Format/Frame: 6 x 6 cm
When I held this Yashica-D in my hands for the first time, it felt incredibly right. I wanted to shoot with it right now. It was much as how the scent of a delicious meal can make you hungry, or the sight of a beautiful woman can make you …well, you know. I’ve never been so affected by a camera before.
—Jim Grey
Check out Jim Grey’s complete Yashica D review HERE.
The Yashica D was my first medium format camera thanks to Northwest College photography professor Craig Satterlee. Craig recognized my keen interest in photography and gifted me the camera that was a part of the growing collection of unused cameras in the photo department as they were well on their way into transitioning to digital photography. At that time in my life, I thought the only medium format cameras around were called Hasselblads.
I don’t remember how it came to be, but I must have liked the Yashica D so much that I purchased a second one on eBay years later and ended up sending both in for minor repairs and thorough CLAs.
There’s a small voice in the back of my mind somewhere that says I should try to acquire a Rolleiflex TLR at some point, but with two mint-conditioned Yashica Ds in hand, it would be difficult to justify such a purchase knowing how satisfied I am with my Yashica models.
In the summer of 2022, I drove to Fairbanks, Alaska for a two-month summer job of house-sitting, dog-sitting, and gardening. The Yashica D was my medium format camera of choice and proved to be reliable in the six rolls of film that I ran through it over that period of time. The only thing that can go wrong with this camera is the person operating it.
