Yashica YK

Ages ago my father gave me a Yashica YK rangefinder camera to fix.  At the time I didn't think much of it and stashed it in a camera box with all my other when-I-get-to-it projects.

I recently got to it!  And then some.  Now I can't be stopped.

This blog aims to document some of the experiences and (hopefully) success stories as I repair this and other cameras.

The Yashica's symptom was pretty innocent: you could not wind the camera without slightly depressing the shutter; also, the shutter did not fire.  I was pretty sure it would be something simple in the top.

The range-finder also wasn't working right - the yellow blob was there but the image never moved.  Must be a broken linkage or dirty prism, right?


Here's what was "under the hood":

No broken linkages or dirty prisms.  The broken range finder is because the range finder prism / lens is gone.  Well, not far, but it's no longer in one piece - one of the shards is visible above.

The shutter-must-be-pressed-to-wind problem was simple to fix, a tiny spring had come off and a pawl was always engaged.  This pawl was popped open by the shutter release, so the issue was easily fixed by re-attaching the spring.

However, the shutter still wouldn't fire, so I started to peel apart the camera.  The lens element unscrews, exposing the Copal shutter:

Unscrewing the star nut revealed the guts of the shutter itself:

And I was able to fire the shutter. Now all that remained was to figure out why the shutter release button couldn't do that. Easy, right? 

To do that the whole shutter assembly has to come off.  But, the screws that hold it on are behind both the vinyl / leatherette covering of the camera body and the metal front cover.  You have to undo the screws on the metal cover, then rotate it around a bunch of times to get to the screws on the body.  But, after finding all four screws, the front comes off, revealing:

An easy fix!  The shutter release lever had hopped over the shutter release actuator, and it was fairly easy to reassemble the camera with the lever on the correct side.

I also found the rest of the pieces of the rangefinder prism.

After puzzling over how to repair this, including trying to figure out how to gauge the refractive index on the glass using laser pointers, I turned to the Internet.

A new-to-me range finder assembly is on order from Mark Hama Enterprises... it cost me $15 shipped.  I'll have to save the science for next time.