The story of Yashica began in December, 1949 in Nagano, Japan, when the Yashima Seiki Company was founded with an initial investment of $566. Its eight employees originally manufactured components for electric clocks. Later, they began making camera components, and by June 1953 had introduced their first complete camera, the Yashimaflex, a twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera designed for 6x6cm rollfilm. The Yashimaflex camera and subsequent Yashimas used lenses sourced from the Tomioka Optical Works, beginning a relationship that would last for years. Also in 1953, the company’s name was changed to Yashima Optical Industry Company, Ltd.
In 1957, Yashima founded Yashica, Inc., a subsidiary arm in New York City to manage marketing efforts in the USA. During the next year and a half, Yashima continued to grow, with 1,982 employees by 1958. Later in 1958, Yashima changed its name to Yashica Company, Ltd, when it acquired the Nicca Camera Company, Ltd. The Nicca acquisition was fortuitous, greatly expanding the company’s market into 35mm film cameras.
The Yashica Pentamatic, an advanced, modern 35mm Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera with a proprietary bayonet-mount and interchangeable lenses, was introduced in 1959. Bowing to consumer preferences of the day, Yashica later reversed course and adopted the popular M42 screw-mount for the Penta J and later 35mm SLR models. As before, Yashica continued to source its lenses from the Tomioka Optical factory. Around 1960-61, Yashica made yet another important acquisition, the Zunow Optical Industry Co. Ltd. Though a small company, Zunow had become well-known for its limited production of a very advanced SLR camera, along with several high-quality, fast lens designs.
In December 1965, Yashica introduced the world’s first electronically controlled 35mm camera, the Electro-35, a popular rangefinder model that eventually sold 5 million units. The company continued to expand its international markets, and in August 1968, Yashica finally acquired its lens manufacturer, the Tomioka Optical and Machine Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (later re-named the Tomioka Optical Co. Ltd.). By this time, Tomioka was one of the largest and most reputable lens manufacturers in Japan. Sales of 35mm SLRs continued to grow steadily. Yashica was quickly acquiring a reputation for both electronic camera expertise and high-quality optics.
By 1973, Yashica was a production giant with considerable electronic camera experience, and was seeking ways to expand sales and improve brand name recognition in the highly competitive 35mm SLR market. Thus began ‘Top Secret Project 130’, a collaboration with Carl Zeiss to produce a new, professional 35mm SLR with an electronically-controlled shutter, bearing the Contax brand name. A new prestige line of lenses designed by Zeiss and built by Yashica were introduced, with a modern bayonet mount interchangeable between all Contax and Yashica SLR models. Yashica also took the opportunity to upgrade and expand its line of 35mm SLR lenses (DSB, ML) with the new mount, as well as introducing improved optical designs and coating technologies. The F. Alexander Porsche Group was hired to complete an ergonomic and styling study of the new camera. The new Contax RTS appeared at Photokina in 1974, and proved an immediate hit.
Within the Yashica line, the new C/Y bayonet mount first appeared with the FX-1 (1975) and FX-2 (1976). Also in that year, Yashica developed the upscale Yashica FR. The FR, based in part on the Contax RTS design, was a manual-exposure, electronically-controlled camera designed to appeal to the semi-professional and serious amateur user. This practice of ‘pairing’ similar Contax models with more affordable, less full-featured, but still high-quality Yashica camera models would continue for the next 10 years.
The FR was quickly followed in April 1977 by the FR-I and FR-II. The FR-I had both manual and auto-exposure modes, and was even closer in design and features to the premium Contax RTS. The FR-II was an auto-exposure only SLR designed for a growing market of new photographers who did not want or need full manual metering capability. The FR-I and FR-II reached the U.S. market early in 1978. All of these cameras were on the whole extremely well-designed and manufactured, and even incorporated a few improvements over the RTS. Popular Photography tested the FR in its September, 1977 issue and described the camera as being tougher in some ways and better sealed against dust than its older brother. Along with the ability to mount Carl Zeiss lenses, Yashica offered a multitude of Contax/Yashica accessories and power winders for the FR series, competing seriously for the first time in the professional and semi-pro SLR marketplace. Yashica was now playing with the big guys, and the company was riding high.
In 1979, Yashica introduced a new inexpensive 35mm consumer SLR, the FX-3, intended for entry-level buyers. This simple, lightweight manual-exposure SLR camera proved to be an immediate hit with new and experienced photographers alike, and millions were eventually sold. The FX-3 was developed by Yashica and produced by Cosina, a company with a successful history of making cameras for many other camera brands, including Minolta, Olympus, Revue, and Vivitar. In the early 1980s, the compact, mid-priced FX-D and FX-70 cameras were introduced to good reviews. As before, these cameras were derivatives of the current Contax models (139Q and 137MA). The new Yashicas signaled the company's return to its middle-of-the road, moderately priced amateur market.
In October 1983, Yashica Company Ltd. was acquired by ceramics giant Kyocera. Initially, the merger resulted in few outward changes. The manual-focus (MF) FX-103 Program, introduced in 1985, continued the ‘pairing’ tradition of high-end Yashica SLR models with Contax (Contax 159mm), and was the first Yashica SLR with TTL flash and full programmed exposure capabilities.
But ominous developments were afoot. The 1985 introduction of Minolta's Maxxum/Dynax 7000 autofocus (AF) camera was a huge success, and all camera makers scrambled to catch up. As a large ceramics corporation without experience in the camera trade, Kyocera was never that impressed with Yashica’s small, competitive niche market of high-quality, mid-priced 35mm manual-focus (MF) SLRs and decided to reposition the entire MF SLR line as a ‘value-priced’ choice for entry-level photographers. Kyocera also badly wanted an AF 35mm SLR camera to compete with Minolta's revolutionary Maxxuum/Dynax.
Carl Zeiss, a company with an intensely loyal brand following of Contax 35mm camera owners, was repeatedly approached on the idea of a second co-operative project for a new AF 35mm camera and lenses. This wasn't a new idea - Zeiss and Yashica had actually experimented with AF camera designs as far back as 1982. Unfortunately, at that time Zeiss firmly rejected all AF proposals, claiming that optical and mechanical lens quality would be adversely affected given the technology of the day. Kyocera was also ambivalent about Yashica as a separate brand itself. While retaining the Yashica name for most of its overseas market, Kyocera began to offer various models with the Kyocera nameplate for buyers in Japan, while subsuming the old Yashica into its new corporate identity.
Nevertheless, in December 1986 Kyocera introduced its new line of autofocus 35mm SLR cameras and lenses, all but one carrying the Yashica name for the international market. Both the cameras and lenses borrowed heavily from Minolta, as might be expected. The AF camera project consumed a large amount of money, forcing Kyocera's camera group to cut back or shelve other needed projects, such as updating the rapidly aging manual focus Yashica ML lens line. Unfortunately, the new Yashica AF cameras were rather overpriced in comparison to their competition, and somewhat handicapped by a small range of AF lenses, not to mention lackluster marketing efforts by Kyocera. Existing owners of Yashica MF 35mm SLR cameras also proved resistant to the new camera line. Kyocera tried to encourage these owners to make the transition to autofocus by offering a 1.6x tele-converter adapter to mount Yashica manual ML lenses to the autofocus bodies, without much success. The Yashica AF cameras continued until 1994 in a progressively cheapened series of models, at which time the entire autofocus line was discontinued, reportedly after significant losses.
Kyocera had also begun the process of down-marketing the Yashica 35mm manual-focus cameras. The FX-3 progressed to the FX-3 Super (1984) and FX-3 Super 2000 (1986), with less expensive material alterations designed to keep the price within expectation. Eventually, Cosina found it necessary to offshore Super 2000 production to China to keep costs down. Having discontinued the practice of pairing Yashicas with their more expensive Contax cousins, a version of the Contax 167MT was not in the cards.
However, Kyocera still felt it needed a more traditional manual-focus SLR with a modern, integrated winder to compete in the marketplace, and the result was the 107MP (Multi-Program), which appeared in 1988. The 107MP did have the now-mandatory integrated power film advance, though it still had a manual rewind crank. It was also assembled in Hong Kong in order to cut costs. The 107MP was received with general derision by the market, who decried its plastic construction, relative unreliability, and lack of features in comparison to prior models. Strangely, the camera could not even meter a subject when in manual mode, which also greatly lessened its appeal to MF purists. In response, Kyocera quickly introduced the 108MP (1989) and 109MP (1995) which remedied some (but not all) of the problems. However, by this time demand for manual-focus SLR cameras had greatly diminished as a component of the overall market. The Multi-Program line was eventually discontinued, ironically outlived by the simple FX-3 Super 2000.
By 2003, Yashica had ceased to exist except as a nameplate for a few of Kyocera’s AF point-and-shoot cameras, and a great name quietly passed into history. -Glen
