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.
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The Yashicaflex Y is a 6x6cm twin-lens reflex camera produced by Yashica Co. Ltd. around 1955, positioned at the tail end of the Yashicaflex naming era. By 1955 Yashica had been producing budget TLRs for roughly four years and had iterated through a substantial number of model variants -- the Pigeonflex, the original Yashicaflex series, and several sub-variants distinguished by shutter type, lens designation, and minor mechanical refinements.
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C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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About this camera
A late-series Yashicaflex with Yashinon glass, bridging the original Yashicaflex line to the Yashica-letter TLRs.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 120 film, 6x6cm (~12 exposures) |
| Mount | Fixed |
| Taking lens | Yashinon 80mm f/3.5 |
| Viewing lens | ~Yashinon 80mm f/3.5 |
| Year introduced | ~1955 |
| Shutter | Leaf: 1s - 1/300s + B |
| Flash sync | ~ |
| Meter | None |
| Film advance | Side knob, red-window frame count |
| Viewfinder | Waist-level, ground glass + sports finder |
| Battery | None required |
Yashica's TLR program began in 1953 with the Pigeonflex and rapidly accelerated through a series of Yashicaflex variants, each differentiated by incremental changes to the shutter, lens, or body details. The Yashicaflex Y appears toward the end of the original Yashicaflex sequence, introduced around 1955 as competition in the Japanese budget TLR market had intensified considerably.
Within approximately two years of the Y's introduction, Yashica rationalised its TLR line under the simpler Yashica letter-series nomenclature (Yashica A, B, C, D and so on), which would carry the brand through the 1960s. The Yashicaflex Y's use of the Yashinon lens name rather than the earlier Yashikor or Tri-Lausar designations signals this transitional moment.
The Yashicaflex Y is historically notable primarily as a transitional model. It marks the adoption of the Yashinon lens name -- a brand that would persist across Yashica's entire subsequent camera and lens output -- and sits at the hinge point between the proliferative Yashicaflex era and the rationalised Yashica letter-series line. For collectors documenting the complete Yashicaflex sequence, the Y is a necessary piece; for film shooters it is a straightforward budget TLR with competent but unremarkable optics.
Yashica's budget TLRs of the mid-1950s were built to aggressive price points and tolerances show it, but the fundamental lens and shutter combination is capable of excellent results when the camera is in good working order. The Yashinon 80mm f/3.5 performs well stopped down to f/8 or f/11 and produces results consistent with contemporary Tessar-type designs.
C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
View profile →Yashica Yashicaflex Y
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