Yashica Y35 - "Worst Camera Ever"

Covey22

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I'll admit - I got hooked by the intriguing videos put up as part of the pre-Kickstarter Marketing Blitz, but I smartly (rare occasion!) kept my powder dry and my wallet firmly under my tuckus.

Seriously though, I would have never thought someone had the gumption to put out a POS this stinky and on fire. A freaking piece of metal to make it feel more hefty? Yowsa. (NSFW the videos have colorful but amusing language).

A Review and Teardown of the 'S**t' Yashica Y35 Camera

TL;DR:

Both the camera and the “film rolls” are found to be mostly empty plastic shells containing minimal electronic components. Even the “lens” is simply an empty shell that’s just there for looks with a smaller cheap lens is hidden inside.

Inside the top plate of the camera, under a small circuit board, is an unusually heavy piece of metal that simply exists in the camera to give it some weight. Without the metal weight, the Y35 would feel even cheaper and lighter.

If you were skeptical of the Yashica Y35 Kickstarter and didn’t back it while it was the talk of the photo world, congratulations: you dodged a bullet with this one.


https://www.facebook.com/petapixelc...AOgcclL4Wfv0SkR-pwyfFo56C_dJt3uQmZs5oGSpziaCQ
 
I've gotten mine and can say that it is not as horrible as the loud masses of the internet would have you believe.
I'll have a review of the camera up on my blog tomorrow and can link to it if people want to here my thoughts on it.

Until then, here are a few images I've managed to get with it.

These first 3 images were taken with the "6x6" digiFilm
01-06-2018_Y35_test_Y35_0006.jpg
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01-09-2018_Y35_renfest_Y35_0009.jpg
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01-09-2018_Y35_renfest_Y35_0017.jpg
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These next 3 with the B&W digiFilm
01-14-2018_Y35_jeffrey_mansion_Y35_0004.jpg
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01-14-2018_Y35_jeffrey_mansion_Y35_0011.jpg
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01-14-2018_Y35_jeffrey_mansion_Y35_0018.jpg
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The last 2 were taken with the Color 1600 digifilm
01-14-2018_Y35_jeffrey_mansion_Y35_0036.jpg
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01-14-2018_Y35_jeffrey_mansion_Y35_0037.jpg
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A few more images from my outing today:

B&W digifilm
01-03-2018_y35_street_Y35_0004.jpg
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01-03-2018_y35_street_Y35_0006.jpg
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Color 1600 digifilm
01-03-2018_y35_street_Y35_0019.jpg
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01-03-2018_y35_street_Y35_0029.jpg
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01-03-2018_y35_street_Y35_0038.jpg
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01-03-2018_y35_street_Y35_0045.jpg
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@Covey22, I can feel your desire to throw that "camera" against the wall when watching the video. So I'm going to say your review is well done.
 
Looks pretty good from my Galaxy S5... :2thumbs:

yep, pretty good from the phone, but given high scrutiny or pixel peeping and it falls apart rather quickly.

I must say though that there is a fun, liberating feeling of just finding subjects and shooting with no review and an analog work flow.
God help me though, I like it so much that it makes me worder about getting a digital Leica like that new M without a screen....just to have something better built and better IQ. Alas, there is not enough expendable cash in my account to do that, so I am safe there.

Maybe I can look at getting an M8.2 or something. lol Just kidding...maybe...sort...I'm weird. Hahahaha. :coco:
 
yep, pretty good from the phone, but given high scrutiny or pixel peeping and it falls apart rather quickly.

I must say though that there is a fun, liberating feeling of just finding subjects and shooting with no review and an analog work flow.
God help me though, I like it so much that it makes me worder about getting a digital Leica like that new M without a screen....just to have something better built and better IQ. Alas, there is not enough expendable cash in my account to do that, so I am safe there.

Maybe I can look at getting an M8.2 or something. lol Just kidding...maybe...sort...I'm weird. Hahahaha. :coco:


I've just had a look on my bigger monitor at work and the pics remind me of print or slide scans... Might not stand up to printing them very large but then again, maybe they would go ok on A4 size canvas....
 
I've just had a look on my bigger monitor at work and the pics remind me of print or slide scans... Might not stand up to printing them very large but then again, maybe they would go ok on A4 size canvas....

This camera is definitely more about the process than IQ.

I miss the "old days" when more people cared about the content, meaning and symbolism of the image and less about technical perfection, pixel count and absolute sharpness.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not making any delusional testaments that the images I'm posting are worth anything more than the few bytes it took to load them on the page. These are in no way worthy of anything but sharing them via a forum and have a discussion about it.
 
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