Medium format has always been my secret and very hard (literally) love. At different times I shot with Kiev-60 and Mamiya 645 and for different reasons I had to give them up, but then I got hold of Yashica-A and it was a completely new and pleasant experience for me. I'll tell you more about it now.
The Yashica-A is a Japanese dual lens camera from 1957. It was a medium format camera, which means it used 120mm film and had 12 6x6 images per reel.
The lens is 80mm. F3.5, aperture closes till f22
Minimum exposure is 1/300, the other values are also quite nice - 1/25, 1/50, 1/100.
This is a fully manual camera, that is, it has no built-in exposure meter, and to go to the next frame you need to scroll a special wheel until the next number appears on the frame counter. The first thing is easily solved by an app on your phone, and the latter gives you the ability to do any crazy multi-exposure. So I wouldn't call it a disadvantage.
I tested this camera with Fomapan 400 film. I shot part of it outdoors in daylight with the aperture closed and the shutter speed slowed down. And part indoors at 3.5 and 1/25, 1/50. Unfortunately, I lighted up some of the film by mistake. But I was very pleased with what I was able to shoot.
On the plus side:
It is a very light and handy camera. Unlike many other medium format cameras I have ever tried, it fits perfectly in my hand and I don't want to let go of it :)
Very bright and easy to use shaft with a retractable magnifier that leaves practically no chance of missing the focus
Controls all the settings very comfortable and intuitive as well as their range
very quiet shutter sound that allows you to spy on everyone unnoticed :)
From my own opinion:
it is a very nice camera, so that with it you can safely try to make street self-portraits in the style of Vivian Maier, which I actually did :)
Bad sides:
On some cameras the focus wheel is on the left, so that it was convenient to focus with one hand and press the shutter with the other. On the drawer, all the settings are on the right side, so it may not be very comfortable at first.
It can be a bit hard to scroll through frames in cold weather. But, that's probably not the worst part of cold weather.
Overall, I'm absolutely thrilled, still for some reason inexplicable to me the medium format has its own incredible magic. And such a small number of shots adds value and significance to each of them. And in this little journey of mine, the Yashica - A was the perfect companion.
