Group: Moderator
Post: 2,039 (562 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Jun 1, 2017 18:42:20 GMT
Posted: Jun 1, 2017 18:42:20 GMT
Hi folks,
I just grabbed a DA-1 and DA-2 data back (I have no idea as to what the significant difference is between them as they fit the same bodies) for some of the Yashica bodies (107MP, 230AF, etc.) and note that both have an automated calendar that runs to 2019. I also received an unused DA-7 for the Contax 167MT (and ST) and spotted that it has an automated calendar that will run until 2079.
Astonishing to think that, given the DA-7 was produced long before the Yashica backs, it has provision for 60 more years than Yashica expected its backs and cameras to function! OK - the Contax back cost 6 times more than the Yashica ones but it is also an intervalometer and can print complex data sets so you were paying for additional functionality. Given that it was a simple matter of coding the EPROM in Yashica's backs for a longer duration (no complex algorithms were needed for data sets or interval timings) why was Yashica so frugal with its calendar duration...planned obsolescence? |
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Group: Member
Post: 412 (91 liked)
Join date: March 2017
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on Jun 1, 2017 20:31:20 GMT
Posted: Jun 1, 2017 20:31:20 GMT
When electronics enter in the world of photography that was expected to happen, the case with the data-back dates was the beginning, at least Yashica was giving it a life of more than 20 years. Today you buy a DSLR camera and many functions are blocked by software, even when the logic board has all the operations available, stupid but important things like the lightmeter not working if you do not use an official lens from the brand. That is really low and I take is as spitting the customer in the face.
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Group: Administrator
Post: 1,010 (77 liked)
Join date: January 2014
Status:
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on Jun 2, 2017 1:56:34 GMT
Posted: Jun 2, 2017 1:56:34 GMT
Who would have thought that after all these years, some of those plastic bodied Yashicas would still be working. Or that Yashica would be gone! You can't predict how long something will last, just make a best-guess estimate, and hope it's not too conservative. Yashica was hoping you'd have moved on to one of their newer cameras by now. But we all know how that went down.
PF
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