YashicaT4 Zoom
While I’ve used the Yashica T4 previously I had not had an opportunity to use a T4 zoom which in reality does not bear many similarities. As soon as you go from a fixed focal length to a zoom lens they are going to be different animals. The T4 zoom has a 28-70mm f4.5 to f8.0 lens comprised of seven elements in six groups while the T4 had a 35mm f3.5 lens of four elements There are a few different things you can do with the controls one of which is to set the time and date and its format. This is done while the camera is off which I did not discover until I had imprinted most of my images with a completely erroneous value (That’s okay because I was really just making sure it even worked). Also when off you can alter the focus to spot by pressing the ‘main button’ until [S] is displayed on the LCD, this is reset once the camera is turned off again. When turned on though you can set exposure compensation of +1.5 or -1.5EV, suppress the flash and set a very interesting long exposure mode. This mode is entered by pressing the timer/remote button until [LT] is displayed on the LCD. Once this is done and the camera is secured, pressing the shutter button will result in a 2 second delay, to help reduce shake, followed by up to 120 seconds of exposure time which can be interrupted with a second shutter button press.
This first foray out of the way I’m going to feed the camera some better film and give it a more extensive try. The images that I did get suggest that the lens is a decent performer across the entire frame especially given that its a zoom.
