So you bagged a great film camera with no light meter...
- antonroland
- Apr 5
- 6 min read
Hello again after some time.
2025 is here. Scratch that, it is April...I'll just leave that little gem there...
Twin lens reflex cameras are somewhat odd, to some quite charming. Any old way you look at it, they are very different from most "mainstream" cameras.
With all of that being said, this latest addition to my collection is the Yashica A. This article will not be a comprehensive review but there is a great one here if you wish to dig deeper.
The above roll-over text will take you there or you could visit www.casualphotophile.com for more.
If this article drew your attention you are probably familiar with this type of camera. Please allow me to share a few real-life observations of my first few rolls with the Yashica A twin lens reflex camera or TLR as they are also known.
They shoot a square 6x6 cm frame on standard 120 medium format rollfilm.
Now, let's get going and shoot some great pictures...but where do we start?
The problem with the Yashica A is that it has no light meter...
One of the greatest things about the Yashica A is that it has no light meter...
Wait WHAATT??
No, seriously, the easiest way to learn exposure basics is to have a good understanding of the "Sunny f/16 Rule".
This first of a few in a series of articles will attempt to demystify the good and the bad about the Sunny f/16 rule... and specifically applied to the Yashica A.
So the Sunny f/16 Rule says that, in bright midday sunlight, the lens set to f/16 with shutter speed equal to the ISO / ASA number of the film in use at the time will yield a good exposure.
Whilst pleasing, we can quickly run into problems...
Specific to the Yashica A, shutter speeds are rather limited. We have 1/25 of a second, 1/50 of a second, 1/100, of a second and 1/300 of a second. Getting started, I would personally recommend ISO 400 films.
A great variety of "slower" films are available to match the slower shutter speeds following the Sunny f/16 Rule but there is this thing called the "Hand Speed Rule". We will dig deeper into this in future episodes but, for now, let's just say that the Yashica A should generally not be shot free-hand below 1/100 of a second.
Finding ISO 100 films is simple and they are plentiful. ISO 100, 1/100 of a second and f/16 in bright midday light...sorted, right?
There is a catch or three as I will explain within the next paragraph or 3... we then quickly run into other problems...bear with me.
To explain the point I simulated with a D-SLR or this article would take weeks.
This above image, by design, is THE closest I can simulate a Yashica A image. It was shot in virtually the same light minutes after the ocean shot above.
So why then, is it so dark? Simply because there is a lot of shadow and shaded areas in the subject matter. This image was not harmed by a light meter of any kind. Totally consistent and fully manual exposures were made.
Shooting different types of film will also react differently to the same light. This is why I showed this next image above. My K1 was set to "Landscape" profile which intensifies colour. The problem is that it also intensifies shadow exactly as a more saturated film would do.
So by "adding one stop of light" - basically doubling the light - the "Natural" profile now gave us this.
By keeping everything the same except for opening the lens from f/16 to f/11, we lifted the shadows a bit. Everything is brighter because the quantity of light (opened from f/16 to f/11) over the same period of time (1/125 of a second).
By doing simply this we doubled the light. the shutter speed of 1/125 second is still very safe for blurr-free images and f/11 still yields plenty of depth of field.
Remember, the bright parts also get brighter as the shadows lift...
Taking things one step further, here is how we quadrupled the light. In the previous example the exposure was doubled by opening the lens from f/16 to f/11 - thereby deviating from the purest form of the Sunny f/16 Rule.
On top of this we then doubled the exposure time by adjusting the shutter speed from 1/125 second to 1/60 second.
Let's see how the "Landscape" profile performed?
I trust the quoted settings will start to make sense by now?
So remember, we are essentially using the Sunny f/16 rule as a guide but not sticking to it rigidly and forgetting everything else.
Even in bright harsh midday sun we often have to add to the Sunny f/16 rule because of shadows.
So how do we bring all of this back to the Yashica A?
To answer that we must first identify one more lurking enemy, the "Hand Speed Rule".
The Yashica A has an 80mm lens. The Yashica A is a medium format film camera and so 80mm (sometimes 90mm in similar camera systems) is roughly equivalent to 50mm in a 35mm film camera system.
In a 35mm camera system, following the "hand speed rule" hand-held shooting with a "standard" 50mm lens, at shutter speeds longer than 1/50 of a second is not advisable to most average people.
The Yashica A does not have a shutter speed of 1/80 of a second but it does have a shutter speed of 1/100 of a second. This, in theory, should then be the slowest hand-held shutter speed. Shooting hand-held at 1/50 is possible but it takes good technique and great care to obtain blurr-free images consistently. Shooting the Yashica A hand-held at 1/25 of a second requires a very steady hand and a good bit of luck obtaining blurr-free images but it can be done.
Now, for creative effect as needed, we can take this even further. There are some approaching issues we need to mention though...Opening the lens too much will cause a loss of depth of field eventually. When subject matter is a good few meters away depth of field is not easily at risk.
Photographing subject matter very close to the camera does make depth of field much more of an issue.
I personally recommend shooting a good few rolls of 400 ISO film getting going mastering this exposure calculation thing.
Here is why...
For outdoor bright daylight, shooting a 400 ISO film at 1/300 of a second will give a slight over-exposure. This is a good thing because it will lift those shadows a bit without blowing out the bright bits of the image.
Should it become cloudy, we will soon visit Chapter 2 of the Sunny f/16 Rule...Cloudy 8.
Yes, shutter speed runs with ISO but now we start at f/8 because cloud cover dims sunlight considerably.
Should we move indoors we will visit Chapter 3 of the Sunny f/16 Rule...Indoor 4.
Shutter speed still runs with ISO but now we start at f/4.
Interiors are often - not always, fair enough - dimly lit. I am assuming that we are not shooting sport or other fast-moving action because this will require flash or another camera system.
Another reason why shooting 400 ISO film in the Yashica A and the associated slight over-exposure is a very good thing is because negative film has a great latitude for over-exposure. You really DON'T want to under-expose negative film much at all.
400 ISO in the Yashica A gives us four stops and a tiny bit before we bottom out at f/3,5 AND before we have to drop from 1/300 of a second.
From here we still have two stops of light before we bottom out against the hand speed rule. Six stops of light in total then.
Please remember, every "regular" good frame requires three things.
A shutter speed fast enough to stop motion in all or at least a selected part of the subject matter AND long enough to allow enough time for light to reach the film.
A lens aperture closed down far enough for sufficient depth of field AND wide enough open for a sufficient quantity of light to reach the film during the time the shutter is open.
A 400 ISO film has its specific qualities that will not change and so 1 and 2 above need to balance to accommodate it.
In the next episodes we will travel down these respective rabbit holes with plenty of examples.
Remember, above all else, have fun...
Happy shooting.
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