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on Jul 26, 2019 3:16:13 GMT
Posted: Jul 26, 2019 3:16:13 GMT
I took my 230AF Super (same as the 270AF) with some Kodak Ektar 100 film out to Smith Mountain Lake State Park to see how it does. I only used the Yashica AF 35-105mm 1:3.5-4.5 Macro zoom lens as I didn't want to get bogged down in changing lenses, though I might do a more proper test later on.
First impressions are it doesn't have enough information in the viewfinder so one can keep track of the camera settings. And it seemed to have a problem with over exposures when pointed more towards the light source (in this case, broad daylight). Include more dark areas in the scene, and the exposures are correct. I don't know if it was a battery issue, but it was fairly consistent. I don't recall using this camera before.
As for handling, it feels good in the hand, controls are in the right places, but they are limited. You need to look at the LCD screen on top of the camera to see what is going on. The viewfinder only displays Mode, and Exposure Go/No Go. Focus Confirmation is in the form of a Beep. You can set the focus range to reduce hunting. You can get a dedicated Yashica flash (CS-240 Auto) to augment the built-in unit. The remote shutter release is electronically controlled via the Cable Switch L.
It has four exposure modes: Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual. Four drive modes are available: Single, Continuous, Self Timer, and Focus Capture. None of the AF lenses by Yashica/Kyocera have control rings, except for manual focus. I have six Kyocera AF lenses: 28/2.8; 50/1.8; 28-85/3.5-4.5 Macro; 35-105/3.5-4.5 Macro; 70-210/4.5; and 70-300/4.5-5.6, plus the hoods GA-11, 21, 31, and 41. The camera has AE and AF lock buttons, and a Pre-Flash selector switch.
While I was at the lake, as luck would have it someone came by and launched their boat, so I had plenty of lens to get some medium range scenes for the test.
You can click on any scene to go to the Flickr page for commentary of each frame, or use this link flic.kr/s/aHsmFsTsA1I'll be adding more photos over the next few days, checking out the Macro feature of the lens, and various lighting situations.
PF
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on Jul 26, 2019 16:00:19 GMT
Posted: Jul 26, 2019 16:00:19 GMT
Some more examples.
This concludes the test.
PF
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Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Jul 27, 2019 10:26:25 GMT
Posted: Jul 27, 2019 10:26:25 GMT
One thing those photos clearly demonstrate is the quality of the AF 35-105mm lens; it's a bit of a gem. Nice work.
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on Jul 27, 2019 16:30:32 GMT
Posted: Jul 27, 2019 16:30:32 GMT
Really mice, PF... and I have to agree with biggles3 on the lens. There's a box of Ektar 100 in my fridge - but I haven't used it before. I'd read about how it could help with shooting conditions that kill overall contrast and saturation with reds and greens, while retaining shadow details in backlit scenes. Seems to do that and more, so it might not be a battery/meter issue... just the formulation of the film that gets accentuated in strong daylight. Here's a page that someone put together to compare the differences in color neg film for landscape use. You've reminded me that I need to get a roll into my 230 and put the 60mm macro to the test. Do you scan your own film, or have the processor do that after development? |
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on Jul 28, 2019 1:43:35 GMT
Posted: Jul 28, 2019 1:43:35 GMT
Really mice, PF... and I have to agree with biggles3 on the lens. There's a box of Ektar 100 in my fridge - but I haven't used it before. I'd read about how it could help with shooting conditions that kill overall contrast and saturation with reds and greens, while retaining shadow details in backlit scenes. Seems to do that and more, so it might not be a battery/meter issue... just the formulation of the film that gets accentuated in strong daylight. Here's a page that someone put together to compare the differences in color neg film for landscape use. You've reminded me that I need to get a roll into my 230 and put the 60mm macro to the test. Do you scan your own film, or have the processor do that after development? I have the lab do the scans, with the request that they do no correcting so I can see if I got exposures correct (especially when I'm just winging it without a meter). When I did the post processing, what seemed to work best was the Auto Levels correction, and since it was darkening the scenes, that's why I figure the camera was over exposing. I used the Saturation slider only a couple of times. I don't like cranking it past 15%, unless it really needs that much help.
Here is a discussion I found explaining the Ektar reactions to over and under exposure. It pretty much falls where I expected it to, even though the guy who posted it used a flash to replicate the sun. Basically, with over exposure the scene will flatten out, and de-saturate. With under exposure it's just the opposite, with color shifting added to the mix.
PF
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on Apr 12, 2020 17:08:30 GMT
Last Edit: Apr 12, 2020 17:11:25 GMT by lenslover
The AF Confirmation "Beep" Sound is always on, i don't find a off switch, like via DSLR. This is annoying, and looks like an absolute Beginner with a camera.  Even on the 230 Super (270 AF) the Combo is very front-heavy, when the 28-85 AF is being mounted, furthermore, onto the 200/230 AF (i wouldn't use the 28-85 AF for this reason onto these Bodies, Handling is awful) Otherwise, the 270 AF (or 230 "Super") is a very big SLR, too big for my taste.
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on Apr 13, 2020 1:54:10 GMT
Posted: Apr 13, 2020 1:54:10 GMT
To my taste, the Yashica AF bodies are indeed not so terribly much to phone home about, but some of the lenses are really excellent, which is why I've kept them, and keep using them. The 24mm wide angle, the 60mm macro and the 28-85mm zoom are among my favorites.
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on Apr 13, 2020 9:24:48 GMT
Last Edit: Apr 13, 2020 9:25:39 GMT by lenslover
I do have them all, plus the 50/1.8. Only missing out the 24/2.8. Sadly, nobody answered my Question about that annoying "beep" from the 230 Super aka 270 AF. Happy Easter!
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on Apr 13, 2020 16:04:51 GMT
Last Edit: Apr 13, 2020 16:17:18 GMT by lumiworx
I do have them all, plus the 50/1.8. Only missing out the 24/2.8. Sadly, nobody answered my Question about that annoying "beep" from the 230 Super aka 270 AF. Happy Easter!
... just not in this thread ... Greetings Friends, i've just loaded a new Battery into my 270 AF, it works - what only is very annoying, the "beep" when AF is being confirmed..i haven't found anything, to switch this off, inside the Manual...does anybody knew something, or must i do life with this?  Happy Easter, especially into these hard Pandemic Times! Set the AF on Continuous, that should get rid of it. PF
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on Apr 13, 2020 17:32:21 GMT
Posted: Apr 13, 2020 17:32:21 GMT
The 60mm AF macro seems to have found a semi-permanent home on my NEX-F3 - despite the shortcomings of the FotoDiox adapter. The 50mm and 24mm, along with the 70-210 AF lenses have all been sharp and capable. I should also mention that the AF/Manual adapter really does work well too, and the added optics are far better than expected.
Last week a 300 AF found it's way here after a bit of watching/waiting to find one in great shape. It's working in all respects, but sadly it has a plastic lens mount, with only a thin metal lock ring on the inside to catch the bayonet tabs. Not exactly confidence building when it flexes after a lens is attached. The 300 might be a little larger than it needed to be, but doesn't have a bad feel in-hand. It's just that lens mount ...?!@! It seems like a 230 Super or 270 may be the best blend of form and function.
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on Apr 14, 2020 2:17:13 GMT
Posted: Apr 14, 2020 2:17:13 GMT
I do have them all, plus the 50/1.8. Only missing out the 24/2.8. Sadly, nobody answered my Question about that annoying "beep" from the 230 Super aka 270 AF. Happy Easter!
... just not in this thread ... Set the AF on Continuous, that should get rid of it. PF
My mistake, it should have been "Set the Drive in Continuous mode."
PF
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on Apr 14, 2020 21:51:41 GMT
Last Edit: Apr 14, 2020 21:52:12 GMT by lenslover
I understood you properly, read it into the other thread, but didn't reply, because it sounded weird. Well, anyway, onto the Streets, that annoying "beep" is barely noticeable, i do hear it, but...anyway. I've made 5 exposures yesterday. Agfa APX 100. The SLR works like on her 1st day.
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on May 15, 2020 11:49:53 GMT
Posted: May 15, 2020 11:49:53 GMT
The YASHICA 230 could have been a starting point for a very successful system. State-of-the-art at her time, some interesting features: +/-3 steps light compensation, focus trap ... Also the lenses were quite good. But it was YASHICA ... always reducing the features from one cam to its successor instead of building up a (semi)Pro model ... Some pics: matthiasausk.blogspot.com/2012/06/steinbach-judischer-friedhof.html(Maybe I should let them scan again and do some more postprocessing. There's so much more quality in the negatives than my old CANON 9000 can reproduce ...) |
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on May 15, 2020 13:03:36 GMT
Posted: May 15, 2020 13:03:36 GMT
The YASHICA 230 could have been a starting point for a very successful system. Absolutely so, Matthias - just consider how successfully Minolta marketed their AF SLRs.
It seems the Yashicas were just too expensive, and too late, to gain a foothold on the market. (As far as I recall, Sears had to sell their 230s at half their original asking price after they had been sitting on the shelves for a year or so.)
Still, those are good cameras with some excellent lenses and I use them regularly, even if that first-generation AF can be a tad unnerving at times.
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on May 15, 2020 14:30:45 GMT
Posted: May 15, 2020 14:30:45 GMT
It seems the Yashicas were just too expensive, and too late, to gain a foothold on the market.... If you accept some of the statements attributed to Yashica's execs about the demands placed on them as 100% accurate, then I can only blame Zeiss for the possibility of failures for both Yashica and Contax. I don't think it was the market or the prices as much as Germany's insistence that AF wasn't a direction they wanted to persue with any product that had their name on it. How do you plan a company's future, when the rug has been ripped from under your feet by your (supposed) partner? Yashica seemed to be in a delicate position at a time, and they needed more support and respect from Zeiss than they were given. If Zeiss dug in and refused to accept the next logical evolution in technology and Kyocera was still feeling the sting of 'rescuing' Yashica from bankruptcy, I have to wonder what was going on in the remnants of the engineering and design departments of ye-old Yashica company. I also wonder just how far out on a limb they came to be - and over who's neck the pendulum was swinging - when they went on to work on the RX and AX. They knew those alternatives for auto focusing would be expected by the pros, and needed to be available in the end to survive and make any progress in a future market. After all the time, energy, and inovation that went into just those 2 bodies alone, I can't imagine the constant punch in the guts they must have felt while they were trying to persuade Zeiss that AF could be successfully done. My money is on Kyocera choosing to do what they ultimatly did, where it was based on them dealing with a stuborn foreign company, and complicating their running a company they really didn't want to actually own in the first place. They needed an excuse, and Zeiss ended up giving them one. It may have taken a while to wind it all down, but the 'internal AF war' might have been the begining of the end of Yashica as a brand. |
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Even on the 230 Super (270 AF) the Combo is very front-heavy, when the 28-85 AF is being mounted, furthermore, onto the 200/230 AF (i wouldn't use the 28-85 AF for this reason onto these Bodies, Handling is awful) Otherwise, the 270 AF (or 230 "Super") is a very big SLR, too big for my taste.
