Jörg Krüger
Yashica T3, T4 and T5
In 1985 the Japanese company Kyocera launched with the Yashica T AF a successful series of point & shoot cameras with a high-quality lens, a Tessar by Carl Zeiss. In this picture you can see the last three of this series, the T3 from 1988, the T4 from 1992 and the T5, in the US also known as T4 Super, from 1995.
The T4 and the T5 are quite similar, but the T5 is weatherproof and sports the super scope, a kind of waist-level finder, like the T3. There is also a T3 Super, an advanced T3 with continuous shooting and red-eye-reduction for the flash, if I remember correctly.
Some data:
T3: nearest focus 0.5m, shutter speed 1 - 1/630s, ASA (DX) 64-1600, weight 330g, size 132x70x53mm, uses a 6V 2CR5 battery.
T4 & T5: nearest focus 0.35m, shutter speed 1 -1/700s, ASA (DX) 50-3200, uses a 3V CR123A battery.
T4: weight 170g and size 116.5x63.5x37mm
T5: weight 190g and size 118x64x39mm
The T3 has a 2.8/35mm lens, all other cameras of the T series have a 3.5/35mm one.
Some functions:
All cameras have a green and a red LED near the viewfinder, which tell you things like "Yes, I have the focus", "Oh, it's too dark" or "Wait! Flash isn't ready yet".
T3: self-timer, flash on (fill-in)/off/automatic
T4 & T5: self timer, flash on/off/automatic/automatic with red-eye reduction, focus to infinity.
None of them has an exposure compensation.
The super scope finder (T5) or N.A. Scope (T3) is like a brilliant finder on vintage folding cameras. You can't compare it to a waist-level finder of a medium format camera, it is too tiny to compose a picture, but it can help to aim your subject in some situations. The image is reversed left to right. The normal viewfinder of the T4 and T5 is also tiny, but very clear. The view through the finder of the T3 is sometimes disturbed by lots of reflections, I think it has something to do with its "glasshouse" on its front, which protects the viewfinder and the autofocus lenses.
And now to the popular item: "is that lens really that good?" In forums you can read things like that: "The lens of the T3 has 4 elements in 4 groups and not in 3 ones, it can't be a Tessar", "but it's a Zeiss lens - it must be good", "it has a plastic element and therefor no coating - the contrast will be lousy", "I take slides, the quality is excellent", "all rubbish, my German Minox GT is much better" and so on. So, it is a Tessar lens, nothing more, nothing less, probably better than the average of all lenses on point & shoot cameras, but it can't do miracles. 4-element-lenses on other cameras will do quite the same job, like on the Konica Big mini or Olympus mju-II (Stylus epic).
Some time ago you have to pay far more than 100€ for a copy of one of these on ebay. This was definitely overpriced and prices are more real today.
(The T3 on the picture was heavily used, so the rubber coating of the shutter button is gone)
Yashica T3, T4 and T5
In 1985 the Japanese company Kyocera launched with the Yashica T AF a successful series of point & shoot cameras with a high-quality lens, a Tessar by Carl Zeiss. In this picture you can see the last three of this series, the T3 from 1988, the T4 from 1992 and the T5, in the US also known as T4 Super, from 1995.
The T4 and the T5 are quite similar, but the T5 is weatherproof and sports the super scope, a kind of waist-level finder, like the T3. There is also a T3 Super, an advanced T3 with continuous shooting and red-eye-reduction for the flash, if I remember correctly.
Some data:
T3: nearest focus 0.5m, shutter speed 1 - 1/630s, ASA (DX) 64-1600, weight 330g, size 132x70x53mm, uses a 6V 2CR5 battery.
T4 & T5: nearest focus 0.35m, shutter speed 1 -1/700s, ASA (DX) 50-3200, uses a 3V CR123A battery.
T4: weight 170g and size 116.5x63.5x37mm
T5: weight 190g and size 118x64x39mm
The T3 has a 2.8/35mm lens, all other cameras of the T series have a 3.5/35mm one.
Some functions:
All cameras have a green and a red LED near the viewfinder, which tell you things like "Yes, I have the focus", "Oh, it's too dark" or "Wait! Flash isn't ready yet".
T3: self-timer, flash on (fill-in)/off/automatic
T4 & T5: self timer, flash on/off/automatic/automatic with red-eye reduction, focus to infinity.
None of them has an exposure compensation.
The super scope finder (T5) or N.A. Scope (T3) is like a brilliant finder on vintage folding cameras. You can't compare it to a waist-level finder of a medium format camera, it is too tiny to compose a picture, but it can help to aim your subject in some situations. The image is reversed left to right. The normal viewfinder of the T4 and T5 is also tiny, but very clear. The view through the finder of the T3 is sometimes disturbed by lots of reflections, I think it has something to do with its "glasshouse" on its front, which protects the viewfinder and the autofocus lenses.
And now to the popular item: "is that lens really that good?" In forums you can read things like that: "The lens of the T3 has 4 elements in 4 groups and not in 3 ones, it can't be a Tessar", "but it's a Zeiss lens - it must be good", "it has a plastic element and therefor no coating - the contrast will be lousy", "I take slides, the quality is excellent", "all rubbish, my German Minox GT is much better" and so on. So, it is a Tessar lens, nothing more, nothing less, probably better than the average of all lenses on point & shoot cameras, but it can't do miracles. 4-element-lenses on other cameras will do quite the same job, like on the Konica Big mini or Olympus mju-II (Stylus epic).
Some time ago you have to pay far more than 100€ for a copy of one of these on ebay. This was definitely overpriced and prices are more real today.
(The T3 on the picture was heavily used, so the rubber coating of the shutter button is gone)