Yashica Y35 digiFilm Camera Review

A few years ago, I renovated my home office and wanted to have some old, vintage camera bodies for decoration.  My wife found lots of lovely, low cost specimens on eBay.  Through all the ones she found, none were ranger finder style.   I looked about and picked up a Yashica Lynx 5000E. 

To my surprise, the camera was fully functional, minus a battery for the meter.   No worries, though as I could use another camera or the sunny 16 rule if need be.  The company that made that particular model no longer exists, the Yashica name lives on through a company in China.  They have decided to try something new.  A Kickstarter campaign was run for "Expect The Unexpected" digiFilm camera by Yashica".

OK, I'm interested, but what does that mean?

What is a digiFilm camera?

Imagine taking the handling of a film camera and making the capture medium digital.  Not only digital....but the means of controlling the "look" of the JPG it produces is controlled through the small film like canister you put into the back of camera.  This "digiFilm" is like setting up a JPG color or monochrome picture control.  Not only does it affect the look of the image, but also the ISO, film grain, vignette and aspect ratio as well.

To get more info on the whole digiFilm concept, check out the Yashica website for this particular camera.  You can also check out the original Kickstarter campaign.

The Camera 

I ordered the 4 digiFilm pack.  The box came with the camera, lens cap, 4 digiFilm and a USB cable.  The batteries were not supplied, but I included them below for scale.

The top deck of the camera.  The hot shoe is, well a cold shoe.   You cannot trigger a flash from this.  Yashica mentioned that you can place an LED panel there for illumination.  I'm probably never going to do that, though.

The film rewind is not real, just a molded plastic film winder looking thing.

The exposure comp dial does work and gives you + or - 2 stops in 1 stop increments.

The geared looking plastic disc around the shutter release is the power switch.

Then the exposure winder level works and needs to be moved in order to release the shutter button.  The winder feels very solid.  I wish that the shutter release was as smooth as the winder mechanism.

On the back you have the viewfinder to the left and just to the right of it is the LED indicator.   Unlit and the power is off.  When you turn the camera on, the LED will light purple to show it is booting up, then it will be red when the camera is ready to take a picture.

During operation, the LED will go back to purple when an image is being taken and written to the memory card.

A small switch on the left side side opens the back lid where the digiFilm is placed and the batteries installed.

The digiFilm bin has bent pins that lock the canister in place. You should be very careful placing the digiFilm into the camera.  It could be the weakest part of the design, using the pins this way.  Only time will tell.

Here is a fully loaded and ready to go Y35.

Here, the bottom panel contains the SD card slot and the micro USB connection port.  The door is a little difficult to open.  You must slide the plate toward the arrow and then lift up.  The plastic notch is hard to get your finger nail under and lift it.  I'm using an old Eye-Fi card that is no longer supported.  4GB in size and working just fine as far as I can tell.

Below, the LED is showing red, meaning ready to take an image.

Handling

Giving you the "feel" of the old film camera, you must turn the "film advance" lever to cock the shutter.  Now, you are not really cocking a shutter here as the shutter is an electronic one, but you run through the process the same as you would for a film camera.

I found the camera similar to holding the Lynx 5000E, just with a lot less weight.

The shutter release is not as smooth as the older cameras this one emulates.  It feels kind of 2 stage.  It is smooth to a point where it stops.  Then you press a little harder and there is a slight click and the shutter is released.  I have noticed with a bit of use, the shutter release button smooths out some.

Once the camera is on, working the camera is as easy as winding the film advance lever, framing the scene and then pressing the shutter.  It is a rather simple set of operations.

The viewfinder is large and makes it easy to frame up your subjects. It is a much better setup than the Holga Digital I also have.

There have been some reports that the image is not taken until the shutter release is fully pressed and then released.  I'm pretty sure this is the way that it works.  Why?   Because holding down the shutter release for 4 seconds will activate the one second shutter.  This is not documented in the instruction sheet but explained by some Yashica employees on social media.

Something else to keep in mind.  There is some lag between pressing the shutter button and when the image is actually taken and saved.  Makes sure to stay still while the light on the back of the camera is still purple.  Once it goes red again ,you should be safe to move and not introduce blur or "jello" effects into your images.

Settings

Aspect Ratio:

Controlled by the digiFilm you loaded into the camera.   Could be 4:3 or 1:1.

Aperture:

Aperture on this camera is fixed at f/2.

Shutter Speed:

Electronically controlled and determined by the camera.

ISO:

Determined by the digiFilm selected and can be a range.

Exposure Compensation:

You have plus/minus 2 stops of exposure comp via a dial on the top deck, in one stop increments

Focus

Focus is fixed and goes from about 1.5 meters to infinity.

IQ

I've got 4 digiFilm and I'll have examples from all 4.
If you are a pixel peeper, this is not a camera for you.  Going in 1:1, you will not have tack sharpness.  Given the image as a whole, it is acceptable/passable.

It appears that in starkly contrasting light, the limits of the dynamic range are evident in some of the digiFilm.  Looking below at the 6x6 digiFilm, where the sun is at it's brightest, the overexposed highlights are evident.   You can see in the Color 200 digiFilm, better exposure characteristics.  Not sure if this is a sensor issue or the JPG processing that is implemented.  Could be both.

I'd say compared to my Holga Digital camera, it is as good if not a little bit better in some instances.

Bear with me as well, on some of these images.  Not my best work, but like film, you are relying a bit on the meter and on your experience to nail the exposure.  There are some images where I should have used a little exposure compensation.

So far, the camera seems to do a decent job on exposure calculations.  I've used the exposure comp dial when I thought I would need it.

Color 200

1/1100, f/2, ISO 100

1/1250, f/2, ISO 100

1/1000, f/2, ISO 100

Color 1600

1/640, f/2, ISO 300

1/70, f/2, ISO 300

1/95, f/2, ISO 300

6x6

Basic exposure/sharpening enhanced in Lightroom

1/750, f/2, ISO 100

1/1500, f/2, ISO 100

1/2500, f/2, ISO 100

1/640, f/2, ISO 100

B&W

1/70, f/2, ISO 100

1/570, f/2, ISO 100

1/1250, f/2, ISO 100

1/30, f/2, ISO 131

1/320, f/2, ISO 100

1/500, f/2, ISO 100

1/370, f/2, ISO 100

1/50, f/2, ISO 100

Other Miscellaneous Items of Note

EXIF information:

EXIF data is captured in the files.  The focal length is registered as 6mm in all images.

Rolling shutter:

There is some, so I would not try and pan with this camera.  I've had it happen to me accidentally when I moved before the camera finished taking an image.  Looking at the image below, you will see that the signs and part of the building are warping to the right as an example.

digiFilm 6x6
1/1600, f/2, ISO 100

Hot Shoe:

This is really a cold shoe and Yashica recommends in the instruction booklet that it is a good place to use an LED light.

SD Cards:

Not sure how large of an SD card you can use. Currently it has a 4GB Eye-Fi card in it.  I formatted the card on my Win10 PC as FAT32.  The camera seems happy with it.

Post Processing:

No RAW files and JPG that are not very malleable.  Don't expect much out of them as far as recovering highlights or pushing shadows.  It is best to try and get as good an exposure as possible in camera.

Parting Thoughts

So, initial thoughts by some want to bash the camera out right.  They may want to say that they were not given what they were promised.  Check out the Kickstarter comments if you want to see some of what I'm referring.

I'm not sure what site they were on or what information they were reading, but the camera is just about what one should expect from the description.

There is no doubt - it is a plastic camera.  Yes it is.  Is it a little rough in places?  Sure.
If you are expecting something more than what it was advertised...then you might need to go back and re-read the Kickstarter and set expectations accordingly.
However, the whole Kickstarter community is a different topic for a different post.

It very well could be that this camera may not be something I use all the time.  It may only be good to use in good light.  It might be total rubbish to some.   Everything needs to be taken into perspective.

Given that, take a look at the sample images I've provided and those out on Instagram from others using the same camera, hastags:  #yashicay35 and #yashicadigifilm.   Make your own decision.  I paid for this camera with my own money and I have no reason to sing any praises for it.  I can also bash it for anything that it does wrong.   I hope you find that I do a pretty fair job of reviewing.

More thoughts...

Is this a primary camera?  No, of course not.  Not any more than I would use a Lomography type camera as a primary shooter.    It is a different way of thinking, a different way of shooting.  Much like shooting with a fully manual camera or manual focus lens would be today.

Again - proper perspective, expectations need to be made.

Regarding those who may have gotten a defective camera.   Before getting all angry and going nuts in the internet, try first to work with Yashica and see if they can make good on giving you a replacement or fixing the camera you have.

Maybe I got lucky and have a better sample of the camera than others.  As it usually happens, those not happy come out in droves and those that are happy tend to stay quite.   All I know is that so far, so good on the build.  Images have been acceptable and I do not seem to be losing images, getting black frames like others have reported.  Do I wish the image quality was better.  Sure, but for the price paid, the tech specs - I'm not expecting anything more than a lo-fi experience.  That is basically what you get here.

**UPDATE**  12-4-2018
The supplied lens cap no longer stays on. The plastic has flaked around the inside of the cap and no longer has sufficient friction to stay on.   Luckily, the lens has a 37mm filter ring on it and a 37mm pinch cap fits perfectly.  I've since replaced the lens OEM lens cap with pinch style.

I've also ordered the other 2 digiFilm that I did not get originally.  Those are BLUE and IN MY FANCY.    I will update the blog with sample images of those digiFilm once I have chance to use/review them.

Full Disclosure: some images are straight out of camera while others have been tweaked in Lightroom.  Those that have been tweaked were noted just below them.