Ihagee Exa 6 (or 1.6)

Exa cameras were a cut-down version of Exakta cameras. The first Exa version was just called Exa with no numbers – the second version was called Exa I. This first version Exa was produced in six varieties and my camera is the sixth variety – hence my title above of Exa 6, but the makers, Ihagee, never called it Exa 6 (nor exa 1.6), it was just plain Exa.

lens:  n/a
focal length:  n/a
apertures:  n/a
focus range:  n/a
lens fitting:  Exakta bayonet
shutter:  guillotine 
speeds:  1/25 to 1/150
flash:  2x PC sockets
film size:  35 mm

Exa, and Exakta, cameras are unique in body shape, control layout and internal mechanisms. If you are used to a Japanese style SLR, Exa take a bit of getting used to. The most obvious difference is the shape. It is rhomboidal rather than rectangular and a lot thicker than other cameras.  Another obvious difference is the shutter speed selector which is a lever. The last obvious difference is that the camera is left-handed. The speed selector is left of the viewfinder and the shutter release button is left of the lens.

As this camera is so unusual, I am going to give a very detailed description.

The camera measures 130 mm by 48 mm by 85 mm including the viewfinder but excluding the lens. It weighs 528 g.

Looking at the top plate, the viewfinder is central. Most SLR cameras have the lens and viewfinder somewhat left of centre. This camera has them centrally. The viewfinder is removable and can be replaced by various models. My camera has a waist-level finder but several eye-level finders were available (all viewfinders and focus screens for Exakta and Exa models should fit apart from those for the Exakta RTL1000). To remove the finder, it is necessary to move a slide downwards to release the fitting. This slide is on the front panel above the lens and just below the name plate. To fit the viewfinder, it just pushes into place.

When not in use, the waist-level finder folds down which makes the camera significantly smaller and prevents dust from falling on the focus screen. To open the finder, there is a small chrome button on the back of the finder which needs to be pressed in. The finder then snaps into the open position.

To use the waist-level finder, you look down into the finder at the focus screen. My camera has a plain ground glass screen (actually, it is a plano-convex lens with the plane surface ground to form the image and the convex part providing some magnification) but, again, other options were available including one with a split-image centre. The screen is easy to remove and replace – detach the finder from the camera and the focus screen is at the bottom held in place but springs but not very securely – a gentle pull and out it comes.

The image in the waist-level finder is reversed left to right but it is the right way up. There is no pentaprism here to correct the image. At first, this makes composing the image awkward but one soon learns to use it easily. Having the camera away from the eye changes the perspective of the image and looking down at the image also alters your reaction to it. I find that this makes a significant difference to my composition, and, talking to other photographers, this is quite usual.

The big drawback to having the camera away from your eye is focusing. To aid this, Ihagee have supplied a folding magnifier to enlarge the finder image. Raising the camera towards the eye makes focusing easy and you can then lower the camera again to take the shot.

On the right of the viewfinder is a nickel plated plate. Prominently, this carries the film advance knob. This requires one complete turn to advance the film one frame and to lower the mirror (more later as this part is seriously stranger). This knob is also nickel plated which I rather like. Nickel is bluer and softer than chrome plating and much more attractive in good condition. Unfortunately, nickel is prone to corrosion and on my camera is very corroded. When I cleaned the corrosion off, I was left with heavily pitted surfaces.

Beside the advance knob is the frame counter. The disc of this is also nickel plated and corroded. It is both hard to clean and cleaning has partially removed the numbers. This counter counts up and needs to be manually set to 1 when fresh film is loaded. There is a little serrated wheel to do this but this is hard to reach and turn.

Behind the frame counter is the button to release the film advance mechanism to allow the film to be rewound.

On the left of the viewfinder is another corroded nickel plated plate. This carries the shutter speed selector. Unusually (apart from Exa being the only cameras I know with the speed selector on the left) this is a lever. Speeds are sparse – 1/25 to 1/150 seconds plus B. Asahi were offering 1/1000 on their Pentax cameras at this time. This speed selector is relatively stiff (my camera or by design?) and has very definite positions. Beside this lever is the film rewind knob. Again, a knob here was already old-fashioned at this time but I find it as easy to use as the more usual fold-out cranks.

If we move to the front of the camera – the lens mount is on a nickel plated plate in the centre of the front. At the top of this plate is the name plate. This is painted black with the name “Exa” in script and bright metal. Beneath this is the slide catch for the viewfinder – also nickel plated. Either side of the slide the words “IHAGEE DRESDEN” are stamped in the metal.

On the left side of this plate (as in using the camera) is the shutter release button. This is threaded for a standard cable release. Beside this is a swivel cap which functions to block accidental pressing of the shutter release.

Central in this plate is the lens mount. This is a standard Exakta/Exa bayonet with three lugs inside the throat that connect with the lens. With my Exakta Varex II and my three other Exa cameras, there are three extra lugs on the outside of the mount throat. These are to connect longer focal length lenses as using the internal lugs caused vignetting with lenses over 100 mm focal length. These are missing on this camera so using lenses over 100 mm focal length would be problematical. On the left side of the mount is the lens release lever.

This is probably a good place to talk about the lenses. The standard Exakta/Exa lenses are automatic in that the iris diaphragm automatically closes as the shutter release is pressed. The way this is achieved is very idiosyncratic. The lens has a shutter release button attached to one side which sits immediately over the shutter release button on the body.

When you press the release button on the lens, this pushes through the fitting on the lens and presses the release button on the body. It also closes the iris diaphragm in the lens at the same time.

On the right hand side of the lens mount are two PC sockets. These are chrome plated. The top socket is for F rated flash bulbs (F=fast) and will fire the flash bulb 12 milliseconds before the shutter is fully open. This is to allow the flash bulb to reach maximum brightness as the shutter fully opens. This requires a shutter speed of 1/25 seconds.

The lower socket is marked X and is for electronic flash (X=Xenon which is the gas which electronic flash tubes are filled with). With the X socket, the flash is fired as soon as the shutter is fully open and needs a shutter speed of 1/50 or 1/25 seconds.

The back of this camera is hinged – on my other Exa cameras, the back is completely removed together with the base. When you open the back, the ends of the base come away with it, leaving the middle portion in place.  The reason for this is to allow easy insertion and removal of the film cassettes. As you can see from the photograph, the back of my camera is rather tatty. Leatherette frequently comes loose – it was stuck on with shellac – and is easy to refit. Unfortunately, the previous owner of my camera used a plastic type glue and the solvent has reacted with the leatherette and shrunk it.

In common with a lot of German cameras, it is possible to remove the take-up spool and replace it with an empty cassette. This removes the need to rewind the film and speeds up changing the film – it is necessary only to cut the film and remove both cassettes. In order to  make use of this fast film change, you need your new film to be already attached to an empty cassette. Quite doable but it would require more organisation than I am  really capable of. The down side of this system is that the detachable take-up spool gets lost resulting in  second hand cameras being hard to use. The inner from a standard cassette will fit fine but unless you do your own developing, can be hard to find.

The base of the camera is plain apart from a tripod socket. This is a 1/4 inch Whitworth threaded socket.

Being a German camera, there are no light seals to deteriorate, the Germans preferring to achieve light-tightness by good engineering.

The shutter is worth describing – this is also unique to Exa cameras. This shutter is neither an in-lens leaf shutter nor a focal plane shutter. It is a guillotine shutter using the mirror as the first part of the mechanism. When the shutter release button is pressed, the mirror moves up through an arc, exposing the film. A curved blanking plate then swings up and finishes the exposure. Once the exposure is complete, the mirror stays raised until the film is wound on. This is the reason for the rather slow top speed of 1/150 seconds as it is not really possible to get the heavy mirror moving fast enough to get a faster exposure. Plus points are that it is cheap to make, keeping the cost of a new camera down, and has no need of lubricants and so can be used in very cold conditions.

My Final Word	The Ihagee Exa 6 (or 1.6) camera is a unique camera. Controls are simple and the idiosyncratic. Once you are used to it, it is a delightful camera to use although the slow top shutter speed can be restricting. I like Exa cameras!
Images	Handling	Features	View -finder	Feel & Beauty	History	Age
	4	2	4	4	3	4
Bonus	+1 for the overall imaginative design.
Final Score	22

Cosina CSM

As I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog, Cosina have an undeservedly poor reputation. In fact, in addition to their own designs made under their own name, they make cameras for the big-name camera companies. The Zeiss Ikon rangefinder was made by Cosina as are many Carl Zeiss and Voigtlander lenses.

Cosina CSM

This camera is a Cosina design sold under their own name. It is fairly basic but with an electronically controlled shutter. I can tell that the shutter is electronically controlled because it  works without batteries but at the same slow speed regardless of the speed setting (a fully electronic shutter will not work at all without batteries). With batteries the shutter speeds are clearly variable.

The top plate is standard for a camera made in the late 1970s (introduced in 1978, I think). Far right is a small window for the frame counter. This is reset to zero when the camera back is opened. Next is the film advance lever. This is a metal plate covered with a plastic casing. It sits just proud of the back and is easy to use. It moves through about 210 degrees to advance the film one frame.It is not on a racket so just be moved in one motion.

In front of the advance lever is the shutter release button. this is chrome plated and threaded for a standard cable release. Below the shutter release is a lock switch. It has two positions - A and L. A is the working position and L is the lock position. I quite approve of shutter locks as over the years I have wasted many hundreds of frames of film by accidentally tripping the shutter. This lever is black.

Cosina CSM - top plate

Next along is the shutter speed dial. This runs from 4 seconds through 1 second to 1/1000 seconds. 1/60 is marked in red and I am sure will be the flash synchronisation speed. There are also positions marked in green - M and B. I have no idea what the M position is for and it is not mentioned in the manual (available from Butkus's website). B is for Bulb and is the standard of the shutter remaining open whilst the the shutter release is depressed.

Nested in the tangle of the film advance lever is a small chrome button. Pressing this disconnects the film advance mechanism to allow the film to be rewound.

The pentaprism hump has the accessory shoe on it. This has electrical contacts (so a hot shoe) synchronised for electronic flash (indicated by a red X). Cosina made an automatic exposure device which sat on this accessory shoe and connected to the shutter speed dial - this dial has a raised pin to allow the auto exposure accessory device to turn the speed dial, giving the camera aperture priority automatic exposure.

On the left of the pentaprism is the rewind crank. This is the usual fold-out type. The crank pulls up - to the first position to release the cassette in the camera and to the second position to unlock the hinged back. Between the pentaprism humpand the rewind crank is a white painted circle with e white line through it. The Lin represents the position of the film plane.

The front of the camera is fairly plain. most obvious is the lens mount. This is a 42 mm threaded mount - frequently known as the Pentax thread mount. This was the standard lens mount for several decades and so there are a vast number of lenses still available for this camera. The mount takes automatic aperture lenses (as well as older manual aperture lenses). There is a plunger at the base of the lens mount, just inside the thread. When the shutter release is pressed, this plunger moves forward and depresses a pin on the lens to close the aperture to the preset value. This ties in with the TTL light meter (TTL = Through The Lens). You focus and compose with the aperture wide open (and so with a bright image) and as the shutter release is half-way pressed, the aperture closes and the meter reads the light level. You then either adjust the aperture or shutter (or perhaps both) until the centre greed LED in the viewfinder is lit. Pressing the shutter release the rest of the way releases the shutter and takes the picture.

Cosina CSM - lens mount

Next to the lens mount at the bottom is a small chrome button. Pressing this allows the aperture to open again while the shutter release is partially depressed. You might think it easier to just take your finger off the shutter release button but the plunger does not return to its rest position if you do. If you want to re-compose or re-focus, you need this button.

On the right-hand side of the lens mount is a self-timer lever. This is turned through 90 degrees to set the mechanism.It is released by the shutter release in the usual way. On most cameras, These self-timers are clockwork and you can hear them ticking as the lever rotates back to its start position. Not here. This is an electronic device and the lever does not move back. Instead, a small red LED above the lever flashes once a second for ten seconds. After ten seconds, the shutter fires and the lever snaps back.

On the left of the lens mount are what at first glance appear to be two PC (Prontor Compur) sockets. In fact, only the lower one is - it is marked with a red X. This is for attaching an off-camera flash gun by a cable and is synchronised for electronic flash (by the late 1970s, bulb flashes were no longer usual and not catered for). The top connector is not quite the same as a PC connector and is designed for the automatic exposure device I mentioned above. It is marked with a green A.

On either side of the front of the camera are strap lugs - a small but very important feature to me.

The base of the camera has a battery compartment. It takes two LR44 (or SV44) batteries (which are still available). These power the light meter and the electronic shutter. There is also a standard tripod boss - 1/4 inch UNC thread. This is quite seriously offset from the centre of the camera which means the camera is likely to slope when on a tripod, particularly if a cheap tripod is used - this is a cheap camera so I don't supposed anyone would have used an expensive tripod.

Cosina CSM - base plate

Inside the back of the camera there is little to note. The shutter is a horizontally moving cloth shutter - absolutely standard at this time. The take-up spool has eight attachment positions of a fairly standard design so attaching the film leader would be easy enough.

Being Japanese, the camera relies on foam light seals to keep the film compartment light tight. This camera is 35-odd years old and the foam has long turned to sticky dust. The remains will need to be cleaned out and replaced with new foam before the camera can be used. This is a simple enough job, even for me.

Cosina CSM - inside the film chamber

Inside the viewfinder is uncluttered. There is a ground glass focussing screen with a horizontal split-image spot in the centre and around this is a circle of micro-prisms. The split-image centre works by placing it over a suitable vertical edge in the image. This edge will be split - part to the left and part to the right. When you focus the lens, these two parts move and line up with each other when the focus is correct.

In the absence of a suitable vertical edge, you use the micro-prism ring. When the image is unfocussed, this ring has a very granular appearance. As you get nearer to good focus, the granularity gets less and disappears at good focus.

At the top of the viewfinder are three LEDs. The central one is green and the other two are red arrows. While pressing the shutter release halfway, you adjust the aperture/shutter speed combination until the central green LED is lit steadily. The left hand red arrow lights up when you have too much exposure and the right hand arrow lights up when you have too little exposure. Very easy to use in practice.

The supplied lens - the kit lens if you will - is a Cosina made Cosinon lens - 50 mm focal length and maximum aperture of f/1.7 (and why not the industry standard of f/1.8?). The lens is multi-coated as you would expect from the late 1970s. This lens has an aluminium barrel and appears to be very well made.

Cosinon lens with six sided aperture

Cosinon lens - lens barrel

Kiev 4 (Киев 4)

My most recent acquisition is this Soviet Kiev 4. It is a straight copy of the Zeiss Ikon Contax III (with only very slight changes).

Kiev 4 - front view

At the end of WWII, the Soviet army had Zeiss Ikon rebuild their production line for the Contax and then, once the line was working properly, they shipped the production line to Kiev in Ukraine. They also renamed the camera Kiev. This camera is a Kiev 4 and is a copy of the Contax III - there was also a Kiev 4a which was a copy of the Contax II. The difference between the 4 and 4a is the presence of a light meter in the Kiev 4.

The Soviet Union produced cameras both for the home market and for export. Those intended for home consumption had their logos and indicators in Cyrillic while those for export used the Latin alphabet. My camera has the logo in both Cyrillic and Latin but other writing is all in Cyrillic, indicating that the camera was not intended for export (сделано в CCCP = Made in USSR ) 

The camera has a very Zeiss Ikon look about it and the body is broadly similar to the Pentacon F and Contaflex - both German derivatives of the Contax, the Pentacon F being East German and the Contaflex being West German (younger readers should consult their history books!).

The camera is heavy - 768g with the standard Jupiter 8 lens - and the controls reveal the camera's design date (1936). the film advance is a knob (usual in the 1930s, very old fashioned in 1969 when my camera was made) as is the film rewind. The viewfinder is very small, hard to use while wearing glasses and (because it is bare metal) likely to scratch modern plastic spectacle lenses. The last anochronistic item is the tripod boss which is 3/8 inch Whitworth. Standard for consumer cameras had been 1/4 inch for some tine (currently 1/4" UNC rather than 1/4" Whitworth but the two are close enough to be interchangeable).

The knob on the right hand end of the top plate has three functions

1.  in the centre is the shutter release, threaded for a standard cable release.
2. around the shutter release is a knurled ring to wind on the film and reset the shutter.
3. The shutter speed selector - operated by lifting and turning the film advance ring.

The manual says that the shutter speed can be selected either before or advancing the the film but that it is better done after advancing then film.

Kiev 4 - top plate

Next to the right hand knob is a window showing the frame numbers. This is nice and large and shows 12 numbers with a red dot indicating the current frame. This counts up from zero and goes to 36. It is reset manually by a toothed wheel on the back edge of the top plate.

Being a rangefinder camera, there is no pentaprism hump but where you might expect to see one there is a light meter. This has a selenium sensor and so has no need for a battery. One drawback of selenium meters is that they can lose sensitivity with continued exposure to light. To prevent this from happening, there is a cover to the meter window on the front of the camera. thesis opened by pushing the cover slightly to the right when it will spring open.

On the top of the meter is the meter window. This has a central lozenge and -2 and -4 marks. The meter is used by turning the control knob on the left until the meter needle is centred on the central lozenge. The -2 and -4 marks are used in low light conditions - they are each one stop away from the central position. If there is insufficient light to get the meter needle to the lozenge, you line it up with the -2 or -4 and then multiply the indicated exposure by either one stop or two stops.

Also on the top of the meter is the accessory shoe. There are no electrical contacts here so this is a cold shoe. It was intended that this accessory shoe would hold an auxiliary viewfinder when longer focal length lenses were used. In the centre of the accessory shoe is the legend сделано в CCCP (made in USSR) and the serial number 6968008 which indicates that the camera was made in 1969 (the first two digits of the serial number being the year of manufacture).

Kiev 4 - accessory shoe

On the left end of the top plate is another multi-function knob. 

1. The outer knurled ring adjusts the light meter.
2. The inner ring which is adjusted by two studs to set the film speed.
3. The centre is a pull up knob for rewinding the film.

The film speeds are indicated in гост which translates as GOST. This is basically the same as ASA (or ISO). The Gost scale is awkward as it does not have the usual ASA numbers. There is 65, 130, 250 and 500. Using 'western' film, ASA 100, 200 or 400 film requires guessing the position of the film speed selector. If this scale was in DIN, it would be 20 DIN (65 Gost), 23 DIN (125 Gost), 26 DIN (225 Gost), 29 DIN (500 Gost) which is probably the reason for the choices - the camera having been designed in Germany where DIN is usual.

The front of the camera is dominated (as always) by the lens mount. This is the Contax bayonet mount (not to be confused with the Contax/Yashica mount of SLR cameras). There are actually two bayonet mounts here. The 50mm Jupiter 8 lens fits into the mount and latches onto three lugs inside the mount. There is a second, larger, bayonet mount around the distance scale which is for longer focal length lenses.

Kiev 4 - lens mount

This lens mount is connected to the rangefinder and either rotates to focus the lens when the rangefinder wheel is turned (more later) or turns the rangefinder mechanism when the lens is turned. When the lens is focused on infinity it locks inlace. When locked, the lens cannot be focused. It can be unlocked in two ways.

1. there is a small pointed stud near the upper left of the lens mount which can be moved away from the lens to unlock it.
2. there is a lever by the rangefinder wheel which you depress as you turn the wheel.

On the right of the lens mount (right as in when using the camera) is a delay action lever. This rotates through just over 90 degrees to wind-up the action. It is activated by sliding a small button which is usually hidden beneath the lever. On the other side of the lens, just below the viewfinder window, is a PC socket for connecting a flash gun.

The rangefinder shares the same eyepiece as the viewfinder. To give as much accuracy as possible to the rangefinder , the two windows on the front are kept as far apart as possible (9 cm centre to centre). This is much further apart than on the Leica which was the main competitor when this camera was designed in 1936 and also than the FED and Zorki copies of the Leica.

Kiev 4 - rangefinder wheel

Just to the right of the light meter and slightly below it is the rangefinder wheel mentioned above. I find this very hard to use as when my index finger is on the wheel ready to turn it, my middle finger naturally falls over the rangefinder window, rendering it inoperable. For me, it is much easier to focus by turning the lens. The rangefinder spot is easy to see and is slightly yellow for maximum contrast. This yellowing is achieved by 'silvering' the internals of the rangefinder with gold.

For those who do not know, a rangefinder works by producing two different images in the viewfinder.

As you change focus, one of the images moves. To achieve accurate focus, you make sure your subject is in the centre of the viewfinder and turn the rangefinder wheel or lens until the two images are superimposed on each other. With practice, this is quick, easy and accurate.

Kiev 4 - rear view

To open the camera, it is necessary to remove the back and base as one unit. At home, working on a table, this is slightly easier than a hinged back. In the field, it is a nightmare. You need to find somewhere to put the back/base while manipulating the film. To make matters worse, the take-up spool is loose and liable to fall out.

The reason for the loose take-up spool is that it can be replaced with an empty cassette, removing the need to rewind the film when finished. This gives a faster reload time - good for studio work but not good elsewhere. I think, in general, this camera was designed with the studio in mind.

Kiev 4 - back/base removed

To release the back/base there are two folding lugs to turn half a turn. Inside the camera is as you would expect a 35 mm camera to be. Until, that is, you look at the shutter. Instead of the rubberised cloth usual until the 1980s, it consists of brass slats which move vertically and are held on cloth ribbons. this works the same as a cloth shutter as distinct from the modern metal shutters. Speeds provided are impressive - up to 1/1250 seconds and down to 1/2 second. The speed range is the modern one of 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 etc.

T

Kiev 4 - detail of brass shutter

The lens supplied is the Jupiter-8M. This is a Soviet copy of the Carl Zeiss Sonnar lens. This lens has six elements in three groups. How well it performs remains to be seen. Someone has attempted to dismantle my lens (never a good sign) evidenced by the aperture adjustment ring being out of kilter. Hopefully, that is as far as they got - none of the internal black paint is scratched which his a good sign. Ro-orienting the aperture ring was simply done.

Jupiter-8M lens - front bezel

The aperture has nine blades which gives a good shape to the aperture. What is curiose is that the aperture blades are curved (see photo) producing a clearly less than circular disc. I will try to produce some booked shots with my test film to see if this makes much difference. 

detail of lens showing curved aperture blades

The Jupiter 8 M is a 50 mm lens with a maximum aperture of f/2 and a minimum aperture of f/22 - quite a useable range. f/22 is about  the limit in 35 mm photography before diffraction softening starts to be a nuisance. The aperture ring has click stops but can still be set between these values  The finish on this lens is shiny chrome with a black lens bezel. - contrasting with the matt chrome on the camera body.

Test film is developed and here are the results. I am quite impressed. Soviet execution of German design is as good as it always is. There are no light leaks - always a bugbear of old cameras, neither in the seals around the base/back nor in the sutler blinds - an advantage, I would think, of using brass rather than cloth. Exposure is even indicating that the shutter blinds are both moving smoothly. There is no lens flare - although these test pictures were mostly taken in rather overcast conditions.

The rangefinder test (see below) shows both that the rangefinder is accurate at close distances and that the lens produces sharp images. The picture of the iron shutter shows the one draw back of a rangefinder camera (or any viewfinder camera, come to that). I had the shutter central in the viewfinder but it is distinctly off-set in the image - parallax problem. Some cameras adjust the viewfinder when focusing closer but not here.

The pictures:

Rangefinder test - focused on the nearest finial

Enlargement of the finial showing it to be in good focus.

Metal shutter showing parallax error in the viewfinder

Lincoln City Square

Witham looking west

Witham looking west

Old bicycle that I use as a test piece for all my old cameras

Indoor shot of Lincoln Central market - fairly slow shutter speed.

Fisherman as Easington, East Yorkshire

 (сделано в CCCP = Made in USSR ) ,  

Yashica Minister D

I already have an article on Yashica Minister III rangefinders. This Minister D is clearly from the same stable.

The camera is about the same size to look at  - I suspect the Minister II and D both use the same main casting. The most obvious difference is with the light meter. With the Minister III, the meter cells are selenium cells in a ring around the lens and do not require a battery. The Minister D meter has the sensor on the left edge of the top plate and it does require a battery.

lens: Yashinon 

focal length:  45 mm

apertures: f/2.8 to f/16

focus range: 0.8 m to infinity

lens fitting:  fixed

shutter: Copal SVL

speeds: 1 second to 1/500

flash: PC socket

film size: 35 mm

The camera measures 135 mm long (not including the strap lugs), 85 mm high and 40 mm deep - 75 mm including the lens.

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(C) John Margetts

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The controls are as had become standard on (non-SLR) 35 mm cameras. On the right is the film advance lever. this lever moves through about 120 degrees to advance the film one frame which is easily achieved with one movement of the thumb. Between the film advance lever and the right edge of the top plate is a window to the frame counter. This counter is automatically reset to 'S' when the back of the camera is opened. This is two before the counter shows '1' allowing for the film to be wound on two frames to move the fogged film leader past the film gate once the back is closed.

Just to the left of the film advance lever and slightly in front is the shutter release button. this is chrome plated and is 5 mm is diameter. It is threaded for a standard cable release.

To the left of these three, the top plate is slightly raised. on this raised portion are the light meter display and ASA setting. ASA (effectively the same as ISO) can be set from 10 to 400 - about the range of film speeds available in the early 1960s. the film speed can only be set in ASA numbers - there is no DIN scale - but for those who prefer DIN (me!) there is a ASA/DIN conversion scale on the inside of the back door.

The light meter consists of a window to a black and white scale and a pointer - see forward on how to use it.

Left of the light meter is an accessory shoe - no electrical contacts so a 'cold' shoe. On the far left is the rewind crank. This pulls up to release the film cassette when loading/unloading but plays no part in releasing the back.

The front of the top-plate has the viewfinder window - fairly large at 20 mm by 13 mm - and a small rangefinder window at the end of the 'Minister D' logo. To the right of the viewfinder is the light meter cell. This is circular and is around 5 mm diameter in a 15 mm diameter enclosure.

The lens is central in the Copal SVL shutter. Just to the left of the shutter housing is a PC (Prontor Compur) flash connector.

The base plate is uncluttered. It has a button to release the rewind mechanism, a 1/4 inch UNC tripod boss (the old standard for tripods was 1/4 inch Whitworth which is very close to 1/4" UNC), a battery compartment and then usual Yashica recessed catch for the back. This is marked O-P - 'O' for open and 'P' for closed.

The back of the camera, as well as having the hinged back, has the light meter actuating button, the viewfinder eyepiece and a grey plastic plug. This plug hides the rangefinder adjusting screw. last thing to note is the presence of strap lugs at either end.

The lens is a Yashinon f/2.8, 45 mm lens (actually described on the lens fascia as 4.5 cm as was usual up to the 1940s but was old hat by the 1960s). I am told the lens has five elements in four groups. It is, of course, coated as was usual by the 1960s. The camera focusses by moving the whole lens; this is the high quality method of focusing compared to the cheaper method of just moving the front element of the lens.

The lens is set in a Copal SVL shutter:

S - for flash synchronised

V - for Vorlaufwerk (delayed action)

L - for light value settings

The shutter clearly takes its name from the German Prontor shutters - S, SV and SVS.

The lens can focus down to 0.8 m (2.8 feet) and is coupled to the rangefinder. this camera is now 50 years old and the rangefinder patch is fairly dim. However, knowing this is in the centre of the viewfinder it is not necessary to actually see it. It is still quite easy to the secondary images of strong verticals and so the rangefinder is straight forward to use. On the rear of the top plate is a small (5 mm) grey plastic plug. This is easily removed to reveal a small screw which is used to adjust the rangefinder. This camera seems to be already adjusted correctly. 

Incidentally, it is possible to improve the contrast of dim rangefinder patches. this can be done by inking in a small black circle in the middle of the viewfinder using a Sharpie or such.

Another nice feature with focusing this camera is parallax adjustment. As you focus the camera closer, the bright lines in the viewfinder move progressively to the right and down. You will still get some parallax error in your framing but you should be able to avoid cutting peoples' heads off.

There is a usable range of f stops from f/2.8 to f/16. This couples with shutter speeds from 1 second to 1/500 seconds. With films rated between 100 ISO and 400 ISO there will be few conditions that this camera will not cope with - at least in the UK; Florida beaches might be a problem.

Setting the exposure takes several steps.

1) press the red button on the rear of the top plate to switch on the meter

2) while holding the red button in, note the number the meter needle is pointing to

3) transfer this number to the outer-most ring on the lens/shutter housing

This sets the exposure but to the camera's choice of aperture and shutter speed. To get either the aperture or speed you want requires a fourth step.

4) turn the inner, gnarled, ring until either the aperture you want, or shutter speed, is against the red index mark. Not every aperture or shutter speed will be available for a given LV setting. For instance, with an LV setting of 17 you are stuck with f/16 and 1/500 and at LV 3 you only get shutter speed of 1 second and an aperture of f/2.8.

This is essentially a shutter priority system as altering the LV will alter the aperture, the shutter speed staying constant until the aperture required is outside the available range.

Most Japanese cameras use black foam in the recess the back fits in. this acts as a light seal. Unfortunately, this foam eventually turns to goo which has happened to this camera. Before I can run a test film I need to clean out the remains of the light seals and fit new black foam - easily secured on the Interweb.