#tlr camera

Miniaturisation. Pervasive concept that it is, it was only a matter of time before it hit the world of Twin-Lens Reflexes. The Yashica 44 was Yashica's 1958 answer to that, being a three-quarter scale version of the venerable Yashica-Mat that uses 127 Film rather than 120. While the 44's no Goerz Minicord, it is small enough to fit in my satchel comfortably, which is nice as last month i shoved it in my bag and went for a stroll to a nearby town.

My version of the Yashica 44 is the 44A, the cheapo model without the base 44's fancier Copal Shutter and the automatic handcrank, having a basic knob advance and red window instead. Nevertheless, that didn't stop me. I painted a little stop marker on the advance knob, made up some adapters for the take-up spool (3D printed) and the little container up top where the film goes (three 1p coins wrapped in electrical tape, 's peach 👌), and removed the film rollers. Mike Feuerbacher has a good walkthrough on his website here.

The reason for the modifications is ease of use: 127 film is near-extinct, made by only a couple of companies these days. This makes it expensive, looking at £15+ a roll when i can get 3 rolls of 35mm for not much more. The economy of it all is clear-cut as far as i see it. The problem with this is 35mm is smaller, being... well, 35mm compared to 127's 40mm. This difference in sizing means the Yashica includes the sprocket holes in the photo, which i know isn't for everyone, but, like. The crop option in every image editor exists. 's aight. Either way, i like them.

I'm a big fan of getting all artsy-fartsy with this shit. Doing this modification situation with my Yashica 44A has me thinking about doing it with other 127 cameras, like a Purma Special or maybe some sort of folder or box, like an Ensign Cadet. That'd be fun. For future endeavours though, i'm gonna make sure to wind properly. To be on the safe side, i wound the film advance two full rotations, 720 degrees. This, as it turns out, was FAR too much. One full rotation of 360 degrees is perfectly fine, as turns out. Due to the double winding, i only got 7 exposures on an entire strip of 35mm, whereas with one wind i could get 13-14.

I really enjoyed my time with the Yashica 44A, even after a few false starts (this is actually my 2nd roll, the first one i totally bungled the development of. Womp womp.). I'm definitely gonna try and use it some more, maybe with some colour, or maybe some redscale in the winter months. A long exposure in the dark aimed at some nice light sources could go hard. Til then, that's it for now. I've got plenty more in the pipeline though, a good few rolls scanned in and such, including some shot on expired Portra which... Went... interestingly. But for now, that's it. Take care out there folks 💖.