Some brands of camera withstand the rigours of life better than others, whilst over time, all old film cameras usually succumb to the effects of the atmosphere on the their foam light seals. However, some brands have gained notoriety for how badly their leatherette coverings disintegrate! For some reason, the material to cover the bodies of the 35mm cameras used by Contax and Yashica especially, have a habit of making what are otherwise excellent cameras look battered and hideous. It’s a trait not limited to a single model either, they all did it to some extent, be that a Contax 137, or RTS etc, plus all Yashica’s FX series, before Kyocera took ownership in the early 80s. But as the Contax brand was manufactured by Yashica as their top end model range, after collaboration with and licensing the name from Carl Zeiss, the finger definitely points at their choice of covering materials.
Having restored an FX-D previously, when one popped up locally on Facebook Marketplace at a good price, I decided it was worth a punt and a trip to Rotherham to pick it up. The seller offered another lens and some other bits at half price as well, which was nice of them, but we’ll come to those later.
The FX-D body condition belies that of the covering, the lettering is intact, another area prone to wear on a lot of cameras, all the controls move OK, the plastic plug for the PC sync socket on the back (for old flash guns) is still there and unlike Olympus or Nikon, there’s no cover needed underneath for the motor drive connector, again something else that gets lost. Removing the camera covering is number one on my list of jobs to do, or will be once a body cap arrives to stop debris falling into the lens housing, while every time you pick the camera up, you get black bits on your fingers and elsewhere, so end up contaminating your work surface.
Unlike other brands, oddly Yashica opted for a plastic battery holder/cover, which naturally enough isn’t quite as sturdy as a metal one. The coin slot on the battery cover, which for all Japanese camera was I think originally designed to take a 5 Yen coin, is a bit shallow on the FX-D, so finger pressure and deft application of a flat blade allowed for initial removal. Refitting after a fresh pair of LR44 cells was installed was just by finger pressure, as trying to get hold of a replacement is awkward nigh on impossible/B expensive! New batteries in and the moment of truth, did it work? Sort of!
On my first attempt, yes the shutter fired, but the mirror locked up. Oh Oh!
Some time later and back home, lens removed and the mirror had returned to the correct 45′ angle where it normally sits. The culprit was obvious, the foam strip used to soften the impact of the mirror hitting the pentaprism on each shot was a gooey mess, and the mirror had briefly stuck to it. A little more testing showed the light meter worked, changing the shutter speed according to light levels and aperture, with the suggested speed displayed in the viewfinder indicated by one or two LEDs. The viewfinder itself was also very clean, no odd debris inside for a change.
Film wind on is one thing that really seems to vary between camera brands, and Yashica to me is one of the nicer ones, smooth action and fairly short throw, allowing a slick advance of each frame of film and this one was as good as the last FX-D I renovated. Inside the back of camera where the film resides, Yashica use a vertically moving metal blade shutter curtain, as opposed to a horizontally moving cloth curtain preferred by say Olympus and this along with the pressure plate and film guides were all in really good condition. Depending upon where they’re stored, you can get rust in here, especially on the film pressure plate, door hinge and the door lock. The light seals though were as bad as the mirror buffer, sticky enough to make the film door reluctant to open and little globules of foam abound. I may risk some spray duster!
The edge of the film door in the photo should NOT have the light seal material attached to it, it’s supposed to live in the thin channel top and bottom of the camera body, either side of the film run. With the shutter area duly covered for protection, this is number two on my list of cleaning jobs. Third on that list will be the camera body top plate, including the dials for film speed setting and shutter speed, plus the shutter button and film advance lever. Nothing serious, just a bit of cleaning solution to dampen a q-tip and wipe the grime from years of use off them.
The lens accompanying the FX-D is the usual “nifty fifty”, a 50mm lens that virtually every 35mm SLR cameras used to come with back in the day, as 50mm give you roughly the same perspective as human eyes (They also used to be cheap to make!) In this case, the Yashica ML f1.2 that was attached is the best of three varieties that were supplied over time with FX series cameras, the ML being a higher quality lens than the other pair of f1.8 and f1.9 DSB range models. Lucky for me then, that this particular lens hasn’t succumbed to the dreaded fungus that you often find in old lenses and which a couple of my old Olympus lenses began to suffer with before they got the boot. The aperture blades on the lens also move nicely and the focus movement is smooth as well when you rotate the outer lens barrel; find a lens with a gritty feeling focus, walk away.
As mentioned earlier, I also took away some extras for half price, including another lens. Sadly a pair of light meters were both beyond saving. Battery leakage had killed one, the battery terminal corroded to the point where it fell off when I tried scraping the surface clean, whilst the other was a selenium cell based meter and this had just expired with age. Selenium is photovoltaic, generating a small amount of electricity when exposed to light, here used to move a needle to indicate correct exposure, with the same principle used in the famous Olympus Trip and neither need a battery to operate. But over time and if exposed to light for too long, the selenium degrades and the energy output by it is insufficient to be useful. So this pair of vintage ephemera I’m afraid won’t be staying around. Neither will a little Vivitar flash gun, as that was as dead as the proverbial Dodo, despite insertion of a fresh AA of Duracell’s finest.
The other lens however is much like the 50mm, in fine fettle. Made by Hanimex, which sadly means it’s not quite the same quality optically as the 50mm Yashica. It’s a 135mm f2.8, a common short telephoto lens, one made by Hanimex (by them and with their name on or by them but for/under other brand names, like Super Paragon) to fit nearly all the old film camera mounts. Once again, thankfully fungus free, very little dust inside and overall a nice little lens and worth what it cost me. Now if it had said Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* on it, I’d have been rather more excited, as the optical quality is vastly better and you won’t get any change from about £250 for a used one of those with a Contax/Yashica mount or any other for that matter!
So now it’s a waiting game. I’ve ordered a new covering for the camera body and new light seals from Aki-Asahi in Japan, and these take a week or so to arrive usually. I’m not saying which colour I’ve chosen, because the final decision hasn’t been made, largely due to ordering a set in a different colour from a supplier in the UK I found on eBay when looking for a body cap and a lens cap for the 50mm. Whatever I decide, it won’t be black when I’ve finished. Also means I’ll have a spare set of coverings….oh dear, what could that mean…. 🙂
Stay tuned for Part 2 in a few weeks time.