December 20, 2020

Adventures in Film Photography (Yashica 635)

Continuing my adventures in film photography, I borrowed yet another camera from my dad, this time a Yashica 635. The Yashica is a box camera, meaning that the viewfinder flips up, and you look down into it to compose the photo. Unlike the Canon AE-1, the Yashica is full manual, so there was no Automatic setting, aperture priority, or shutter priority. In order to set the aperture and shutter speed, I used the app myLightMeter, and it worked well in my opinion. The Yashica shoots medium-format 120 mm film, and the resulting photos came out really detailed and beautiful. Anyway, I shot a roll of color and a roll of black-and-white film with the Yashica. Most of the color photos were just portraits of my friends, so I decided to share a selection of my favorite black and white photos.

I really love how these photos turned out. The negatives are massive compared to the 35 mm film, and it shows in the quality of the photos. I also liked that the rolls of 120 film typically give you 12 shots per roll since I like to save my shots instead of just snapping away. It would take me 2-3 months just to get through a a single roll of 35 mm since they have 24-36 shots per roll, but the 120 mm I'd blow through in a couple of outings. I like that just because it means I can see how my photos turned out faster.

There are a few issues I have with the Yashica though. For one, the viewfinder is a little hard to see, meaning it was hard for me to tell if the shot was actually in focus or not. A couple of the photos are noticeably out of focus, and I'm not even including the worst ones. It's also a bit annoying having to use a lightmeter and dial in the settings for every single photo. I like taking candids of my family and friends, meaning that I'll sometimes only have a few seconds to take a photo of something cool/funny they're doing before I miss my opportunity. Overall though I love this camera and think it takes some really gorgeous photos.