# The Yashica FX 7



## smithdan (Sep 27, 2016)

Picked up this little gem about a year ago for $7.50 on half price day at a thrift store.  The covering suffers from wear and the seals need replacement but apart from that the camera works well.  I liked the size, and the diagonal split image focusing aid.  Fed it a half a roll of FP4, taped it all up good and took it for a test drive.





The focus and aperture rings are backwards,  also there are +- LED's instead of a meter needle, different but not too hard to get used to.




Liked shooting this little critter.




Nice bokeh with the 50 mm.  Chances of finding more lenses that fit probably slim.




...no idea what they are...




To sit, perchance to dry yer socks..



Good idea!    ...advancing film and fiddling with manual focus can be hard work.


----------



## Gary A. (Sep 27, 2016)

Wow ... per the photo that is a nice Beater camera.  Super exposures, well done. Reminds me of my old Nikons, they were held together with duct tape.


----------



## compur (Sep 28, 2016)

smithdan said:


> Nice bokeh with the 50 mm.  Chances of finding more lenses that fit probably slim.



Y/C mount Yashica lenses are available on eBay, etc. The more common focal lengths like 28mm and 135mm aren't hard to find.

Nice photos.


----------



## jcdeboever (Sep 28, 2016)

Great find, nice pics.


----------



## smithdan (Sep 28, 2016)

Gary A. said:


> Wow ... per the photo that is a nice Beater camera.  Super exposures, well done. Reminds me of my old Nikons, they were held together with duct tape.


Thanks Gary,  this one was certainly used lots, wear facets on all the right places.  Shoots so nice that it deserves new cover and seals as a Winter project.


----------



## smithdan (Sep 28, 2016)

compur said:


> smithdan said:
> 
> 
> > Nice bokeh with the 50 mm.  Chances of finding more lenses that fit probably slim.
> ...


I'll look, wouldn't mind a 28 or 35, would make this lightweight a great little streetshooter.


----------



## compur (Sep 28, 2016)

The peeling covering isn't necessarily a measure of how the camera was treated. The manufacturer (Kyocera) used a defective material for their later Yashica & Contax SLRs that peeled like this all on its own. You'll see this on virtually all the later FX-series cameras and many of the Contax models too. The outer layer of the covering just fell off after a short time.  I believe replacement coverings are still available from some sources if you want to re-cover it.


----------



## webestang64 (Sep 28, 2016)

Sweet buy! Really like the first photo of the window.


----------



## smithdan (Sep 28, 2016)

compur said:


> The peeling covering isn't necessarily a measure of how the camera was treated. The manufacturer (Kyocera) used a defective material for their later Yashica & Contax SLRs that peeled like this all on its own. You'll see this on virtually all the later FX-series cameras and many of the Contax models too. The outer layer of the covering just fell off after a short time.  I believe replacement coverings are still available from some sources if you want to re-cover it.


Right, pretty flimsy stuff.  The electrical tape I used to mask the joints peeled off a bunch more of the black coating.  The wear I referred to is on the corners of both the black and polished metal as well as the meter button and the FX7 printing where the right second finger rests.  The fabric backing peels off easily making a pattern for some homemade covers.  Apart from the poor choice of covering, this seems to be one tough camera.


----------



## dxqcanada (Sep 28, 2016)

Yeah, I remember that covering ... easily peeled off the top part ... very common with that material.
Yashica bodies were a great mount for higher quality Zeiss lenses ... Contax-Yashica | ZEISS International
I knew a number of people with a Yashica/Zeiss combination.


----------

