The Yashica Electro GS, a budget window into the world of RF.
I’m guessing most of our grandparents had this camera hidden somewhere in their stash of old memories which have been forgotten.
It was introduced during 1970 – 1973, a fixed lens rangefinder introduced to the market by Yashica with different variants, namely the G/GT/GS/GSN/GTN.
I personally found my Yashica Electro GS at my grandaunt’s place. It was hidden beneath some stacks of old junk. This camera was affordable photographic equipment back then compared to the Nikon S or Leica Ms on the market.
The camera came with a Color Yashinon DX 45mm F1.7 lens. It uses a leaf shutter for operations & was fully electronic. Basically the user sets the aperture from F1.7-F16 & the camera does the job of selecting the aperture speed.
It was a simple to use camera. Should there be over or under exposure, the camera would light up its warning lights to indicate this to the user.
The Yashica Electro GS was my very first rangefinder camera. As a first time user, it provided an inexpensive insight into the world of rangefinders. Being aperture priority, the camera took care of the shutter speed for me & I was able to fully concentrate to learn how to study how a rangefinder camera focuses, which is the main part of rangefinder shooting in my opinion.
Size wise, the camera was slightly big to my liking & I could never understand why they had to create such a long shutter button for the camera. Nevertheless, despite its short comings, the Yashica GS would be a great camera if you would like to just experience a rangefinder camera without blowing a hold in your pocket.
I have since moved on to other rangefinder cameras but I still do have the Yashica Electro GS sitting pretty in my dry cabinet.
Here are some pictures taken by my Yashica Electro GS
More links to information on the Yashica Electro GS:
Yashica Guy
Review Contributed by Gary Wang