Yashica Half-frames

You're absolutely right. A year or so BEFORE the pandemic, there was an ad on the local Craigslist for a BUNCH of older photo gear. I checked it out because it was close by, and it was the son of an OLD photographer who recently died. The family was cleaning out the house in order to sell it, but they had tons of old photo gear that they knew MIGHT be valuable, but they didn't have the time to deal with it -- only one family member lived nearby. I probably could have bought everything for $2,000, but turned about "$200" worth of very nice gear into about $2,000 for my bank account. I didn't keep any of the stuff for myself. I just bought what I knew was valuable. But I was also able to tell them what other stuff was valuable and what wasn't.

Another factor is the pandemic. A lot of people are cleaning out their closets becasue they have the time, and discovering old gear they will never use -- and selling it an EBAY, etc. I've gotten a LOT of great gear from new EBAY sellers who have no idea what their items are worth -- let alone whether it works. "Now where do you plug this thing in?"

These beauties have appeared today courtesy of the Royal Mail: Yashica's superb but quirky Rapide cameras.  They more than make up for a Taron Chic I could not afford on Catawiki.



A Brace of Rapides

What made the arrival of these two so enjoyable was the inclusion of some extras I had not managed to acquire before.  The cream, soft-plastic carrying case with its retractable handle being the star of the accessories; the soft brown leather camera cases are always a tight fit and often the zips fail but thankfully not here. 

The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted those rarest accessories, the hood, and filter holder with UV filter, on the left and right cameras respectively.  Finally an original manual makes an appearance plus the tiny, Yashica-branded black leather case for the hood and filter holder.  A nice surprise is the clear plastic bag with the Yashica logos on it which has somehow survived intact since 1961, as well as a copy of Yashica's original filter guide.

Sadly, we're back in full lockdown so it may be a while before I can go out and test them but it's something to look forward to in the Spring.

I do not know if as camera/lens are good, but for sure have an amazing look and design, and I especially like the stylish detail of the coat-of-arms, it reminds me of Linhof.

A Samurai x4.0 made an appearance here yesterday, with a TL-1 Tele-Converter attached.

I thought it might be fun to put the right-handed x4.0 next to the left-handed Z-L so they can be compared visually.



Samurai x4.0 and Z-L


The x4.0 precedes the Z and Z-L models and lacks some of their features but is still a very nice half-frame camera. 

What impresses me about the Z-L is that a more comprehensive feature list has been crammed into a much more compact body but I find both cameras fit comfortably in the hand.  My only irritation with the big x4.0 is that it does not like to stay level if you place it on its base; it has a tendency to roll onto its side.

Oddly enough I am somewhat ambidextrous.  Being born almost 70 years ago, I was born left-handed and back then you were made to work so that you became right-handed.  As a consequence, although I never was allowed, and so never became able, to write left-handed, I had a huge advantage at school when playing tennis and squash as I never needed to hit a back-hand stroke.  It used to drive my opponents insane as it gives you an extra 3ft of reach on the 'backhand' side.  As a consequence I was able to do rather well at racquet sports; tee hee.

That being said, I'm not sure I'd try shooting with both Samurai's at the same time...as I only have the one pair of eyes!

There was an obvious gap in the half-frame models in the form of the Half 17.  

Although the later version Half 17 Rapid was presented earlier in this thread, the original model was missing, so here it is....




Yashica Half 17


All the Half 17 versions use the same 32mm f1.7 Yashinon lens comprising 6 elements in 4 groups.  As this is the original version, not intended to be used with Agfa's Rapid film system, it has a rewind crank.  Overall, the camera is slightly smaller than the Half 17 Rapid and also weighs less.  I'm delighted to say that the selenium cell is working on this camera; something that seems increasingly rare.

So, that leaves only the Half 17 Rapid EE to find.  Also, there is the more elusive Half 14 which uses a faster Yashinon 32mm f1.4 lens.