Yashica J-7
by Karen Nakamura
The Yashica J-7 is a single-lens reflex (SLR) with interchangeable lenses sold by Yashica sometime in the late 1960s. It uses the very popular Pentax/Praktica M42 screw mount, which means you can use a wide variety of Pentax lenses as well as other brands. Using the text or images on this website without permission on an ebay auction or any other site is a violation of federal law.
I purchased this J-7 at an auction as part of a larger lot of cameras that I wanted in late January 2003. The J-7 pictured here looks very clean and has no dents or dings but for some reason the shutter is jammed. Hopefully this is a very cheap fix (open it up, unjam it) but I don't know. Since I'm only collecting rangefinders for now, I sold it the next week to a very nice person who I hope can unjam it and use it for another 40 years.
The camera does not sport a cold-shoe for flash mounting! Instead you use an accessory shoe that mounts over the viewfinder.
Very new to that age, the camera has a built-in partially coupled CDs lightmeter. You dial in the ASA speed of your film, the camera body automatically relays the shutter speed, and you push the black "meter" button on the rear of the camera. The dial on the tells you which f/ stop to set your lens to. Great!
| Camera Name | J-7 (J7) |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Yashica |
| Place of Manufacture |
Body: Japan |
| Date of Manufacture | 1968? |
| Focusing System |
Single lens reflex |
| Lens Mount |
Standard (Pentax) M42 screw mount |
| Shutter |
Rubberized focal plane curtain. 1 sec - 1/1000 sec + B Self-timer |
| Metering System |
CdS
cell mounted on camera body (above the lens ATL) |
| Flash |
External cold-shoe accessory option only PC cable connection for FP and X flashes |
| Film type / speeds |
Type 135 film (35mm standard) ASA 12 to 800 |
| Battery type | 1.35v PX625 mercury-oxide (discontinued) |
| Dimensions and weight | |
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My Pentax Screw
Mount Lens Collection
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The Yashica Corporation began making cameras in 1957, releasing its first model in 1958 (the Yashica 35). They produced a very well regarded series of twin-lens-reflex (TLR) medium format cameras under the Yashica-Mat brand and 35mm rangefinders under the Yashica Electro name. Yashica became a subsidiary of the Kyocera Corporation in October of 1983. For the next two decades, Kyocera continued to produce film cameras under the Contax marquee, including a very nice 35mm Contax SLR series (which used Zeiss lenses), a medium format system, and the Contax G1/G2 rangefinders (also with Zeiss glass).The Yashica name was only used for a small series of dental cameras and point and shoots. In March of 2005, Kyocera announced that it would cease production and sales of film and digital cameras under the Contax marquee. Thus ends 30 years of a wonderful camera line. The Contax name will most probably revert back to the Zeiss foundation, thus who knows what will happen in the future. Right now, the name "Yashica" appears to have been bought by a Chinese company for their inexpensive digital cameras.
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