I saw the new' Yashica MF-2 in the wild today

[xkaes]

Here's some info that I've been able to glean from the helpful folks at the YASHICA forum, regarding the GENUINE, Yashica MF cameras. Here they are by their initial production start year:

Yashica 35 MF 1976 (the 35 ME appeared in 1972)

Yashica 35 MF-S 1977 (the 35 ME-S appeared in 1972)

Yashica MF-1 1979 (the ME-1 appeared in 1979)

Yashica MF-2 1979

Yashica MF-2 Kit (camera, strap, batteries, gift box) 1982

Yashica MF-3 1986

Yashica MF-3 Super 1986

Yashica MF-2 Super (Made in Hong Kong) 1986


The NEW, FAKE "Yashica" MF-1 and MF-2 were NOT made by Yashica or Kyocera/Yashica.

The NEW MF-1 bares no resemblance to any of the genuine Yashica MF cameras.

The NEW MF-2 Super is a copy of the Yashica MF-2 Super of 1986 that was made in Hong Kong -- which as I mentioned before is a very simple camera. How much the innards of the NEW MF-2 Super, and the quality of the lens, compare to the Yashica MF-2 Super of 1986 can only be determine through testing -- or surgery -- something the review at the top of this thread did not do.

 

[Paul Howell]

I took the one I bought apart, the meter cell had no wiring, just a ornament, only the flash was wired, which on my copy did not work.

 

[albada]

I took the one I bought apart, the meter cell had no wiring, just a ornament, only the flash was wired, which on my copy did not work.

If they can be believed, the spec's claim the lens is f/3.8. I see no manual method of stopping it down, so it must be stopped down via the meter. But the meter isn't wired and is only a decoration?! How then can the lens stop down? Perhaps it's actually f/11...

 

[xkaes]

I took the one I bought apart,

Since several of these cameras have the same name, exactly which model did you take apart?

If you are talking about the new, FAKE Yashica MF-2 Super DX then I'm not surprised bout the FAKE meter cell, and it probably isn't an f3.8 lens, either. Just because it says it is doesn't make it so. A fixed f3.8 would require a rather fast shutter speed.

 

[Paul Howell]

It was the Fake, not a real Yashica, I have 124s and a D, my wife had a FX3 for a while, have given thought to a the Yashica Ragefinder 35mm with the 35mm I think a 1.7 the black version.

 

[xkaes]

If it has a single shutter speed -- as I assume (it's probably in the 1/125 area) -- that would mean an f-stop of around f8-11, not 3.8. Is there any way for you to determine if the aperture is about that size?

Plus an f3.8 lens should be a focusing lens. Is this lens focusing or fixed?

 

[Paul Howell]

Fixed. Based on the ad copy on Amazon at the time I was thinking it was going to be scale. Fixed focus, single shutter speed, undetermined true shutter speed, and a flash that didn't work.

 

[xkaes]

Since you said that the flash is "wired", I assume that this probably resets the shutter speed, probably to 1/30 -- and who knows, maybe it is supposed to adjust the aperture as well, but I doubt it.

But for NON-flash use, the f-stop can't be set at f3.8. It's probably f8 or f11. You can probably determine this by looking through the back of the camera at a bright object, and releasing the shutter.

And if there is no "glass" behind the aperture/shutter, the lens is probably a single element optic.