The Yasica FX-3 Super

It is a 35mm film SLR (Single Lens Reflex) Camera. The Yashica FX-3 Super was released in 1984 and was one of the first, if not the actual first, camera put out by Kyocera after their acquisition of Yashica in 1983.

It's a fully mechanical, fully manual camera, but it does have an inbuilt light meter to guide you by indicating if you're over or under exposed.

Camera: Yashica FX-3 Super
Lens: Yashica ML 50mm F/1.9
Film: AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 200

Having fun with film

Gone are the days when film was the only way to photograph. Now we have digital, and pretty much everyone shoots that now. However, there are people still shooting film. These people largely (but not completely) fall into these two main camps.

❶ Professional photographers - those shooting super-high quality / super-high resolution photos in Large Format. There's not a way of doing this in digital at the moment, except for algorithmically stitching multiple digital shots together.

❷ Enthusiast photographers - these are people who are mainly having fun with film, or are film camera lovers.

I fall in the second category. I both am a vintage camera fan, and a for-fun film shooter.

I love the Yashica FX-3 Super for many reasons. Firstly, it gives me full control of what I'm doing, being fully manual. Secondly, it has no dependance on a power source, being fully mechanical. The only thing that uses batteries is the inbuilt light meter which I hardly use anyway. Finally, it's size and design make it so portable and enjoyable as an all-day camera. This makes it ideal for my style of photography.

Technically speaking, most of the photos I usually get are far from perfect. You will see over-exposed photos, colour shifts, lens barrel distortions, dust, scratches, spots, and faded colour. All these things don't really matter much to me primarily because I'm not submitting these photos to a gallery or magazine or anything - far from it. They are just for fun. I'm really doing it for the process, and not necessarily the end results themselves - if that makes sense.

Having said that, now and again, I'd get a decent shot which makes it into one of my coffee table books, or a frame on my wall.

Look at that lens!

Yes, it's a beautiful Yashica ML 50mm F/1.9 prime lens. To begin with, I doubt anyone can tell the difference between an F/1.9 and F/1.8 aperture in a lens. For this reason, I class them as the same. In which case, it's a 'nifty fifty'. There is a little more to a Yashica lens, however, than the numbers. There is a kind of Yashica soul in those lenses that is well known in the vintage camera community.

F/1.9 means I can shoot hand-held at night, and also get some really beautiful bokeh shots. Bokeh refers to that blurry background or foreground in a photograph with the subject in a shallow depth of field.

Peace and Love ✌🏿
Adé

Fun With Film Photography | Yashica FX-3 Super