The Return to Film

Lately I have been taking a renewed interest in film photography. I haven't actually done any film shooting yet (at least not since getting my first digital camera), but I am collecting the bits and pieces to enable me to do so. Naturally I want to work with black and white and do my own developing. Its been one of those life long ambitions to have my own dark room, and now that the "digital revolution" has firmly taken hold, film equipment has become very reasonably priced indeed.

I found this little gem on ebay for a price too good to ignore. A Yashica A TLR. It had a sticky shutter when it arrived, but I spent a few hours with some solvent and dry lubricant and suddenly it snapped back to life! The shutter seems to be working perfectly now, and the rest of the camera is in remarkably good shape as well. I'm not sure exactly when it was built, but they started production in the mid-late 50's and ran till some time in the 60's I believe.

This picture shows it pretty much as I received it, before repairs. Its a bit cleaner now, but due to some confusion on my part about how to gain access to the shutter, I damaged the "leatherette" on the lens board while trying to uncover the screws. Stupid me, you don't have to take the lens board off on these to get to it! I was really annoyed when I figured out my mistake as it was in perfect condition before I mangled it. Oh well, at least replacement leather is fairly cheap and readily available, and it doesn't affect usability so I can make sure I'm happy with the results before spending the cash.

I ordered some film for it and it arrived today. Maybe this weekend I'll get a chance to try it out. Of course, then I have to pick up the chemicals to develop it too...and a decent scanner...