Kyocera Super Weatherproof T5 35mm Film Camera

The Yashica T-4 is an amazing camera. This little camera is packed with features, but the best reason to buy this camera is the lens!

Let's face it; the single most important thing on any camera is the lens. What makes Lecia or Hassiblad so great? Their lens! A camera body is a body. Unless you are buying a super-duper, major professional type camera, the body doesn't do very much for you. As long as it doesn't let light in, doesn't shake, and moves the film correctly the body has very little affect on your picture.

When it comes to lenses, the Yashica has THE lens. This camera has a Carl Zeiss lens. Carl Zeiss lenses are amazingly sharp and clear lenses. They are reserved for some of the finest cameras in the world. Somehow, Yashica managed to get these lenses on their moderately priced cameras. If you use the Yashica T4 -- you'll being taking pictures with the same lens that's used on Contax cameras. I paid a hell of a lot more money for my Contax 167 MT than for my Yashica T4.

Frankly, I feel so strongly about the quality of Carl Zeiss lenses, I could stop my review here. Just knowing that was the lens on the camera would sell me. But that's the great thing about the Yashica. In addition to having this fantastic lens... it's also packed with features!

The Yashica T4 has the basic features of a point and shot camera. The film auto loads. The camera reads the bar code on the film canister and sets the film speed automatically. It's also auto focus, auto-rewind, auto-flash... auto-everything.

But, there's still more. The camera allows you to select red-eye reduction on the flash or turn off the flash for mood lighting. But the best part of the flash features... this camera offers fill-flash! If you're not married to a photographer (if you haven't figured that out, yet my husband is a photographer) I'll tell you what fill-flash is. Fill-flash is a really nifty feature where the camera automatically balances the power of the flash to even out the light between the subject of the picture that's being flashed and the background. Have you ever seen a picture where the background was black and the main focus of the picture is kind of faded out or over exposed? Well, fill-flash will compensate for that. If you use fill-flash there will be more details in your shadows and your main subject won't be washed out. I almost always use fill-flash. This is a feature that's normally reserved for expensive electronic flashes and you get it on the Yashica T4!

Another great feature of this camera is the waist level finder. This means you can hold the camera down (away from your face) and still see to take a picture. This is good for really candid picture -- since people won't see you picking up the camera.

This camera is weatherproof, too. So you don't have to worry if you spill a little something on it (like when I got formula on mine) or if you get caught in the rain.

When my husband and I got married (over 11 years ago) he bought the T3 the day before our wedding so he'd have a little point and shoot to carry around. He gave me the T4 as a gift for my first Mother's Day. So, the Yashica cameras have sentimental value for us as well.

I heard something earlier this week that upset me. We took our friend to buy a Yashica T4. She needed a new point and shoot for Christmas and she wanted my (photographer) husband to help her pick out one. We took her to the camera store where my husband is on a first name basis with both of the owners. One of the owners told us they are going to stop (or may have already stopped) making the T4s with the Carl Zeiss lenses. He said from now on the Carl Zeiss lenses would be reserved only the more pricey cameras to preserve their image. To make his point, he opened a draw to show us all the T4 cameras he had stockpiled for when the supply runs dry. I freely admit this is hearsay... but if you're thinking about getting a point and shoot and you want THE best lens... it's time to investigate the Yashica T4.