Donauinsel, Vienna

Belevedere Palace, Vienna