The first real camera I ever owned! Memory of it just hit me like a ton of bricks

[Adsos Letter]

while I was composing a post to alfredo. Ladies and Gentlemen (and I use those terms quite loosely within the Group :D ) behold:

The Yashica Electro 35



I actually took some great shots all over Germany with this camera. I finally lost it, along with a bunch of undeveloped film, when I left it under the seat of a 5-ton truck during OPERATION REFORGER in Fall of 1975.

DAMN! I had completely forgotten about that camera, but I'm sure I have some field operation film around here somewhere. Time to start going through boxes.

And with Kim trying to decorate for the holidays; she's gonna' love me for this! :D

EDIT: Kim might take awhile to come around on the love part...but she will come around...I hope.

RE-EDIT: to add: Please refrain from asking why, when I was stationed in Germany and had access to the discounts of the PX, I did not purchase a Leica...

[kentauros]

1. I remember Yashica cameras

although only in 120 format, as those were our first-year "training" cameras in high school:




So, are you going to scan all your photos and negs on your own or take the boxes to a place to do it all for you? I've been telling my father to do the same with his slides of Japan from the time he spent there in the early 50s. I'd love to see them again and I know he'd like to go through them, too.

You're going to post some of your photos of Germany soon, huh? ;)

[Adsos Letter]

3. Well, kentauros, that's gonna' depend on whether I can actually FIND those photos

I have a vague idea of the boxes they might be in but with the holiday decorating my wife likes to do,and the great multitude of boxes accompanying her efforts, my search could be a cause of...unpleasantness...shall we say. :hide:

When I find them I will definitely be scanning them into the external drive. I have a whole stack of glossy shots taken with my Minolta SLR in the very early 80's sitting on my desk, yet to be scanned in. I suspect that might be used as evidence by Kim in any tactical debate over the desire for me to go rooting around for more during her favorite time of year (lots of guests, tree decorating party, that kind of thing). :D

[kentauros]

5. How about a search & scan party for you, then?

If she gets decorating parties, then you get organizational and photo-nostalgia parties

When I have the desk-space and the money, I do want to get a MicroTek scanner :D

[alfredo]

7. I had a Yashica D. I loved it.

[kentauros]

8. I liked it in school, but was glad to move to SLR.

I still have my old Pentax K1000 but it's broken and I can't even give it away for parts. Unless one of y'all wants it? ;)

[alfredo]

9. The Pentax Spotmatic was my SLR of choice.

[kentauros]

10. I would have liked a Spotmatic, but the K1000 was a gift.

I literally used it until it just wouldn't work any more :)

[alfredo]

11. I used mine until a junkie crawled through my window and stole it. I found

who it was and tracked him down to my home town. While I was spending the night at my parents house I heard on dad's police scanner the guy being arrested. I travelled from Detroit to Kentucky to find him and beat the living shit out of him. The cops caught him first.

[kentauros]

12. That's quite the story, and far more than I would have done

;)

So, did you get your camera back?

[alfredo]

13. No. He probably sold it for junk that night.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. well, I wont ask why

but I know why... so when you left it in that truck, you would not kill yourself?

you know, you can get one of these for a fraction of what it used to cost, and film still works

[Adsos Letter]

4. I just about killed myself anyway; I had quite a few roles of undeveloped film in the kit bag

along with the camera. Lots and lots of shots taken by an 18 year old in the midst of all that military strangeness; railheading the guns from the railhead at Wurzburg at 3:00am, with the enormous castle on the hill overlooking us lit up by floodlights. Stuff like that, and a bunch of other things.

Mostly captures of images from a young guy in a strange place, doing strange stuff. I can get neither the shots, nor those eyes, back again.

I actually bought that camera because it was 35mm but had an "auto" function, of sorts, while also allowing for a certain degree of manual settings for the aperture.

Anyway; I chalk the loss up to too many days/nights without much sleep, the distraction of arriving at the battery position while a fire-mission was taking place (155mm's are LOUD at 0-dark-thirty in the morning), and the encouragement of a rather intimidating NCO shouting "un-ass the vehicle" over the general mayhem going on. :D

I understand from your posts that your experience was much more serious. Getting shot is in a class all by itself.

[alfredo]

6. I have an old Yashica Electro SLR. That rangefinder is beautiful.

You want to hear something awful? I had a chance to buy a Leica with all the attachments for IR photography for about $200. It was used for tripwire photography. I didn't have the money at the time.

BTW, eBay has some Yashica Electro 35's for sale.