This Yashica-635 is a medium format twin lens reflex camera introduced in the late 1950s capable of using two different film formats: 120 or 35mm. In its standard configuration, the Yashica-635 looks and operates like most other Yashica TLR cameras. It has knob film advance with an automatic frame counter. The focusing knob is also located on the right-hand side of the camera. A fold-up waist level hood with built-in magnifier facilitates composition and critical focusing. Dual dials on the face of the camera set shutter speed and aperture, with selected values displayed in a small window above the viewing lens. The camera lacks a built-in light meter.
What sets the Yashica-635 mildly apart from most other TLR cameras is that it can be set up to use 35mm film. The camera has an additional film advance knob located on the left side of the camera used specifically for advancing 35mm film. An accessory mask is required and must be installed into the camera in order to load and use 35mm film cassettes.
Yashica-635
A fair number of twin lens, medium format cameras from the 1950s and 60s were built with the possibility of using 35mm film. Rollei developed their Rolleikin adapters for this reason. Flexarets, the Ricohmat 225, and this Yashica 635 were a couple of the other camera models that could also be fitted with 35mm film. This was a nod by camera designers to the rising popularity of the 35mm format, and it did offer some distinct advantages. For example, one of the biggest perks to using 35mm film was the ability to get 36 exposures, instead of the usual 12 6x6cm frames. This was especially helpful for professional portrait photographers or wedding photographers, who made such medium format cameras the focal point of their kits, but sometimes needed the flexibility of the additional frames. Another perk, the smaller 35mm negative uses the very center of the image circle cast by the lens, thereby cropping out any aberrations, softness, vignetting, or choma that might occur more heavily at the edges of that circle. Of course, another possible advantage would be the different selection of film stocks that might only be available in the 35mm format, such as higher speed emulsions.
These days, we don’t know too many medium format photographers who make use of this feature in their TLR cameras. We suspect this is largely due to the ease with which one can buy a 35mm camera, in addition to their medium format, a purchase that would have been a bit more costly 70 years ago. When we do see photographers adapting 35mm into their medium formats, it is to create exposures that bleed into the sprocket holes of the film, something that is not usually possible on dedicated 35mm cameras.
Now and again, we see a camera like this Yashica 635 come in and we are reminded of this feature. This Yashica 635 is missing its 35mm negative mask, but in this age of 3D printing that shouldn’t be hard to replace. Even without the mask, the camera has the 35mm film advance and the viewfinder mask for framing.