I figured it was only fitting for me to start off my first post in a long time with an image of a camera from long ago.  It’s been so long that I wouldn’t be surprised if this camera was on the cover of the latest issue of Popular Photography the last time I posted here.  I greatly apologize for my absence…it’s been a crazy few weeks with a lack of inspiration sprinkled in for good measure.

This is actually a functioning camera…not just a prop.  It’s a Yashica Mat-124 manufactured in the 1960’s, that I purchased a few years ago.  It was a great camera manufactured in Japan as a poor-man’s Rolleiflex.  I’ve shot exactly one roll of 120 B&W film with it, only to find out the shutter needs some work (I think the spring is stretched out a bit).  It’s an absolutely wonderful camera to work with.  The viewfinder is huge and bright, thanks to the f/2.8 viewing lens and ground glass.  To be exact, it measures 5.6cm x 5.6cm (also the size of each exposed frame), which dwarfs all DSLR viewfinders (however, most new DSLRs have ‘live view’ modes, which use the large and increasingly higher resolution LCDs as viewfinders).  Since it’s a Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) camera it uses one lens for the viewfinder (mentioned above) and another for exposing the film.  The main lens is a relatively fast 80mm f/3.5 Yashinon lens, which provides roughly the equivalent view of a 50mm lens on a 35mm camera (or full-frame DSLR) or a 30mm lens on an APS-C sensor DSLR, all of which are considered ‘normal’ lenses.  It’s also built like a tank, with a mostly metal construction.

I hope to get it repaired in the future and shoot film from time to time.  It produces some really interesting images with it’s square format (I’ve found myself really liking square crops of my digital images as well).  This camera and film cameras in general tend to require a much more deliberate approach when capturing images.  Since the number of exposures with film is limited, it requires more attention to composition, exposure, and focus.  I find this tends to make us better photographers.  One of the few downsides to digital is the fact that we can snap shots incessantly until we get it ‘right’.  Pretend you’re using a film camera from time to time to remember what it was like to relax and focus on getting it ‘right’ the first time.  I think all of our images will benefit in the long run!