Twin-Lens at the River

 I took my Yashica-Mat twin-lens reflex to the river to make a few more pictures of the Yerba Mansa in bloom.  There are still abundant flowers, but many are starting to turn red now as their seeds mature.

 

 

It was nice to get back to shooting with my Yashica-Mat, which has a very sharp lens and a bright viewing screen.

I have not made a lot of pictures with this TLR, but I am motivated to do more with it now since I have acquired  a No.2 close-up accessory lens, which allows focusing as close as 14 inches.

With the accessory lens the Yashica-Mat still does not have the focal range of the Mamiya C330, but the viewing lens requires no adjustment for parallax and there is no need to adjust exposure as is the case when the C330's bellows is extended.

Getting Closer with TLR Cameras

 I picked up an accessory close-up lens set for my Yashica-Mat recently.  To my surprise, I managed to misframe all the shots on the first roll of film I put through the camera using the new lenses. 

I had assumed that I would need to aim high to get the image properly centered as I do with my Mamiya C330.  However, it turns out that the Yashica close-up viewing lens is constructed to automatically compensate for parallax error.  So, the Yashica-Mat is actually somewhat easier to use than the C330 which really requires the Paramender on a tripod to properly capture the image on film as it is seen in the viewfinder.  Close-ups with the Yashica-Mat also do not require any exposure compensation as is the case when the C330 bellows is cranked out for close shots.

A tripod is actually a good idea with both cameras as depth of focus at close distances is very narrow.

 

These two shots were made with the normal 80mm lens which provides greater DOF.