Cheap, well made. Due to its leaf shutter, it will syncronize at all speeds. cherryhillfoundationrepair.com

None so far. residential remodeling

THE YASHICA MAT 124 G WILL GIVE YOU ONE OF THE BEST PICTURES YOU CAN HAVE. FOR SALE 180 W/CASE, IN GREAT CONDITION.
305 498 3735

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THIS CAMERA NEVER HAS BROKEN DOWN ONCE ON ME.

The Yashica Mat 124G has a sharp-as-a-tack lens and a very functional light meter, if you shield it from stray light. I bought mine in 1982 on advice from a college photography instructor. I paid $189.00 new. I hear that it is hard to find a battery for the light meter but not impossible. The battery in mine is original from 1982!

Great image quality for the price.
Solid build.
Fun to use.
Leaf shutter with 1/500 flash synch.

Stiff dials.
Shutter speed max is 1/500.
Light meter ISO max is 400.

Inherent to TLRs:
Parallax and reversed image take some getting used to.
Single focal length.

This is my first and only MF camera. It has a very sharp lens and is built very solid...much more solid than any modern camera I've used. The only thing that feels less than solid is the film advance winder, but it has not given me any problems. The shutter release, shutter speed dial, and aperture dial are all well positioned for easy access. However, the dials are a little stiff for their small size, making them hard to turn (not too bad though). The image quality is far superior to any 35mm images I've seen. It accepts both 120 and 220 film. This camera has sparked more conversations with strangers than any other camera I've used, but it can also be used discretely, due to the waist level finder. Parallax can be a problem, but as long as you are careful, with a little practice, it's not an issue. Same goes for the reversed image. The light meter is fairly accurate and usable, but you will want a hand held meter for more precision.

Customer Service

Mark Hama is as close as it gets to customer service for Yashica, and my experience with him was fantastic. When I received my Yashica from the Ebay seller, I was disappointed to discover that the lens was full of dirt and fungus. Mr. Hama helped me to negotiate with the seller for a $50 refund, and then he replaced the lens with a brand new one, and did a CLA for $130. He actually called and spoke with the Ebay seller to assure him that I was not trying to rip him off. That's good service! I ended up with a $270 camera in almost mint condition

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Cheap, well made. Due to its leaf shutter, it will syncronize at all speeds.

Simple match-needle exposure meter that uses obsolete PX-625 type 1.35 V Mercury batteries. Accessory shoe awkward and if you mount a ISO type flash it will be facing backwards!
Has Bay 1 type bayonet lens hood and filters that are hard to find and relatively expensive.

Cost-effective way to enter medium format photography. I got a mint condition camera for only $25 and I could have got it cheaper still had I bargained a bit. I also got an original instruction book, case in excellent condition and even the original box.
The shutter is very quiet, and I was surprised at how good the results turned out even when hand-holding at slow speeds (1/60) when I thought I had shaken the camera while releasing the shutter by hand. I have now taken to using a cable release. For indoor flash I used my Nikon SB 20 flash connected by a cable and held by hand over the camera, firing in its non-TTL auto mode with excellent results. The Yashinon lens is supposed to be at its sharpest at f/8 to f/16, but I found acceptable to good portraits possible shooting at f/4 and f/5.6. The slight softness being desirable in most portraits. I had prints made at 12 x 8 with nice results.

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Cheap, easy to use, light, high price to functionability ration.

Don't rely on the meter, use a cal-ed digital camera or a meter instead.
Optics, good enough but don't compare it to the very nice and expensive German optics.

This is a nice TLR for beginner. It has a nice lens, the 4 elements Yashinon. Of course one cannot expect it to perform as well as Rolleiflex, it never meant to be. Comparing to Zeiss the Yashinon is less colorful and flat. But considering the price, it is very nice. A better choice instead of Seagull, giving promising result in a reasonable price. And yes, it would probably beat down nearly all 35mm format camera.

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Rolleicord Va

The price. You can buy and re-condition three of these for the price of one Rolleiflex 3.5F. Lens quality is very good. Pictures are everything you expect from medium format. 220 film option is a definite plus. Built in light meter is also a plus. Other strengths which are inherent in the TLR design.

They are not as well made as the Rolleiflexes, nor did they ever claim to be. There are a couple of dirt entry points (self timer lever, flash sync. switch) which are taped over on my cameras. The film advance mechanisms are fragile (less so on the earlier 124 model). Be gentle when you wind them. The lenses collect tiny drops of oil from the shutter mechanism. The shutters frequently drag at low speeds. Since these are 25 year old cameras, these things shouldn't be surprising. Other weaknesses which are inherent in the TLR design.

I've owned three of these over the past 20 years, one purchased locally and nearly new, and two through eBay in the past two years. One has been retired for mechanical reasons, one is in frequent use by another family member, and the original one I still use. I have also had a Rollei TLR for the past 20 years. Looking over the old negatives, it is not possible to tell which came from which camera. The negatives are mostly of family members and friends, taken under daylight lighting conditions. As other reviewers have commented, these cameras are an excellent way to get into medium format photography, and for the price they are very hard to beat. My advice would be to buy one in near mint condition, or buy a good one and have it re-conditioned. When you can afford it, buy another one.

Customer Service

Athena Camera in Calgary does good CLA work on these cameras for a reasonable price.

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Rolleiflex TLR. Various SLRs. Various point and shoot 35mm.

Solid workmanship on the body, and a great lens; supposedly a copy of a German design.

There aren't many available accessories anymore, like filters and tele or wide-angle lenses. If you do find them, they'll cost you.

The Yashica Mat 124G's build quality and lens are its greatest assets. A lot of photographers are quick to recommend it as the perfect camera for medium-format newbies. They're right, but it's more than capable for professional work. You have to see the negatives that it produces to really appreciate the lens it has on board. Very sharp, starting at F/5.6, and it starts to falter at F/32.

Customer Service

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Sharp lens! It's not Rolleiflex or Hasselblad but It's Sharp and Contrasty. Not too heavy not too light. Big negetive with Lots of details.

hard to find filters, hood or batteries.

When I saw this in eBay I had to get one. And when I won the auction as $250 I thought this is too much! But I got it anyways. This is my first MF camera and I didnt and couldnt spend more then $300 buying used equipments. I AM SO GLAD I didn't cancel the bid and I love this camera so much. Despite it's discontinuation of making the camera or hard to find any filters or batteries, this one is better then my prime nikon lens. Cosmeticall it was MINT+ and fuction wise everything works. Even self timer, flash sync cord, and light meter! I measured along with my sekonic flashmeter when I was out in Rockies and I dont see any difference in between. I will never give up this camera. I wish I can find some filters and hood in vancouver area. Some people say something about the shutter cranking noise but I feel like it's pretty quiet if you are in the middle of the street and taking pictres from the waist. People don't even care what you are doing and some times people who carries DSLR looks at my little black box hanging from my neck and smiles.

Customer Service

none needed yet

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this was my first MF Camera

sharp lens solid build simple operation good meter

tiny control dials loud winder

Excellent camera. The Yashinon lens, of course, isn't as sharp or contrasty as a $2000 Zeiss, but it's actually quite good (especially stopped down to f/11.) It's sharp enough that I would've expected it to cost a lot more. It definitely, definitely doesn't come off as "soft." The build quality, also, is very good. I've heard a lot of things about the slightly older Yashica TLRs being a lot better built, but if that's true they must be made of solid steel. The 124G is far, far more robust than most modern 35mm SLRs. There's nothing plasticky about it at all. I would liken it more to the metal 35mm SLRs of the '80s. The meter in my 124G was recalibrated by the owner to take 1.5v batteries, and I've found that it works quite well. Most of the exposures I've taken have been accurate to within a half stop, with several being right on. I haven't found it necessary to carry around an auxiliary meter. The ergonomics are pretty good. It's not that heavy, and the controls seem responsive. The focus is smooth, the viewfinder pops open in a very satisfactory way, and the built-in magnifier is quite useful. My complaints are these: * The control dials for shutter and aperture are positively tiny. That, combined with a slight stiffness (at least on my camera), makes them less than pleasurable to deal with, although not impossible. If nothing else it's a slower process than I'd like it to be. * The finder screen could stand to be maybe a little brighter, but it's not that bad. * The winder is pretty loud and ratchety. Other than that, I really love this camera. For $160 it was a bargain, and I'm sure I'll be hanging on to it for a while.

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Pentax 645