I got my hands on a rare camera. Rare, as in to common, but not Rare as in "sought after". In fact, this camera isn't highly sought after, even though it is, perhaps, one of the rarest of the Yashica Electro series cameras. Then again, many of the Yashica Electro cameras aren't really sought after, but they do have very nice lenses.
That said, there isn't anything special about this rangefinder, except for the three-stops of depth.
ƒ/2.8 (Wide open/Indoor setting) ƒ/8 at the "cloudy" setting, and finally at around ƒ/16 for the, yup.. you guessed it, "Sunny" setting.
So here are how the three stops affect the depth of field and sharpness..
So, using some Fuji Superia 200 film, I popped into my back yard to test out the camera's settings. So here is a great and simple way to see how the stops are.
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| At the INDOOR setting (Wide open at ƒ/2.8) |
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| At the "Cloudy" setting (around ƒ/8) |
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| At the "Sunny" setting, or around ƒ/16 |
So that's it. The three stops of the Yashica Electro M5. As you can see, the bokeh is pleasant for the most part when it is wide open, and sharpness doesn't increase much at ƒ/8. All that ƒ/16 does is give it more depth of field. But aside from that, you are pretty much as sharp as it'll get at the Cloudy setting. So long as you aren't using anything faster than 200 or 400 speed film, you can pretty much get away with the Cloudy setting for just the right amount of depth.
And since it meters through the lens mount (CdS cell is right above the lens), it'll also meter through any filters.
All in all, it isn't a bad camera, but I can clearly see why it is not a highly sought after camera, except by hard-core Yashica Electro collectors.
Until next time, keep those shutters firing!
