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Uncovered a Yashica-Mat in a thrift shop last Saturday that looked completely dead
I found a Yashica-Mat EM at a Goodwill in Portland for $15 the other day. The taking lens was hazy and the shutter wasn't firing at all, but after a full CLA and polishing both lenses with some cerium oxide, it now takes sharper shots than my Rolleicord. Has anyone else brought a junker back to life and been surprised by the results?
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rowanr887d ago
You make a good point about the CLA being key, but honestly I see it a bit different. Those Yashica-Mat lens coatings are pretty tough and sometimes the haze is actually fungus that's etched the glass permanently, not just something you can polish off. I've had two EMs where I spent hours on the lenses and still got soft results compared to a cheap Mamiya C220 I found for the same money. The shutters are the real weak point too, they're basically Seikosha clones that get sticky and unreliable after a few years no matter how much you clean them. If you really got one that's sharper than a Rolleicord though, you might have just gotten insanely lucky with the glass lottery.
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viola_garcia567d ago
Two Yashica EMs with permanently etched glass? That's wild, I've never heard of that happening to more than one. I've cleaned up probably a dozen Yashicas over the years and only saw permanent etching once, on a 124G that was stored in a literal flooded basement. What kind of climate were those cameras living in, a rainforest? Makes me wonder if there's something specific about the EM batch or maybe you just got the unluckiest pair on the planet.
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rivera.hannah7d ago
Honestly @rowanr88 I think you might be overthinking this a bit. Fungus etching the glass permanently is pretty rare unless the thing was stored in a swamp, most of the time it's just haze that cleans up fine with some lighter fluid and patience. And the shutter thing feels like a gamble with any old camera, I've had beat up Yashicas that fired perfectly for years while my friend's "bulletproof" Rolleicord locked up after two rolls.
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