Yashica Mat1957

History

Yashica entered the TLR market in 1953 with the Pigeonflex, a basic 120-format twin-lens reflex. Through the mid-1950s the company iterated rapidly through the Yashicaflex line, building manufacturing experience and export distribution. By 1957 Yashica was ready to launch a more refined platform — the Mat line — which it positioned as a credible lower-cost alternative to the Rolleicord and Minolta Autocord.

The 1957 Yashica-Mat introduced the side crank advance that would become a defining feature of the line. The shutter cocking is integrated with film advance, a convenience that reduced the chance of missed exposures and made the camera faster to use in the field. The camera was manufactured alongside the metered Mat LM, giving Yashica two tiers within the same Mat platform from the outset.

The original Mat was superseded by the Mat LM, then the Mat EM (automatic exposure), the Mat 124 (accepting both 120 and 220 film), and finally the Mat 124G. The original unmetered Mat today sits at the start of this lineage — the progenitor of the most successful TLR line Yashica ever produced.

Why It Matters

The Yashica-Mat was the camera that established Yashica's credibility as a serious manufacturer of medium-format TLRs. Its crank advance was a genuine ergonomic improvement over contemporaries, the Yashinon 80/3.5 lens was optically competitive, and the price was meaningfully below German equivalents. The camera demonstrated that the Japanese industry could build precision photographic instruments at accessible prices — a position Yashica would continue to exploit through the following decades.

For photographers today the original Mat is the most affordable entry into the crank-advance Yashica TLR line. Without a meter it requires a separate light meter or exposure estimation, but it operates fully without any battery and the Copal-MXV shutter is a robust and serviceable mechanism.

The line the Mat founded — 1957 Mat, Mat LM, Mat EM, Mat 124, Mat 124G — represents one of the clearest continuous camera development arcs in medium-format film photography, making the original Mat a genuinely foundational object.

Lenses & Accessories

The Yashinon 80mm f/3.5 taking lens is fixed and non-interchangeable. Standard accessories include:

• Bay 1 filters — 30mm screw-in or Bay 1 slip-on filters for the taking lens
• Close-up supplementary lenses — for portrait working distances
• Eye-level prism — clip-on accessory prism enabling eye-level shooting
• Lens hood — Bay 1 shade for the taking lens
• Ever-ready leather case

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• Used across Japan and in export markets throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s as a working professional and advanced amateur camera.
• Adopted in photojournalism and portrait studios as an affordable alternative to Rolleiflex equipment.
• The Mat line as a whole became a staple of Japanese photo culture; the original Mat is the model that set the standard for the line.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Yashica Mat