Yashica Mat 124G

In my early days of doing night photography, I relied on my trusty Nikon FE. If you are a beginner to this type of photography, I'd highly recommend the Nikon FE as a 35mm option. It's rugged, and has a very sensitive auto exposure mode that I've found very useful for night photography. When I was using the FE, having it pick exposure times that run for many minutes that gave perfectly usable negatives was the norm.

From 2001 though 2003, the Nikon FE was a great camera for me and my night photography endeavors. Then I got a taste for the crisp images that large format cameras provide and the 35mm results didn't cut it for me anymore for any work where I'd be using a tri-pod. I experimented with using some large format equipment for night shooting, and have made some really excellent images with it, such as Moonbeams, Overpass. But, the camera was slow to operate, and I wanted to remain highly mobile and be a ghost in the night, yet still have a larger negative then 35mm. So I made a compromise by making my Yashica Mat 124G as my main night photography camera and used it for that purpose from 2007-2009.

Pros of the Yashica Mat 124G

• Large Negative: While not nearly as large as the 4x5 equipment I often use, the Yashica Mat still records an image 3.6x larger then 35mm. I find the extra resolution to be quite welcome.

  

• Compact: Compared to the FE with lens, the 124G only weights 1/5th of an ounce more, and is roughly the same proportions, while still having that nice larger negative.

• Slop Factor: This point will probably upset the full frame purists in some way. With a 35mm system, I don't like having to crop any of the frame out before the final print. The negative is already at a size where it doesn't take much cropping to start being detrimental to the quality of the final print.

  With the 124G, I know that the ground glass shows slightly less then what gets recorded on the negative. I still compose for what is on the ground glass, and just consider this extra area that gets recorded stuff I can easily crop away if I didn't get a horizontal or vertical element spot on. With the negative being as large as it is, this reduction in size is barely noticeable, if at all.

• Fun to use for street photography: Some extensive thoughts about street photography with a twin lens reflex camera like the Yashica Mat 124G can be found in my article Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) Street Shooting

Cons of the 124G

• Reloading: Your mileage may vary on this con. For me, having to reload after every twelfth exposure in itself isn't much of an issue. The issue though, is that I live in northern Minnesota and have a fetish for shooting during snow storms. I have yet to figure out a way to reload without having to take my gloves off. Cold hands are unhappy hands.
• Doesn't fit my tripod well. I'm currently using a Manfrotto 808RC4 tri-pod head that uses the RC4 quick release plates. Neither of the Yashica Mats that I own attach nicely to the RC4 plates due to the little feet on the bottom of the cameras. The feet on the Yashica Mats make the attachment to the quick release plates seldom level, which makes using the spirit levels on the tripod head rather worthless.
• Non Modular: All too often I'll be out with it loaded with black and white film and will pass by a scene that I feel would be much strong in color. A modular medium format camera would allow me to pack both color film, and black and white film two choose from for each shot without having to bring two cameras.