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 really quite excellent considering the ordinary kit zoom lens on it. I was beginning to like this one. So I logged in to KEH and ordered a Yashica AF 50mm f1.8 lens in LN- condition, 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 even sharper and cleaner looking than the kit zoom images. Since then I've also added a Yashica 28mm F2.8 wide angle prime lens (new in box!), and a Sigma AF 75-200mm F3.8 lens to round out my setup. Despite how much I love this camera gear, I have too many cameras and so....
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 took a little getting used to (although now I actually rather like it).
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.
