Wallace Koopmans Artlog

Lets see…good film (check) great camera (check) interesting place (check)  it all adds up to a great time taking pictures.  I helped chaperone a group of highschool photography students downtown Vancouver and true to form I had a couple different cameras with me.  One of them was the Yashica Electro GX only recently knocked from its pedestal […]

Well it’s official this is a great camera.  This little rangefinder is exceptional and may be the best fixed lens camera I have ever used.  It was the peak of the Yashica Electro 35 line and in retrospect probably the peak of the small rangefinders that came out of the 1970’s.

Samples  –  Here are some sample images shot with the two cameras as well as with the Pentax K-7.  With the K-7 I used the FA 28-70 f4 lens at the 28mm focal length which equates to about 42mm in terms of 35mm film.  I could have used the SMC A 28mm but I wanted […]

Finally the answer everyone has been waiting  35 years to have. Which is better the Canon Ql17 GIII or the Yashica Electro 35 GX?  Really no one, just me? So you can see that they are very similarly specified with the greatest difference being that the Canon is Shutter priority and the Yashica is aperture priority.  […]

I took a look at my Lightroom catalogue that holds my film pictures to see how long I have had this camera and apparently its been 4 1/2 years.  It certainly doesn’t feel like it, because every time I have a chance to use this camera it feels special like its the first time.  Back […]

I always liked how the Yashica GX was a downsized version of the Yashica GT and original Electro 35 but the Yashica MC takes it a step further packing it all into a diminutive package.  The only trade offs seem to be that the lens has a maximum aperture of 2.8 rather than 1.7 and it is zone focusing […]

If I were shipwrecked on a desert island and I could only have one camera it wouldn’t be the Yashica Electro 35GX.  Why? I couldn’t bring myself to break it to use the lens to start a signal fire of course.  Of all the fixed lens 35mm rangefinders this must be one of the best, I don’t […]

    I’ve owned several Yashica Electro 35 models but I’ve pared them down leaving me with the Electro 35 GT and GX.  The GT stands out in the Electro line with it’s all black body.  It is a great looking camera as well as performing.  The lens of the 35 GT is a 45mm f1.7 stated to […]

Operation and handling While  these cameras where state of the art in their day, compared to a modern digital camera they are extremely simple devices.  The Canon uses a electro mechanical system to set the aperture.  It is a simple galvanometer needle that’s position is trapped when the shutter is pressed, this is then translated […]

I volunteered to assist, as a chaperone, a group of high school photography students.  It was fun and I actually had some time to take pictures of my own when I wasn’t looking out for cars or trying to keep everyone together.  The students really were engaged and often would take great care to create […]

With all the film I shoot it may be a little surprising that this is the first time I’ve used the well-regarded Kodak Portra 800 film.  I’ve seen what others have done shooting with it and particularly like the look when it’s shot in high key situations.  I made no special effort to do anything specific […]