Another FFT
Aug 20, 2022 10:57:14 GMT
on Aug 20, 2022 10:57:14 GMT
Posted: Aug 20, 2022 10:57:14 GMT
One of Great Britain's finest traditions (leaving to one side the days of Empire! Ahem.) is support for the underdog. I say this as a means of excusing a guilty pleasure: the Yashica FFT.
If one looks at Yashica's last iterations of cameras with the M42 mount, then the FFT is unquestionably the runt of the litter. It was the last M42 camera manufactured by Yashica and it was late to the party, being sold alongside the FX-1 and FR.
The camera below arrived from Japan with a Sequelle and as you can see, it has a Yashinon-DS 50mm f1.9 attached which is in excellent optical and mechanical condition although it's missing a few spots of paint on the front of the focusing ring.
FFT Yash-DS 50 1.9
I've been lucky in finding FFTs worth buying as many were simply junked as the M42 systems became redundant and others were left to decay in Japanese homes. My earliest example dates from its first production run in November 1973 and was the 91st off the line; this one was among the very last manufactured and dates from December 1974.
After the sophistication of the various TL Electro X models and the unwise complexity of the Electro AX, the FFT's simplicity is rather refreshing. A TTL CdS centre-weighted, match-needle meter; focal-plane shutter with stepped speeds from 1s to 1/1000s plus B with x-sync at 1/60s; that's about it - there's a hot shoe and 10s delayed timer and that's your lot. And nothing is automatic.
Yet for all its basic simplicity, build quality is pretty decent and it has a rugged feel to it - almost agricultural. But the shutters in all my FFTs remain accurate and reliable and only one camera has a failed meter. Having initially acquired one for the sake of M42 completeness, when cheap. working ones appear there's an almost Pavlovian response for which I entirely blame the credit card.
And almost as valued as one of the cameras, an English language user manual is at hand. Not that this camera really needs a manual...
If one looks at Yashica's last iterations of cameras with the M42 mount, then the FFT is unquestionably the runt of the litter. It was the last M42 camera manufactured by Yashica and it was late to the party, being sold alongside the FX-1 and FR.
The camera below arrived from Japan with a Sequelle and as you can see, it has a Yashinon-DS 50mm f1.9 attached which is in excellent optical and mechanical condition although it's missing a few spots of paint on the front of the focusing ring.
FFT Yash-DS 50 1.9
I've been lucky in finding FFTs worth buying as many were simply junked as the M42 systems became redundant and others were left to decay in Japanese homes. My earliest example dates from its first production run in November 1973 and was the 91st off the line; this one was among the very last manufactured and dates from December 1974.
After the sophistication of the various TL Electro X models and the unwise complexity of the Electro AX, the FFT's simplicity is rather refreshing. A TTL CdS centre-weighted, match-needle meter; focal-plane shutter with stepped speeds from 1s to 1/1000s plus B with x-sync at 1/60s; that's about it - there's a hot shoe and 10s delayed timer and that's your lot. And nothing is automatic.
Yet for all its basic simplicity, build quality is pretty decent and it has a rugged feel to it - almost agricultural. But the shutters in all my FFTs remain accurate and reliable and only one camera has a failed meter. Having initially acquired one for the sake of M42 completeness, when cheap. working ones appear there's an almost Pavlovian response for which I entirely blame the credit card.
And almost as valued as one of the cameras, an English language user manual is at hand. Not that this camera really needs a manual...
