Remember the Yasuhara T981, the camera that started the Leica screw-mount rangefinder camera craze? The company has just released a black version of the camera and a 50mm f/2.8 lens. Too bad they're only for sale in Japan.

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), July 09, 2001

Answers

I know that on Steve Gandy's site, he really liked that this cameras was even attempted... a guy with a dream builds a camera from scratch. There is one flaw in the design though. The shutter selected was a commonly available Copal shutter that is used in many SLRs. An SLR has the benefit of the mirror to help with the light tightness of the shutter, but the rangefinder camera offers no additional resistance from the light. The weak point of this camera is that fogging occurs in certain lighting situations, through the shutter's overlapping blades.

Gandy's write-ups:

http://www.cameraquest.com/yasuhp.htm

http://www.cameraquest.com/yasu2.htm

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), July 09, 2001.

That black t981 is a nice looking camera though. I'd really like a Yasuhara t-shirt or hat with the hand drawn logo (since 1998) on it.

-- Josh Root (rootj@att.net), July 11, 2001.