Welcome To Roanoke College
As you drive west on East Main Street in Salem, VA, you come upon this sign in front of the old Roanoke County Court House. This represents the new gateway to the college, which is just a block north on College Avenue.
I picked this as my subject for a test of the Yashica J I recently aquired. It is a 35mm rangefinder with a Yashinon 4.5cm lens, and maximum aperture of 1:2.8. It has a nicely designed body similar to the M/Minister line of cameras, with overtones of the YF in the window surround of the viewfinder.
It has a combined view/rangefinder, so there is only one window on the rear of the camera. The frame counter sits below and surrounding the winding lever, with the shutter release button next to that. A cold accessory shoe, and the film rewinder (unlike on the M) complete the top of the camera.
The lens/shutter assembly has a nice tab for focusing, and the aperture and shutter speed rings are well marked chrome with black numbers. It does not have the EV system of locking the aperture and shutter speeds together. The front element sits far back of the 46mm filter ring, essentially creating a built-in hood. The X sync socket is on the front of the camera, to the lower left as you look at the front.
There is a placard with the letter J and three stars where one might design a selenium meter cell in another model. This same body was used for the 35W, EE, and Campus models, with varying degrees of cosmetic, and functional differences.
It was fun to shoot with this camera, but the rangefinder patch is getting a bit weak after all these years. It has no light leaks, and everything worked right out of the box. It has no click stops on the aperture ring, but that did not present itself as a problem, as selecting a half-stop was convenient. I judged exposures by the Sunny-16 method, and I think that the minimum aperture actually goes to around f22, as there is some travel in the selector ring after f16. All of these photos are only crops from the original scans, with a couple of them having their horizons fixed in PSE10. No changes to exposure.
Another nice, batteryless Yashica to keep handy.
PF
For a map of the Roanoke College Campus see
Welcome To Roanoke College
As you drive west on East Main Street in Salem, VA, you come upon this sign in front of the old Roanoke County Court House. This represents the new gateway to the college, which is just a block north on College Avenue.
I picked this as my subject for a test of the Yashica J I recently aquired. It is a 35mm rangefinder with a Yashinon 4.5cm lens, and maximum aperture of 1:2.8. It has a nicely designed body similar to the M/Minister line of cameras, with overtones of the YF in the window surround of the viewfinder.
It has a combined view/rangefinder, so there is only one window on the rear of the camera. The frame counter sits below and surrounding the winding lever, with the shutter release button next to that. A cold accessory shoe, and the film rewinder (unlike on the M) complete the top of the camera.
The lens/shutter assembly has a nice tab for focusing, and the aperture and shutter speed rings are well marked chrome with black numbers. It does not have the EV system of locking the aperture and shutter speeds together. The front element sits far back of the 46mm filter ring, essentially creating a built-in hood. The X sync socket is on the front of the camera, to the lower left as you look at the front.
There is a placard with the letter J and three stars where one might design a selenium meter cell in another model. This same body was used for the 35W, EE, and Campus models, with varying degrees of cosmetic, and functional differences.
It was fun to shoot with this camera, but the rangefinder patch is getting a bit weak after all these years. It has no light leaks, and everything worked right out of the box. It has no click stops on the aperture ring, but that did not present itself as a problem, as selecting a half-stop was convenient. I judged exposures by the Sunny-16 method, and I think that the minimum aperture actually goes to around f22, as there is some travel in the selector ring after f16. All of these photos are only crops from the original scans, with a couple of them having their horizons fixed in PSE10. No changes to exposure.
Another nice, batteryless Yashica to keep handy.
PF
For a map of the Roanoke College Campus see