Yashica Mat 124 G

Want to strike up a conversation with someone but don’t quite know what to say? Say nothing! Just dust off the trusty Yashica Mat 124G and hit the streets. In short order you’ll have perfect strangers approaching you asking what you’ve got. Occasionally, you’ll meet someone who knows a thing or two about cameras. These folks like to wax nostalgic about the Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) they used to have, or that they still own, but now sits in the closet, superseded by their new digital camera. Most of the people you meet, however, don’t rightly care about cameras. They just think it looks neat, or strange, this box-like contraption you have hanging around your neck whose top you open every now and then and look into, fiddling with its knobs and dials, and then closing again, just as mysteriously. I’m convinced. If I had nothing left in this world but this camera, by the end of the day I could secure a square meal and a place to sleep. Its allure is that powerful.

I can totally see where one who grew up on 35mm and digital cameras would find a rare bird like the Yashica Mat interesting. You simply don’t see TLRs out on the streets anymore. I can’t recall ever encountering someone with one, other than myself. Had we, two kindred souls, met on the street, trusty TLRs in hand, we’d have retired right then and there to the nearest pub and bought each other a round of drinks.

Lots of professional photographers have completely abandoned film and gone whole-hog into the digital world. I can understand their motivation. Film is messy. You have to store it, bring it with you, and develop it.  Professionals are, well, professionals. They must earn their living taking pictures.  Professional grade digital cameras and Adobe Photoshop have transformed the photography business. To a professional, time is money, and they don’t have time to mess around with film anymore. But to those of us who have a little more time on our hands, medium format TLR photography offers many rewards, especially if you can afford a good film scanner.

Three things I especially like about the Yashica Mat 124G are its sharp lens, rugged build, and super accurate built-in exposure meter. I dropped this camera from about waist high onto the floor in the Heineken beer factory in Amsterdam while playing a rousing game of foosball. I picked it up, dusted it off, it worked like a champ. No dents, no dings.

Most people have no idea you’re even taking a picture. There you stand, with a little black box hanging from your neck. You’re bent over slightly from the waist, like a hunchback, eye to the ground glass magnifier getting the focus just right. You lift your head, check the framing, adjust the shutter speed, then the aperture, and then, when everything’s perfect, you trip the shutter, and the only hint of a taken photograph is an imperceptible click.