Yashica Electro 35 GT Viewfinder test

An interesting observation. I'd have to dig through a bunch of manuals to see if the view percentage was ever emphasized for Yashica gear, and specifically for the Electro and other fixed lens cameras.

A couple of thoughts...

The entire series of the Electro, Minister/M, Lynx, 35/YK/YL, et all, are essentially rangefinders at their heart. That means there's no mirror in the box, and the flange focal depth distances are very shallow compared to SLR's - and obviously different depths again, for DSLR's. I have to think there's some optimization that's calculated for a number of factors, like circle of confusion 'edge fuzziness' and point of clarity, light scatter and bounce, and more than anything else, IMHO it would probably come down at the base end as a matter of cost and engineering complexity for that time period.

I imagine that the viewfinder percentage ratio (viewfinder to film frame) could have been increased much higher, but with considerable cost and effort that couldn't be justified by the company execs.

In contrast - If you look at Leica's M series film cameras at the high end of the market, there were multiple view percentages 'chosen' by design, for different models. There are at least 3 available, as ".58 vs .72 vs .85". The flange distance is exactly the same on all 3 of those body types, and obviously Leitz wasn't concerned with costs. One major difference with the M film series that won't apply to Yashica gear, is that although the M's are still technically 'Rangefinder" bodies, they do have interchangeable lenses.

Reference on 'FFD' : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flange_focal_distance.

Now you've got me wondering if Yashica TLR's had similar characteristics. They're on equal footing to be classified as fixed-lens rangefinders, only they're stacked vertically and don't use prisms for focus ranging. If I can find a substitute lying around for ground glass on a 6x6 film plane, I'll take a peek to see.