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Yashica MG-1

I got this camera for a pound. The owner said that she had never used it and i do believe her as this camera seems to be in brand new condition. I have a soft spot in my heart for Yashica rangefinders, my father's camera was a Yashica Minimatic-C which he used to record his life in Australia in the '60s. That camera became my very first toy and therefore my bias towards those cameras. But, what's not to like with these cameras? The fit and finish is excellent and their lenses are beyond any criticism. The MG-1 was marketed as not a professional model, they lacked a parallax correction and a fast lens, but still this model is so well made that you wish your digital slr was so well-made.
Yashica's Electro series is quite straightforward to use. You set the aperture and the camera selects the speed. If with the selected aperture, there is the risk of overexposure, then a red light will light on - if there you are underexposuring then an orange will light on. Not much to say about it really. The shutter is dead-silent, as is always the case with leaf shutters. The camera uses the long discontinued PX32 mercury battery. You can use a PX28A alkaline battery with a little spring as the contemporary batteries are smaller in size.
With all the hype going on about the GSN series, the MG-1 assumed the role of the "poor relative" of the line which is not true. The pictures I got from this camera are very good, the lens performs as well as my Industar-61 i have for my FED and the light meter appears to be accurate, even for a above-the-lens element.



 Conclusion

This is a very good camera. Well made, with a good lens and an accurate light meter. There is no reason to pay the premium for a GSN model, unless you really need the f/1.7. I recomment this camera to anyone who starts with rangefinder cameras and wants to try them out without breaking the bank. As for me, I will soon sell this camera. The only problem is that I have already a Leica and the FED-3, both collectible items and with the FED having the advantage of accepting a series of f/2 lenses. There is nothing wrong with this camera, it's just that i am trying to keep only a few cameras, so I will let the MG-1 go. If you are after a fixed-lens rangefinder, give the Yashica a really good consideration.

Comments

  1. Nedhal Nooh9 September 2012 at 08:19

    hi there,

    i was looking for a picture of yashica mg-1 and here i found it.

    can i use it on my personal page?

    regards,
    nedhal

    ReplyDelete
  2. Panagiotis Giannakis9 September 2012 at 12:34

    Sure, go ahaead.

    ReplyDelete

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