First time in nearly 50 years - Yashica Matt

Mozziephotography

Mozziephotography

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Around 52 years ago, a beautiful young woman approached me and asked if I'd like to go to a party. I was sat in the "table tennis room" at a college of education. Supposedly, I was going to be her friend's surprise date for the night. It didn't work out that way.The beautiful young woman has been my wife for the last 51 years. Sal was an art student and had attended the Joseph Wright secondary school of Art. She'd taken quite a number of amazing fashion shots with her trust Yashica Matt (not the 124G). Together, we put quite a few rolls of black and white through this TLR. The camera has been laying dormant for the last 45 years, due to us progressing(?) from said camera to a Canon AE1 Programand then various digital ones. I've got the urge to put myself into the dim and distant past. Can I remember how to load a film,already purchased, work out all the settings and hopefully produce some reasonable images. I've set my expectations quite low. One good thing, the film only has 12 exposures and that should mean that there will be a quick turnaround. Any advice? I'm sure that we didn't have a light meter.
 
The Light Meter phone app is available free and pretty much accurate as well. A TLR has some parallax error the closer you get to your subject, but not a problem if you're maybe a couple of metres away. Enjoy!
 
I agree the iPhone light meter app (s) work well, I say apps because I use a basic one when out and about with my Leica M2 and a more advanced one for pin hole that takes in to account RLF.

As for the Yashica Mat, I don't have any tips, it is almost forty years since I used one but we do see a few Yashica Mat pics in the film and conventional threads so there are a few current users here, hopefully one will be along soon.
 
Sunny 16 should work; but if you get stuck, when using negative film just remember that box cameras didn't have meters (or adustable shutter speeds and apertures), and people still managed to get acceptable photos.
 
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The black and white image is one that Sal took, somewhere around 1962. The one in colour is Sal, taken by a fellow student.
 

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One thing to be cautious about... If the camera has lain dormant for 45 years then there could be issues with the mechanisms having seized up due to the lubricants hardening with lack of movement. I would suggest giving all the mechanisms a good test before loading some film. Ideally a CLA of the camera would be a good idea, but that could be quite expensive.

Hopefully it will all be working ok though. I have a Yashica Mat 124G and it produces lovely results. Good luck!
 
FishyFish said:
One thing to be cautious about... If the camera has lain dormant for 45 years then there could be issues with the mechanisms having seized up due to the lubricants hardening with lack of movement. I would suggest giving all the mechanisms a good test before loading some film. Ideally a CLA of the camera would be a good idea, but that could be quite expensive.

Hopefully it will all be working ok though. I have a Yashica Mat 124G and it produces lovely results. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Cheers. I'll put one film through and see what happens.No problem if there are isssues. Gained nothing and lost nothing.
Winder winds and the shutter opens and shuts! Yeah!
 
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