Yashica-Mat
Introduced in April of 1957, the Yashica-Mat kicked off a premium line of TLR cameras by the Yashima Optical Company (soon to be known as Yashica). The Yashica-Mat added a couple big features that the earlier Yashica TLR cameras had been lacking. The most obvious is the replacement of a winding crank, instead of winding knob, with automatic shutter set and film winding stop. This simplified the use of the Yashica-Mat and made it a bit faster and easier to use. The Yashica-Mat also boasted a new four element Tessar-type taking lens. Early versions were a 75mm Lumaxar that were later replaced with an 80mm Yashinon. There is a lot of speculation as to the source of these lenses with some sources suggesting West Germany and others pointing to Tomioka. Regardless of the source, the Yashica-Mat's lenses are top notch, even for optical design that is now over half a century old. Speaking of top notch, the Yashica-Mat also featured a Copal-MXV leaf shutter, which at the time really did embody the some of the best in leaf shutter mechanics. These shutters have proven just how good they are by largely still functioning quite well 70+ years later. In fact, if you do grab a Yashica-Mat from a garage sale the biggest problem you are likely to have with it is that the oils and greases in the shutter may have hardened over time and the shutter is sluggish as a result. But a nice cleaning and relubrication will have that Copal singing quick enough!
A lot of Yashica TLR attention is directed toward the end of the line at the Yashica Mat-124G, but the grandparent of the series is a camera that should not be overlooked. In some ways it is arguably a better camera in that it does not have as many plastic parts as the later Yashica TLRs and feels a bit more smooth and solid as a result.
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