Yashica Electro 35
Introduction
In 1966 Yashica introduced the Electro 35. It was the first of a very succesfull line of cameras. All of them are 35mm rangefinder cameras with fixed Yashinon lenses. The rangefinder is coupled to the focusing ring and the viewfinder is parallax corrected. Very nice for a 1960's rangefinder camera. The Electros use aperture priority exposure with a stepless (!) automatic shutter with speeds from 30s to 1/500s.
Underexposure (i.e. shutterspeed at the chosen aperture lower than 1/30s) is indicated in the viewfinder by an orange arrow pointing left and an orange light on top of the camera. Similarly, a requiered shutterspeed faster than 1/500s is indicated by a right pointing arrow and a red control light on the top.
Specifications
Copal electronic blade shutter with flash sync at all speeds. Yashinon 1.7 45mm lens. On later models, the lens is called color Yashinon.
Variations and developments
1966 original Yashica Electro 35
1968 Electro 35 G
1969 Electro 35 GT
1970 Electro 35 GS
1973 Electro 35 GSN, GTN and GL
???? Electro 35 GX
???? Electro 35 CC
Letters indicate: G gold contact points in electrical parts
N hotshoe
S (no battery test light, combined shutterdoor release and rewind crank)
T black body
Links
- The Yashica Guy's chronology
- Karen Nakamura's overview at Photoethnography
- James Surprenant's summary
- Matt Denton's overview
- Yann L'hostis' summary (in French, includes shutter sound sample)
- Article by M. Feuerbacher
- Adam Brown's New Used Yashica Electro GSN Review
- Lionel's Yashica Electro 35 GSN overview in french at 35mm-compact.com
