Tonight....the blog's going Retro!

Yashica 44A - Given to my father in the 60's by my Uncle Paul!

Tonight, I was fully prepared to post some (hopefully) cool landscape shots that I took earlier today, but I thought this one was much cooler!  It's a Yashica Model 44A, Medium Format, Twin Lens Reflex Camera, from the late 50's!  It uses 127 Roll Film, either color or black and white, which is 4x4". 

This particular model, once belonged to my Uncle Paul (my Godfather), who was a photographer long before the days of digital, and one of the first individuals I talked to when I first got into photography!  In the mid 60's, Uncle Paul passed the Yashica on to my father, who has kept it in pristine condition ever since. 

After a day out and about around town, shooting at various locations from Belleville and Van Buren, to Grosse Ile, I ended up in my parents neighborhood, so I decided to stop in for a quick visit.  I sat on the couch as we talked, cleaning each of the lenses that I had used for the day's shoot, and the conversation quickly turned to cameras. 

I had mentioned that I was going through study guides, for the Certified Professional Photographer exam, and that I was currently reading about Twin Lens Reflex cameras.  Dad had thought that he had, at some point in time, given me his old Yashica TLR, and asked if I had ever got it working or not.  I told him that I didn't have it, just an old Argus 8mm film camera that had been given to me by my grandmother....so the search was on to find the old Yashica.

He found it in the hall closet, in an old leather box that used to house a Polaroid 20 "Swinger."  In the box, was the Yashica in it's own leather case, a leather strap, 2 cable releases, a flash bracket, 2 different flash bulb holders, and a roll of Kodak C 127 that expired in the early 80's!

It's in great shape!  I cleaned the lenses and inside of the film compartment, and the ground glass viewer on top.  All of the knobs and dials work, but unfortunately the shutter spring appears to be broken or jammed.  Tomorrow's adventures will include a stop at the camera shop to see if they can fix it, and if not, a journey across town to Feldmans Camera Repair in Wyandotte.  Luckily, they still sell 127 film, both color and b&w, and Huron Camera still develops medium format film, so I'll be definitely doing some shooting with it, as soon as the shutter is fixed!

-MT