Yashica 35

     Not to be confused with the Yashica Electro 35, the Yashica 35 was the first fixed lens camera Yashica produced. Unlike the Electro 35, the Yashica 35 is a  fully manual unit with a 2.8/45 Yashinon lens that seems to be scarce and rather hard to find. I was lucky to find the one shown here at an Internet auction site for just $60. Luckily, it was fully operable.
     I really like this camera. The controls are readily accessible, and the lens is set well into the barrel for protection against glare. The back swings open for easy film loading. The shutter is whisper quiet. There's even a self timer lever peeking out from the bottom of the lens barrel.  And to add a bit of nostalgia to the mix, the Yashica looks to me a bit like the Leica M3 I used back in the days before Custer's Last Stand at the Little Bighorn

       Another good feature is that the viewfinder/rangefinder window (which is larger than that of many others) is integrated. What's more, just below the rewind knob with its fold up lever you can see a thin dial that is used to indicate the ASA rating (10-400) of the film in use. After you turn the dial, the number you select appears in the small window to the left of the knob.

      Instead of a rewind button or lever the Yashica 35 has a small dial (red dot) set into the base plate of the camera. After a few tries, I found that you must reset the dial to "A" after you've rewound the film. If you don't, the film advance won't function correctly.
      Adjacent to the blue dot in the photo you can see a tiny screw. If you remove this screw, you can lift the lens out of the barrel to access the leaf shutter. The yellow dot marks the shutter speed selector dial (1-500+B). The green dot indicates the non click-stopped f stop selector; and the white dot at the left in the photo denotes the knob on the focusing ring. The depth of field scale sits atop the lens barrel and is not shown in the photo.

     If you can find a Yashica 35 in working order and for a decent price, and if it's the kind of camera you enjoy working with, I recommend that you snap it up. The Collectiblend website currently values this camera at $60-$160 depending on condition.

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