TLR Fun

TLR stands for Twin Lens Reflex. It was my accident to discover my father has this precious vintage camera. According to my father, this camera was from Hong Kong if I'm not mistaken. Yes, this is the rarest Yashica B. At the moment of blogging this, it is very challenging to find any available Yashica B in Evil-bay (Yes, you are correct, EBay :-P).

Yashica B with leather jacket


I'm not a professional photographer, nor an analogue expert. I'm just curious in film photography after some while indulging into digital world. Well, you may disappoint from my poor knowledge on sharing technical setting or its metal solid structure. Nope, never plan to share from this point of view. Why not I share with you how I possibly fail the shot and the fun of adjusting myself to adapt the Yashica B's way of capturing what I see? Should be fun.

Viewfinder



TLR viewfinder is completely different from what you experienced in SLR (Single Lens Reflex). Vertical view hardly get me to stick to horizontal line correctly. In addition, the so-called "large" viewfinder is very difficult to confirm my object's sharpness. I need to use magnifier glass like an old man. :-)

Low speed film
My virgin film roll - Kodak Pro 160S. Low speed film to test and I'm curious about the colour output. In despite of low speed, I directly tested capturing portraits rather than landscape. Someone told me the colour output may go something like faded colour. Let's have some patient on this waiting game.

Instinct
One thing fun about film photography with full manual camera without metering - is to do some guess works. Guess work a.k.a your instinctive light justification will either give you a successful shot or a completely failure shot. Yes, DSLR may do a lot of metering job while you care about your composition. With full manual camera without metering, you are busier than before.

Yashica B in nude mode


My skill is not yet equivalent to instinctive justification level. Still need to jot down every shot I made on its exposure setting. Challenging part is you only have 5 choices of shutter speeds - Bulb mode, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100 and maximum 1/300.

With 120 format film size, you may try your luck to get 12 - 14 shots in total, as it is 6x6. It does not matter or relates with your braveness to try out this medium format (MF) camera. You should try once and check your feel without checking your DSLR LCD screen. Give yourself a chance - WHY NOT? :-)