Yashica 200-AF

Drop dead gorgeous

Have I ever mentioned about the legendary third issue of the 1989 Φωτογράφος (Photographer) magazine ? It was a camera-porn galore, forty cameras within four pages, it was the issue that inspired all this love for cameras. It included cameras such as Contax RTS and 164, Canon F1, EOS 1, EOS 650, Minolta 9000 and 7000i, Nikon F801, Nikon F4, Leica R6 etc.. etc... The Yashica 200-AF was the cheapest AF-SLR in that issue and although way out of my budget, I thought that if i ever buy an AF camera, it would probably be this one.

Yashica was a wealthy company back in the mid-60's. It became popular with camera lines such as the Lynx's or the Electros. Yashica was probably the camera your father or grandfather had when they were young. In the early 70's, Yashica began collaborating with Contax, with yashica focusing on the production of the affordable line of cameras and Contax producing the Hi-end and more expensive ones. Things were going OK until the late 70's where sales started dropping for Yashica which was facing strong competition from the Minoltas, Nikons and Canons. In 1983 Yashica started running into financial problems and was acquired by Kyocera. It was business as usual until 1985 when Minolta released the historic 7000 and changed the history of SLR concept. Nikon followed closely with it's F-501 and in 1987 Minolta was releasing it's second generation of AF cameras together with Nikon while Canon was releasing the EOS series. It took Yashica 2 years to come up with a AF camera, the 200-AF, and unfortunately there was nothing new about it. 

According to this webpage the 200-AF is a scaled down copy of the Minolta 7000 - and i quite believe it actually. Yashica instead of waiting a bit and see how the second generation of AF cameras will perform, decided to copy a camera that was already starting to show it's age. Later that year, Yashica released the 230AF, another copy of the Minolta 7000 with improved AF and more functions which was probably Yashica's best selling AF-SLR but still, it looked and performed much like a 7000. In 1991 Yashica produced the 270-AF which was a 230-AF with Canon clothes and by 1993, when Yashica released the 300-AF it was obvious that it couldn't compete with the likes of the EOS models and the Nikons/Dynaxes. Yashicas AF-SLR's went off production soon after that.

So, the 200AF was Yashica's first AF camera and to tell you the truth, it is quite obvious. It has all those teething problems of that bygone age, mainly a lot of hunting, inability to focus in low light and noisy AF motor. In bright light, it focuses fairly quickly, probably assisted by the lens's short throw but in low light things get frustrating. Here is a picture I took with the EOS 10D.

 It says ISO 100 and shutter 1/100 with f: 2.8. That is plenty of light. The canon took the shot instantly. It took the Yashica more than 5 seconds by the time I pressed the button to focus and take the picture. More than 5 secs. Amazing....
So, what is wrong with this camera? As I already mentioned, the AF is quite prehistoric. Other problems include:
* DX iso only, you cannot override it manually.  
* Very Spartan looking viewfinder. Only four LEDS in there. One "P" to show that the camera is in programme mode, one green LED for focus confirmation and one red LED to show that you are working with slow speeds. There is one more that light's on when the flash is ready. No idea with what speeds or apertures you are working with. You need to check the LCD display.
* The winder is soooo noisy, the noisiest of all cameras I have ever tested. You really need to hear it to believe it!
* There is centre weighted metering only, quite old fashioned but I don't mind that much as I always get good exposures even by guestimating the exposure with my Leica.
Some of those issues were addressed with the 230-AF model, which led to better sales although Yashica was pretty bad in pricing it's cameras and marketing them. Out of the four models produced by Yashica (200-AF, 230-AF, 270-AF and 300AF) the 230-AF is the most common camera found in the second hand market while the 300-AF appears to be the most sought after.

Of course there are not only negative things with this camera. There are good ones also, some of these include:
* Excellent build quality, once you pick it up, you understand that it can take a couple of  good  kicks and still work fine!
* Very sensitive and responsive AF button. It reminds me a lot the AGFA Optima series, you touch it and it gives a meter reading, press it slightly and it tries to focus.
* The camera requires the quite expensive 2CR5 batteries to work Or 4 AAA batteries that you can buy 12 for a pound!! How fantastic is that!
* (Very Subjective Opinion) I love this mid-80's sharp corners / Robocop like designs on cameras (!)
This camera has also a couple of features I don't really care for, mostly the "Trap-AF" and the AF-lock button next to the pentaprism. The "Trap-AF" is a AF mode where the camera focuses on a distance and when something enters the frame, it trips the shutter. It is poorly implemented in this model (I don't know how it works on later ones) as you need to focus manually and keep the shutter button pressed all the time (or use a release cable). Not my cup of tea....

A thing that makes me laugh is the way some functions are described in the manual. The AF-Lock button "locks instantly" the AF or the metering system takes "beautifully exposed" pictures or the camera has a "centralised information system" (that's the LCD for you and me). 
 

Comparing my Minolta with the Yashica.
The similarities are so obvious.

This camera is such a close copy of the Minolta 7000 that you can even find a "reset button" (P) just like in all Minolta's, while the Yashinon 50 f/1.8 comes with an integrated lens hood, something that I've seen only on the Minolta 50 f/1.7. But although the 200-AF might not have influenced the history of photography, it has something that will make it a better camera than the 7000 in the long run. The Yashica used the good old gears and pins to activate the aperture while the 7000 uses a set of magnets that eventually get de-magnetised and renders the camera inoperative. In simple words, in 10 years your 200-AF will probably work fine while the 7000 will be a paperweight.  

My copy came in such a bad state that it required immediately some TLC. The strap lugs where rusted and there was a significant amount of fungus on the lens. I sanded the rust and painted it over and I took the front element apart and cleaned the mould. There is only a tiny bit left on the back element of the lens but it is impossible to unscrew the four screws on the back. It is a tiny bit though and it is not going to affect the picture. Batteries had leaked too and I had to clean the battery adaptor with vinegar. Inside the film chamber I found some soil that make me wonder whether this camera was given to a child to play with. Thankfully the shutter blades are clean and work with no problem.

Conclusion

What is it that I like in this camera? I really don't know. Having used other, newer cameras, this is a Flintstone of a camera, it is extremely noisy and you cannot help noticing it's frustration when trying to focus. Ergonomically, this camera is not doing any better either; push-pull buttons, AF-Lock on an odd place, no info on the viewfinder... My mind says to ditch it, I've got loads of better cameras but my heart says to keep it. I got good pictures out of the first film I shot and I was thinking to shoot a couple more in order to get used to the interface. The Yashinon is a close copy of the Minolta 50 f/1.7 and performs very nicely, it is cheap to maintain (for a pound of batteries I can shoot almost 60 films), I like it's retro look and I always wanted to have a Yashica camera.  
I think what is important with this camera is to realise what it is suitable for. Is it for fast action photography? Obviously not. Low light photography? Again no. Street photography? Hmmm... maybe, although there are some limitations there. Landscape and portraiture photography? Sure, why not? A deciding factor when you find this camera in a shop/car boot sale/internet is of course money. For body only i would not pay anything more than £10 maximum (you can get a Nikon F-50 for £15). With the cheap zoom lens i wouldn't pay more than £15 and with the standards 28 f/2.8 or 50f/1.8 not more than £30. Actually pay £30 if you really really love this camera as you can find newer models much cheaper.

Watch this space for more info, I will update it once I have shot more films with it and let you know how it is to use this camera in the long term.

 
(Update 8/5/2012)
A friend from rangefinderforum, wrote in to clarify some of the things i wrote above.
Thanks btcg, I am posting your comment.

I came to conclusion 230AF were released before 200AF, can not prove it right now, so take it with a grain of salt - as a food for thoughts.

AAA cells for 200AF isn't such a heaven's gift - this cells are of much less capacity than double lithium cell which also never leaks like AA and AAA's. Yet lithium cell goes strong until it's empty not having mid-life weakness. But if you like to go through sets of AAA's for some reasons it's possible to use battery holder from 200AF on 230AF.

For low light focusing there's some remedy - you know, Yashica 250AF TTL flash has AF assist light so with some bounce it's useful tool. Or use SCA adapter with integrated AF light which allows to have advantage of AF assist light without actually firing flash. This only works for 230AF as 200AF doesn't support TTL flash. In my opinion 200AF isn't worth bothering with as 230AF isn't expensive camera. Not only because of TTL. Well, 200AF were choice back then because of price diff.

And thanks for clarifying relation to Minolta, I've seen some notes on similarity of lens mounts but not so on bodies!