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From: ddb@mrvax.DEC
Newsgroups: net.rec.photo
Subject: Yashicamat 124G
Message-ID: <2372@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 30-May-85 10:01:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.2372
Posted: Thu May 30 10:01:25 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Jun-85 01:00:39 EDT
Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 36

I had one of these, lo these many years ago.  I was very happy with mine;
it let me get into 6x6 format on a budget, and the lens was good enough
for portraits and landscapes blown up to at least 11x14.  Don't recall if
I tried going larger.  I also worked with a wedding/portrait photographer
who used a pair of them for some time, with considerable success (in fact
I bought one of his old ones when he invested in 6x6 SLRs).

The Yashicamat is a twin-lens reflex, which means it has separate viewing
and taking lenses on the front.  Light entering the viewing lens bounces
off a simple mirrow and onto the top-mounted viewing screen; this leads
to left-right reversed images, but at least they are right side up.  The
pop-up magnifier is good for critical focusing on the ground glass.  The
"sportsfinder" mentioned isn't good for anything these days;  back when
35mm wasn't a usable format, the sportsfinder was an attempt at making it
possible to photograph action with one of these.  It sort of worked, but
a rangefinder or SLR system is much better for action.

The coupled meter in the Yashicamat works, but I almost always used a
separate meter (I was in the habit of carrying them because my main 
camera at the time was a Leica M3, with no meter).  Since I used the camera
only for relatively static situations, this was no problem, and indeed I
probably would have used a separate meter to make selective readings around
the scene even if I'd been using a 35mm SLR with meter.

Since the cheapest medium-format SLR (the Mamiya 645J last time I looked)
costs about $500, a $125 yashicamat (or cheaper; shop around) is a reasonable
way to deal with at least many of the situations for which a medium-format
negative is deisrable.

(Oh, for those who haven't read between the lines yet, the BIG drawback
of the Yashicamat is that the lenses aren't interchangeable; you can get
"auxiliary" wide-angle and closeup lenses, but I never did and I'm VERY
suspicious of them.)

		-- David Dyer-Bennet
		--  ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-mrvax!ddb