My Camera Collection

Part two is about the second camera I found today next to the Zeiss Ikon. It's a "Yashica Minister - D". This camera I bought also just on luck, to my suprise this camera was released in 1963, that's the year I was born. So I consider this as luck. Maybe it's not real antique, but it has some emotional value to find a product from this year. What really makes me happy that this camera originally from Japan, has almost no plastic parts. While cleaning the camera the only plastic party I could discover is the lens of the CDS light measuring Censor. This camera must have been pretty revolutionairy with it's very sensitive light censor. The trick is that on top of the camera is a dial that represents the ASA value of the film. The dial has to point at the right value, the light meter will after operating a seperate button on the back of the camera point at a value, this value is to be found at the ring of the lens. After choosing the corresponding value, the camera is ready to shoot. This camera is a rangefinder type, so setting the focus is done with a pretty complex device, consisting of mirrors. They give an image of a yellow box with a center, while focusing the lens the image gives a ghost in the small central dot, when the two images fit together the camera is focused. These were the days that people still had time to make a picture. The technical data on the camera is: Yashica Minister D Manufactured around 1963, 35mm rangefinder camera, Yashica Yashinon 4.5cm f/2.8 and a Copal-SVL shutter (speeds 1 to 1/500 sec, B,M,X , delay action) and an uncoupled CDS exposure meter.