Yashica Minister D Camera

Yashica Minister D Vintage Rangefinder Camera Reborn

Here’s how I ended up taking pictures with an old Yashica Minister D Vintage Rangefinder.  Let me explain what a Rangefinder camera is. When you look through the viewfinder you see a split image and all you do is turn the focus ring so the two images coincide and you have perfect focus.

This website started mainly to show some of my Radio-Controlled projects. One thing I quickly noticed was my pictures were quite poor so I decided to get a DLSR camera to improve them. Well, the pictures weren’t much better; the problem was me and I didn’t understand photography or how to use my DLSR.

One of my lifelong ambitions was to go to the Isle of Man TT races and in 2014 I finally made it and was blown away by the spectacle. But before going I needed to learn how to use my DLSR camera. We booked the trip almost 12 months in advance, so I had time and no excuses. I started with YouTube as most of us do now and found some great videos but two guys stood out for me Mike Browne and Anthony Morganti, they have clear explanations and easy easygoing style.  Using my DSLR in manual mode is a lot easier now and I have been quite pleased with some of my pictures, still lots to learn. My TT pictures are here Since then I become hooked on photography and spent loads more money, it can get very addictive.

Vintage Rangefinder out of storage

Recently I’ve become quite interested in old film cameras and decided to get my old Yashica out of storage. This was my father’s camera and a couple of years before he passed away he gave it to me. Its been in storage for about 30 years. I was 13 years old when he bought the Yashica in Kitwe Zambia around 1970. We lived there for two years before coming back to the UK from 6 years in Australia. He taught me how to use it and I always remember it took great pictures.

Before we came back to the UK my father got my brother and me to take the leather case outside and kick it around to make it look second-hand. Back then there was a duty to pay for new goods taken out of the country, so this was to avoid it looking new. The camera as you can see still looks like new apart from the case! The mercury battery was dead and the light seals on the door were all gooey.

Refurbished

I’ve replaced the battery, which is only used for the light meter with a 645 hearing aid battery. The voltage is very close and they are very cheap. I’ve replaced the seals on the door which is messy but quite easy this video has a good explanation

So, these are a few of the pictures I took.

I had the film developed and then used my Epson V370 to scan the negatives in. I then processed them with Lightroom and added a bit of HDR with the Googles Nik Collection