Yashica FX-1 - a photo on Flickriver

Yashica FX-1

            Yashica FX-1 with Yashica ML 1.4/50

In 1972 the companies Carl Zeiss and Yashica agreed upon the rebirth of the Contax camera. The new SLR was designed by Porsche, produced by Yashica, and Zeiss had a new camera to make lenses for. The first result was the Contax RTS, introduced in 1974 at the Photokina in Cologne. Of course Yashica could benefit from that liaison, so they switched from the M42 thread mount to the new bayonet lens mount of the Contax, so that Zeiss T* and Yashica lenses can be used on Contax and Yashica branded cameras. A good deal, I would say.
So, the first Yashica with the "Y/C-mount" was the FX-1 from 1975. It has an electronic shutter, without batteries it won't open at all, even not at "B". Besides manual shutter speeds the camera offers an aperture priority auto exposure mode. The FX-1 has some peculiarities, and the most peculiar thing is probably the location of the battery compartment: it's *in* the rewind crank; more exactly: the removable rewind crank is the lid of the battery compartment. If you are rewinding a film, the compartment also turns - and it is not small, it takes a 6 V PX28 battery. You can even pull out the crank together with the compartment, but only to disengage the crank from the film cartridge, not to open the camera back. For the camera back there is a small lever with unlock button at the camera bottom. Yashica dropped that funny idea on later cameras, and I've also seen an FX-1 where the owner improvised a battery compartment outside the body, with cables leading into the camera. The next peculiarity is perhaps known from other Yashica cameras: if you press the battery check button, the window of the frame counter is illuminated, if the power is sufficient - clever idea actually. Also uncommon is how the auto position on the shutter speed dial is unlocked: you have to raise the complete dial to set a manual shutter speed. The dial stays raised if not in auto mode. 

In the viewfinder the shutter speed selected by the exposure meter is displayed with a needle on a scale, both in auto and in manual mode. The shutter speed selected on the dial is not displayed, so manual operation is somewhat unsatisfying. On the other hand the information about the selected f-stop is clever, it is shown in green on a scale. A pin on the lens shifts the entire scale, so that it starts always with the lens speed.

Some more features: DOF-button, shutter button lock, exposure correction, plug for flash cable. No AE-lock, no connection for a winder.

The FX-1 has a manual sister, the FX-2. The successor of the FX-1 is the FR I, basically the same camera, but more compact and with the option for a winder. Somewhat odd, the FX-3 (and further FX-models), a very different camera, showed up after the FR-series, at the begin of the 1980ties.

Taken on: December 15, 2023

Tags:

yashica

slr

film

analog

35mm

yashica ml

fx-1 « less

Sets appears in: • ordinary exposure tools

Groups appears in: • Camera-wiki.org

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