C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →rangefinder-35mm
The Yashica MG-1 (1975) is a 35mm fixed-lens coupled-rangefinder camera with aperture-priority automatic exposure, made by Yashica Co. Ltd. in Japan. It belongs to the extended Electro 35 family — a series of aperture-priority rangefinder cameras that Yashica produced through the 1960s and 1970s — but in a smaller, more pocketable body than the flagship Electro 35.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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Labs in our directory that process 35mm film.
Before you buy used
About this camera
A smaller, lighter, and more pocketable sibling of the famous Electro 35 — the Yashica MG-1 offered aperture-priority automation and a fast Color-Yashinon lens in a compact body that brought the Electro 35 experience to photographers who found the original too large.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm (24×36 mm) |
| Mount | Fixed (non-interchangeable) |
| Years | 1975–1980 |
| Shutter | Leaf: 4s – 1/500s, electronic AE |
| Flash sync | 1/500s (full sync at all speeds) |
| Meter | CdS, aperture-priority auto |
| Exposure | Aperture-priority AE (auto shutter speed) |
| Viewfinder | Bright-line with coupled RF patch |
| Focus | Coupled rangefinder |
| Battery | 4× LR44 (5.6V equivalent) — required |
Yashica's Electro 35 (1966) was one of the first consumer cameras with a fully electronic shutter. Its aperture-priority automatic exposure made serious photography accessible to a much wider audience than manual cameras, and it sold in very large numbers through the late 1960s and early 1970s. The camera's size — similar to a Leica M body — was considered reasonable for a serious camera but bulky by casual standards.
The MG-1 (1975) was Yashica's attempt to offer the Electro 35 experience in a trimmer package, targeting photographers who wanted the automatic rangefinder experience without the bulk. The body dimensions were reduced, the lens was updated to the 45/2.8 Color-Yashinon DX, and the control layout was streamlined. The fundamental aperture-priority electronic shutter technology was unchanged from the Electro series.
The MG-1 was sold through 1980, overlapping with the Electro 35 GX and the later Yashica ML lens SLR line. The growing dominance of compact point-and-shoot cameras in the early 1980s made dedicated rangefinder models commercially marginal, and Yashica did not continue the MG line.
The Yashica MG-1 represents the mature expression of the Japanese aperture-priority rangefinder compact — a category that combined genuine manual focus control and creative aperture selection with automated shutter speed selection, giving the photographer a level of control unavailable in fully automatic point-and-shoots while avoiding the complexity of full manual exposure. The Color-Yashinon DX 45/2.8 is a capable performer that produces results characteristic of Japanese multi-coating from the mid-1970s — contrasty, well-corrected, and reliable across the frame at most apertures.
For film photographers today, the MG-1 offers a practical rangefinder experience at a fraction of the cost of a Leica M or even a Canonet QL17, with aperture-priority automation that reduces the mental overhead of exposure calculation.
Fixed Color-Yashinon DX 45mm f/2.8, non-interchangeable. Leaf shutter provides full flash sync at all speeds to 1/500s — a significant advantage over focal-plane SLRs for flash photography. Accessories: standard hot shoe for electronic flash (with auto-exposure hold function), cable release socket, screw-mount filter ring (55mm).
C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
View profile →C41
Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
View profile →Yashica MG-1
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