Yashica AF anyone

[Paul Howell]

On impulse I stopped at a yard sale and found a Yashica 300 with 70 to 210 macro, paid $10.00 for it, once home I put a battery in it, works just fine. AF is screw drive, single AF point. Pretty basic camera, no ISO override, if not DX coded defaults to ISO 100, no matrix or spot metering, top shutter speed of 1/2000. Compared with my old but unusable Sigma SA 9 not much to sing about. The Sigma has matrix, average and spot metering, exposure bracketing, manual ISO as well as DX auto, top shutter speed of 1/8000th and a 3.5 FPS motor drive. From what I gather from old web sites Sigma and Zeiss made a few lens for it, I can only find a 50, 28, 35 to 70 to 210 and a Sigma 70 to 300. I will run a roll of Kentmere though it.

 

[xkaes]

It's not really fair to compare the Sigma SA 9 to the Yashica 300 since the Yashica was made decades earlier, at the dawn of AF SLRs. Better to compare it to a Maxxum 5000.

Yahsica/Tomioka made lenses from 24mm to 300mm for their AF cameras, and Contax/Zeiss jumped in a little later. I suspect that there are only a few lenses from independent lens manufacturers, but I don't know.

https://yashica.boards.net/thread/121/draft-lens-list?page=1

 

[Paul Howell]

Your right, the Yashica was made in the 1990s, the Sigma 10s years later. I think it came after the Yashica 200, so a second generation for Yashica. Build quality is pretty good, as good as my Minolta 7000.

 

[ic-racer]

I had not heard of it so I had to look it up:

 

[Paul Howell]

I had a vague idea that Yashica made a AF camera before leaving the market, this is the first one I ever saw. The woman who was holding the yard sell did not know anything about it, been sitting in a box for long time. I think Chinon also made an AF, might use Pentax KAF, what about Olympus?

 

[dynachrome]

I have a modest collection. Of Yashica AF cameras and lenses. I have only used the cameras a few times and they worked well. I remembered that the 230AF had the unique trap focus feature. I had a chance to get the 60mm Macro but did not buy it. The next time I see one I might add it to the collection.

 

[xkaes]

Yashica made at least four auto-focus SLR camera -- 200 AF, 230 AF, 270 AF & 300 AF. Like I mentioned, Yashica/Tomioka made lenses from 24mm to 300mm. Contax went down a different road with their AF cameras with the N series and N lenses. Neither worked out, but Contax did manage to create the first full-frame digital SLR before Kyocera pulled the plug -- on both of them.

It turned out that Kyocera was more interested in making money than cameras.

 

[Paul Howell]

Good to know. There is a 200 for sale at Shopgood.com with 2 Sigma kit lens, will not go for much. I will not bid on it, the downside for me is no ISO DX override.

 

[xkaes]

If it has a +/- exposure compensation setting, that might work.

 

[Paul Howell]

Good idea, it is possible to compensate but has to be set for each frame, does not seem to be way to set and forget. If push came to shove I could put in manual and compensate. Does not seem to be worth the trouble. As I was just fussing with the 300AF discovered that the shutter speed and F stop is not shown in the viewfinder, a over, under and green LED for exposure. I would need to keep looking at the top LED panel.