Yashica 635

I have been playing with my newly acquired Yashica 635 TLR camera and I'm really enjoying, this model is based on the same classic Rolleiflex design but it's a cheaper alternative for those who wants to try a proper TLR camera built on high quality standards.

The lens on my 635 model is the Yashikor (3 elements) and it's supposed to be "less quality" than Yashinon (4 elements) lens that fits other Yashica TLRs models,  nevertheless the results in my opinion are amazing... pretty sharp at f22 and with a very beautiful 19th century style swirl on the backgroung at f3.5 which I really love!

Other interesting feature on the Yashica 635 is that you can also shoot 35mm if you're lucky enough to find a camera that comes already with the kit. A dedicated knob for 35mm film is located opposite to the 120 film knob.

The one I bought came with most parts of the kit missing, which means that I'll have to do some DIY in order to shoot 35mm. I know for some people  it's a sin using a TLR camera to shoot 35mm but for some can be a reason for taking the camera out and use (let's not forget that some places can be hard to find and process 120 film). My reason it's simple: I love shooting with TLRs cameras!

I bought this camera from ebay and the seller listed the camera as "untested sold as spares/repair", it arrived in almost mint condition but indeed in need of some repair as it must had fallen on the floor. The front panel wasn't straight at all and in consequence totally out of focus.

After removing the leatherette (and I could see it was for the first time) I got access to the screws that  opens the front of the camera. Both arms were badly bent and I had bit of hard time to straighten up and align the front panel. The easiest part was getting the focusing correct, I set the camera focusing knob to the infinite and rotated the viewing lens until the image was in focus on the viewfinder. Then I checked the focus again at different distances using a tape measure and everything was matching.

The results tells everything!