Yashica 230-AF Auto Focus SLR
This is one of those cameras I found at my local thrift store and decided to give a home despite having never seen one before. At first glance, I just thought "well, one of those rather dated looking SLRs from the 80's" and I honestly didn't have much hope when bringing it home. It came home with a Yashica AF 35-70mm f3.3-4.5 Macro zoom lens (I'm assuming it was perhaps the most common kit lens for this camera)....
I bought it a fresh lithium battery, cleaned it up and ran a test roll through it. I was very pleased with how it performed and handled, and the images from the first roll were not bad considering the ordinary zoom lens on it. I was beginning to like this one. So I logged in to KEH and found them selling a Yashica AF 50mm f1.8 lens in LN- condition for $23 plus shipping. I couldn't pass that up, and a half a week later was out testing with another roll of film. This time I was even more impressed with handling - specifically auto focusing, which worked much better with the normal prime lens. And the resulting images were definitely sharper and very clean. At this point, it is now my primary go-to SLR with a normal AF lens on it.
LIKES: feels very solid and responsive and is comfortable to hold; controls seemed daunting for a moment or two, but I quickly got used to them and realized they are quite intuitive.
DISLIKES: slightly noisy motor drive perhaps, but probably typical of this generation (and I don't have anything else like it from this period to compare it with); the sliding button used to change settings such as aperture is a bit difficult to use.
Above: Close-up of a rusted hose hanger on a post in the gardens at Gilsland Farm Maine Audubon in Falmouth, Maine. Photographed with a Yashica 230-AF with Yashica AF 50mm f1.8 lens.
View gallery of sample images for this camera
I will post full specs if I can find them or lay my hands on a manual for this camera.