Small, light and very sharp...
Written: Dec 28 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: lightweight, weatherproof design; takes sharp pictures
Cons: very sensitive shutter release button
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| anoop's Full Review: Kyocera T5 Super Weatherproof 35mm Film Camera |
Small and light are two of its virtues. The Yashica T4 will take very sharp pictures if you know how to use it. I'm still learning :-)
For many years, the only camera that I owned was a Canon Owl. I was very happy with it, except that the pictures were never crisp and sharp, although they were always very bright. Anyway, I decided to give the camera to my sister, so here I was looking for another camera to buy. I decided to get my feet wet with APS, and bought a Canon ELPH2. A few months of APS use and I almost completely lost interest in photography. The pictures were always grainy and dull, sometimes plain blurred. This could be due to a variety of reasons, but I tried almost everything under the sun, and couldn't take a good picture. Finally, I decided to get back on 35 mm photography.
After reading the newsgroups for a while, and consulting epinions, and talking to friends, and talking to the folks at my local camera store, I decided to take my chance with the Yashica T4. My requirements when looking for a camera:
- Small and lightweight;
- Good quality (sharp, bright) pictures in a variety of lighting situations;
- Not obscenely expensive;
- Zoom (preferred, but not a must).
When I started researching 35 mm cameras, I first asked around for the smallest 35 mm camera that produced good pictures. I was told that if size is a consideration, then it's probably better to stay away from cameras with zoom lenses because a number of compromises must be made with lens quality in order to make a compact zoom lens. I decided zoom was worth forgoing. Zoom is essential when clicking pictures of wildlife, but other than that, I think it can be dispensed with. Once I had decided that fixed-focus was the way to go, the two top-rated cameras in that category seemed to be the Yashica T4 Super Weatherproof and the Olympus Stylus Epic. Both are weatherproof cameras, and both apparently shoot excellent pictures. The Olympus is about $50-$70 cheaper, but when I saw the Yashica, I just couldn't resist it. I liked the look and feel of the Yashica much better than that of the clamshell design of the Olympus.
So I settled for the Yashica. I paid $199.00 at a camera shop in Palo Alto. This was more expensive than I could get it for from the web, but I like to be able to see and speak to the people I'm buying expensive stuff from as far as possible (I couldn't do that when I bought my IBM laptop :-(). For free, they gave me an additional 2 years of Yashica warranty. I also bought a little camera case for it.
The first test drive for the camera was Las Vegas. The shots of the hotels in Las Vegas are absolutely amazing. The amount of detail of the lights, etc. that the camera has captured left me spellbound. Most of the pictures where I wanted to get lights in the background (like Hotel Paris, for example), I took without flash and the camera set to "infinity focus". As far as pictures of people go, there was no red-eye effect whatsoever (without and with the red-eye feature turned on). The only problem is that a few of the pictures, less than 10%, either turned out over-exposed or under-exposed. This means either the pictures of people are "washed out" or it's almost as if the person is covered by some big shadow. I don't know why that happened, but I'm attributing it to my "noviceness" with this camera, and I've been reading the manual carefully to make sure I do the right thing next time. The camera has five flash modes: (1) always on; (2) always off; (3) red-eye reduction; (4) infinity focus (flash off); and (5) auto. I've done some experimenting with the flash, but I tend to always use the red-eye mode when taking pictures indoors, the infinity mode when taking pictures of scenery or night-lights, and auto mode for everything else. I've also used the camera at Pier 39 in San Francisco (one of those crowded tourist spots) and have got some pretty, colorful pictures.
The focus-lock feature which a lot of cameras have, is activated when you push the shutter-release button halfway. However, this camera's button is so sensitive, that the picture is usually clicked before you know it. I think this might be the cause of some of my bad pictures. I've kind of learnt how to deal with the extra-sensitive button, so hopefully, the pictures that I take in future will be better and better!
My camera has a quartz date imprinting feature which I use all the time. I like to have the date in the corner so that I can tell when the picture was taken a few years from now.
Another REALLY cool feature that this camera has is a "waist-level" view finder. I didn't even know about this one till I first saw the camera in the shop. It's excellent and I've taken some really cool pictures because of that. Ever try shooting someone's picture from your waist-level... it's just different! Also, it helps when taking pictures in which you'd like to be a part of the picture; rather than struggle with trying to position the camera using the regular viewfinder, the waist-level viewfinder helps you position the camera with ease.
I have had this camera for about two months now. The camera is so good, it's hard not to go on praising its virtues, but at some point, this review must be completed! All I can say is that Yashica has put together a hard-to-beat endearing package with the Yashica T4 Super Weatherproof. Oh, I almost forgot... the camera is weatherproof, so it can handle taking pictures in a little bit of rain and dust with no problem. From what I've heard, both on the newsgroups and at the camera store, Yashica is discontinuing the T4 Super Weatherproof because of some contractual problems with Carl Zeiss, the maker of the lens that the camera uses.
PS: I have one gripe with epinions. I don't know why they have 5 separate product categories for the Yashica T4. I contacted them and tried to get them to compact all 5 of these into one since they are all basically the same camera, but they refused. Oh well...
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
anoop
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Location: Rocklin, CA
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 1 member
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