YashicaMatLMEarlier this month Trina and I received some of her grandfather’s camera gear. Her grandfather was Harry Wingate of Mecklenburg Co., North Carolina. He was born in 1912 and died in 1980, five years before I met Trina.

Anyway, some of the pieces we received included a Bell & Howell 333 8mm movie camera, four Polaroid Land Cameras purchased between 1963 and 1967 (models 100, Swinger 20, 210, 220 and 230) and an Agfa Silette-L 35mm camera from 1958. The most interesting camera though is the Yashica-Mat LM twin-lens reflex (TLR) purchased sometime between 1958 and 1962. I’m guessing it was last used more than 30 years ago, probably in the early 70’s.TLR describes a camera where you look through one lens to compose your shot but, expose the film with a second. The Yashica is a Japanese copy of a German camera design that goes back to 1928. It uses “medium format” 120 film. These TLR cameras are still very popular with professionals so the film is readily available. I bought my first two rolls this afternoon.

The film has a paper backing and is wound on a spool. There’s a metal spool still in the camera from decades ago. The metal spool is moved to the top position while the new film is loaded in the bottom position. As photos are taken the film is wound onto the top spool. Once the film is finished – all twelve images – then the top spool is taken out and sent to the developer. The bottom spool then takes the place of the top one. Neat, huh?!

I’m 41 years old this year so this Yashica is about 10 years older than I am. Why should I be so interested in it? Several reasons! First, it was owned by a film buff I never met and there’s some family history behind its dust and dirt. Second, it shoots in a format I’ve heard about but never used. The negatives from this camera are about three times larger than a 35mm film negative and the photos are square. Do you know those times when you try to decide if you should hold your camera horizontal or vertical to get the best picture? With this camera you get both photos at the same time!

The final reason has to do with my own history with cameras. Around 1977 I started playing with my dad’s Canon 35mm. He let me borrow it for two years while I took photography classes in the 7th and 8th grades. I enjoyed the hobby enough that my folks bought me a Canon AE-1 Program for my high school graduation. I took tons of photos with it for the next five years before I put it away on a shelf. It sat there about a decade

Then, in 1998, Brianna was born! The AE-1 came off the shelf and I started getting used to taking pictures again. A couple of years later, however, digital cameras were hot and I fell in love with the idea of taking more pictures than I could imagine and it didn’t cost me anything to throw away the bad ones! No film to buy and develop and no stacks of 4×6 photos to flip through only to throw away most of them. I started in digital photography with a 2 megapixel Kodak borrowed from work before buying my own Canon Powershot G2 just after the twins were born in 2002. Last year, I upgraded to a Canon Powershot S2IS. Similar to the G2 but it has a 12X optical zoom lens and image stabilization.

Fine and dandy you say but, what about the Yashica? Well, let me ask you what all me previous cameras had it common? True, they were all Canons but, they all had fully automatic settings. I could turn the camera on and take pictures without ever having to worry about setting a shutter speed or f-stop. Oh, I learned how to do all that in the 7th grade but, if you don’t use it you lose it and I had definitely lost it! There’s not a darned thing automatic about the Yashica. It’s big, boxy, built like a tank. It’s also beautiful, easy and fun to use. It forces me to think about the film, shutter speed and the aperture setting. It only takes 12 photos at a time so I really have to think about my next shot.

Anyway, I’ve loaded my first roll of film. Soon enough we’ll see if me and this Yashica can get along! I’ll post some photos if they turn out well enough.