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Yashica T4

Last summer (2009) the lens on my Canon EOS 5 ceased working so i was thinking of ways to finance a new lens for it. I was passing by a charity shop and there it was in the window , a Yashica T4 for £10. I could sell it on eBay for the ridiculous amount of £100 and buy a new lens for my Canon.
I've run a couple of films through it and I can only say that this is a really -really- good camera producing top notch pictures. Is it worth the £100 price tag? I seriously doubt.
The main selling point of this camera is of course the Carl Zeiss Tessar T* 35 f/3.5 lens. It has a nice blue coating and it is very sharp and controls flare very well. Here are some pictures of what this lens can do (pic1, pic2, pic3, pic4). Not bad at all. I've read somewhere on the internet that it is even sharper than the Contax T2 sonnar lens. Maybe, although i doubt about it. The lens can vignette a bit but i suppose it is normal with such a small front element. Overall it is a really nice lens which can give excellent results.
The autofocus is a bit on the slow side. It is quite accurate but be careful when you take pictures of a subject closer that 3 meters. In a couple of shots the images came out blurry, it probably has to do with the parallax error in the viewfinder, i don't know. Here is a picture to show you what i mean (pic1).
There are a couple of things that i really find annoying with this camera. First of all, the winder is LOUD. I mean loud. I took a picture inside a church and everybody turned to look. And like this was not enough, it was the last frame and it was automatically rewinding the film. I just had to make a swift exit. It is loud, you see what i mean.
The second thing i don't like is the auto fill in flash. You have to disengage it otherwise it is always on. And of course when you shut the camera, it resets to default.
There are some other things too that, although not serious, have an impact on the camera's ergonomics. When you shut off the camera, the lens rests inside the body and a cover protects the lens. So far so good. The problem is that while i had the camera in my pocket, the lens cover slid open which left the front element of the lens unprotected in a pocket with my house's keys !
Another thing is that in a couple of occasions, my finger was dangerously close to the lens while i was taking the picture which caused the lens not to focus correctly. But of course it is me who should have been more careful. Did i mention that it feels less solid than my Olympus XA2? Yes it does!

Conclusion:
Now that i am reading this review, it does sound like a negative one. The truth is that we should judge a camera according to the pictures it takes and Yashica T4 takes great pictures. I think that at the moment it fetches ridiculous prices on the net, really there is no point in paying £80 or £100 (or sometimes more) to get it. But for £30 i think that it is a really good value and a sound camera.

Follow Up:
I have sold this camera since. Actually I had two of these and I ended up selling both. The reason: The Nikon L35AF and the Olympus μ produce equally good pictures and cost much less.With the extra money i got films for a year. While the camera is quite good, I found it to be inconsistent at times regarding the focus. Another reason for selling it is the fact that my newly acquired Fuji DL Supermini  produces sharper pics with more detail and it is much better build.
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