Yashica FR series question

[OlyMan]

I'm currently renovating and repairing a Yashica FR-II that was my dad's in the late 70s. This is an aperture-priority camera with an electronic shutter and no manual override. I know there was an FR-I and FR, but I don't know much about either of them other than they both offered manual shutter speed selection whereas the FR-II did not. Anyone know what the differences were between the FR and FR-I?

Thanks

 

[Les Sarile]

I have the FR which is fully manual shutter speed and aperture adjustment but completely battery dependent. I believe the FR-I adds aperture priority to this. Their claim to fame of course is the electronic shutter switch does not require any pressure - minimizing camera movement, and therefore allows you to hold the camera more steady at slower speeds.

 

[OlyMan]

Ah right. I was struggling to see what the difference was between the FR and FR-1. If the FR-1 also offered aperture priority that would make sense. Thanks.

 

[OlyMan]

What Nikon is that second from left?
EDIT; think by deduction from the shape of its self timer lever it's an FM...

 

[colin wells]

I have the FR1 as a backup body for my Contax RTS 1 the FR is much lighter and the economy version but i find it just as good and they both take the same winder

 

[OlyMan]

I have the FR1 as a backup body for my Contax RTS 1 the FR is much lighter and the economy version but i find it just as good and they both take the same winder

Ah the good old days when two cameras at opposite ends of a maker's price-spectrum took essentially indistinguishable shots providing you used the same lens and exposure settings. These days, rather than it being all about the glass, it's as much about the quality of the sensor and the firmware, which, if they so desire, can be deliberately watered down to suit the expectations of the budget.

 

[colin wells]

Both cameras seem to have the same metering that talleys with a gossen lunarsix exactly

 

[OlyMan]

Yeah there was probably a lot of similarities under the skin. And the Yashicas were a cheap way of buying into a system which accepted the excellent Zeiss T* lenses. Though some aspects were definitely built down to a price. For example the back isn't easily removable on the FR-II for absolutely no reason other than they thought meh we're not giving you that feature on the poverty spec model (though it must have cost them more money to make a model-specific back). And there's a nylon cog in the film-advance mechanism that shed a tooth when the camera was about five years old. My elder brother fixed it by drilling the cog and gluing in a metal peg in place of the tooth; a nifty piece of handiwork it has to be said that would have impressed even my dentist.

 

[colin wells]

One of my RTS 1 s have the same problem with the frame counter .Their is a fix for it on the net .

 

[blockend]

The FR is a well built manual camera with aperture and shutter speed read out and metering through the finder. The frame counter is a weak spot. Yashica's multi-coated ML lenses are very good, though my tests show the cheaper DSB single-coated lenses to have very little difference in IQ.