Yashicaflex C
For a quite long time I have wanted to shoot with a TLR camera. The biggest thing between me and that has been the issue that most TLRs I have found have been either ridiculously expensive or in a really bad shape.
While a go I then finally found one that was promised to be in a good shape and price was reasonable. Not cheap like I usually find my film cameras but not that bad either.
So the camera. It was Yashicaflex, and by my estimates it is the C-model. So it is from from fifties.
Actually as a funny thing it is also my second non toy medium-format camera. Usually when I’m shooting with 120-film I use Holga or Diana.
The camera is pretty easy. There is just couple of more steps that you have to remember compared to more modern cameras. So first set the shutter time and then cock the shutter. I feel that focusing is not completely accurate but then again I didn’t use magnifying glass for precision focusing.
The viewfinder is big, like really big but surprisingly dark. Well the camera has maximum aperture 3.5 so maybe that is the reason. The other limitation is that the fastest shutter speed is 1/300. It can be a problem in really bright day.
Still the camera was quite nice although slow to use when I carried it around so it kinda feels alright for street photography.
As a first roll I used some film I got with it. It is cheapo black and white film called Shanghai GP3. In generally I liked the results. I noticed that I have quite many rolls of 120 film in my fridge so next I plan to use Kodak Ektar 100.
