Yashica in Brazil... as Mitsuca?

• The company, initially named Yashica do Brazil, started its trading activities in Brazil in 1975 with the opening of a subsidiary from Yashica Co., Ltd., for direct trading of its products.
• In 1979, with the restriction to importations policy imposed shortly after, it was decided that the company would be set up in Brazil for good, producing quality photographic cameras in the city of Sorocaba.
• In 1983, as Kyocera Yashica, the company inaugurated the present industrial plant in the same city, introducing a production technology transfer of micro-precision and optical parts non-existent in the country.

Nov 9, 2019 4:47:01 GMT lumiworx said:

The Jebsen/JNC tie-in was on the nose biggles3 ... A later search turned up an OfferUp listing for brand new Yashica F9 digital cameras from a Florida seller who had a carton full for sale at $20 each. One of the pictures posted shows the back of the box with their logos prominently displayed.

This now brings up the question of whether any of these should be considered 'true' Yashica cameras...? I've found at least a half dozen models like them, and I'm not inclined to add them to the historical list if they really have no place there. Is it possible that these were Brazilian market cameras and were never intended for export? Obviously they made it to the US as part of the secondary market, but I wonder if they are Yashica products in name only, and the licensing deal was the only link.

When is a Yashica not a Yashica is, I suppose, the question.  Concerning the low pixel count compact cameras, I would suggest that all of the most recent ones have no Yashica heritage other than the licensed use of the name to try to give some respectability to some very basic kit. Some of the earliest ones which carry both the Kyocera and Yashica brands probably should still be considered Yashicas as, regardless of the place of manufacture, they were produced under the imprimatur of Kyocera and so form part of the Yashica family.  Any camera that carried the Yashica brand purely as a marketing ploy after Kyocera had sold the naming rights is not, imho, a true Yashica and so could be omitted from your list.  They could reasonably form an addendum to the true list. 

But that brings us to the issue of Yashica.com...

If you look at the Yashica website, the only cameras they show are the MF-1 Snapshot Art, a very basic point-and-shoot film camera, and the Y35 digiFilm which has received pretty awful reviews.  The Y35 certainly harks back to classic Yashica rangefinders in its appearance and if I found one for a cheap price, I'd buy it and shoot using the monochrome 'cassette/SD card' as all the colour ones seem a little 'off'.  I have not seen either camera in the flesh so to speak but what is interesting with the Y35 is that the fixed 35mm lens at least states Yashica and Japan.  Some while back, mfJebsen announced two new Kickstarter campaigns to fund a remake of the original Yashica MF-2 and also a 35mm version of the Yashica 44 TLR, the latter scheduled to launch its funding campaign next month; after the heavy criticism of the Y35, I would be surprised if either project found sufficient backing but we'll have to wait and see...  If either of these saw the light of day, we would probably have to include them in the list. 

The sad conclusion is that the owners of the marque, in their haste to exploit the brand, have only served to damage it with the rush-to-market of their post-Kyocera cameras.  One more failure to inspire like the Y35 and you can kiss a final goodbye to the reputation of what was once one of the great manufacturers of quality photographic equipment.   Thank goodness that no one has done the same to the Contax marque - yet.