Week 11 The Yashica 44a
I
had some unfinished business with the 127 film cameras so this week I wanted to
pin some of the issues down. Russell thought the Yashica might bring a touch of
class to it and I wasn't going to argue! It was spotless, like new! In the grey
it looked beautiful snuggled in its tanned leather jacket. I took it home and
had a play to familiarise myself with it, I looked at a few reviews and the
Yashikor 60mm lens it had was said to fall short of its big 6x6 brothers
Yashinon but I say there isn't much in it. The 44 was introduced in 58 but was
expensive, the 44a was a cheaper version dropping the iconic filter mounts I
had and advancing with just a knob, this was the only fault I had
with it! Too easy to move on a bit by brushing with your hand or handling etc…
care needed but I got by with two frames just touching but not lost.
Roll
1, a standard Rerapan 100 127 to start off. I planned a Dartmoor excursion, in
particular Burrator reservoir. I was up early on the Sunday to mist and
annoying drizzle but I went anyway and shot from the banks using a tripod and
my old Zeiss meter as there is no on board, limited shutter speeds of 1/25th
to 1/300th + I&B meant I was at 1/25th and ran it as
aperture priority. It cleared up a bit and I enjoyed the day with the Yashi
running faultlessly! I Developed with rodinal to the only times I could find
and for me they have ugly grain and are overexposed.
I
have pulled the exposure back and pushed the blacks in those images!
Roll
2. FP4 35mm re rolled – here we are again! I had a part roll left from last
week and knew if I cut for 12 exposures there would be waste so I marked out 3
extra frames following the originals and rolled it as a 15, idealy a 13 and 14
will just cover a 36 exposure donor, I loaded in dim light and set off on a
city walk taking in the river etc as I do regularly, I had a hood hair banded
on and could slip my rollei filters in behind, I shot some from the tripod,
some hand held and even tied a couple of sideways shots, that is a task I can
tell you! I passed Soperfect images and Russell presented me with a spot meter
so I had a play. Dev'd and scanned I was pleased to see 15 images clean but
that damned bulging of the film effected some of the images again! I am certain
this is just inconsistent tension during rolling so it is all on me, there were
a few nice ones though.
Roll
3. Porta 160 nc, cut and rolled from a
120 – Sprockets are fun and have a valid place but shooting in the format the
camera is designed for 4x4 in this case is preferred for me so I attacked the
internet and quickly found a video showing a 120 being cut down using a cigar
cutter! Immediately purchased. I had a go using an old exposed knackered
roll found in a camera….it was to wobbly, I fashioned a jig from a 35mm
canister and thought I had it so rolled it up
– 13 frames, there is I now know room for 15. I took a wander around the Hooe
side of the river Plym and all went smoothly, I really enjoyed the Yashica, it
was like a love child of my 124g and Ikoflex sharing mixed similarities.
Thankfully it was a nice day and gave me scope to play, even trapping a close
up lens on the bottom and hand holding the top half, it came out which was nice!
Loading the developing tank was a wrestle, it hadn't been perfect cut and I
lost the last frame but I was happy, colour developing is average at best for me
but these were as good as I have done,
So,
to sum up where do I feel this little 127 project is at, sprockets I just need
to find consistent rolling technique, the cut down but 120 is the way forward
for me, a better more permanent jig will be made and we will shoot 127s again
later once I have nailed it down. I think we have made good ground and fine
tuning is all that is required. The Yashica 44a, a great little camera!
Outstanding performance for a basic model only let down by me. Just too close
to the two 6x6s I already have. Its a shame there isn't well priced 127 film
out there as good cameras are just not getting the use they deserve.
