Two years ago, my wife and I went to a retrospective exhibition of photographs by Sabine Weiss. After the exhibition, my wife pointed to a poster of Sabine holding her Rolleiflex TLR camera and asked what kind of camera it was and why it needed two lenses. I told her it was a medium-format camera and explained that one lens takes the photo while the other is used for the viewfinder. Unlike in an SLR, the mirror doesn’t move out of the way when you take a picture.
That same evening, we watched the documentary “Finding Vivian Maier.” It had been on my watch list for quite a while, and besides, Vivian Maier is also well known for using a Rolleiflex TLR. After watching the movie, my wife became very curious about the TLR focusing technique and told me that she would love to try one.
While Rolleiflex TLR cameras are very expensive if you just want to try one, back in the day, various companies produced their own TLR cameras with a similar design. Some were cheaper than the famous German brand. Coincidentally, not long before that, a friend of mine purchased a Japanese alternative, the Yashica Mat-124G, and was quite pleased with the results.
Luckily for me, someone was selling a mint-looking Yashica Mat-124G for 100 euros on a local classifieds website. It seemed to be an attic find, because the seller couldn’t confirm whether it worked. I decided to take the risk and order the camera.
When the camera arrived, I opened the back to inspect its internals, and a pile of dried, deteriorated light seals fell out onto the table. At first glance, the lenses appeared to be free of scratches, and the shutter and all the other mechanisms seemed fine, but the mirror was cloudy and dirty. I thought it could have been worse and ordered a sheet of light-seal foam.
Cleaning the mirror was very straightforward. The folding viewfinder hood is attached to the top of the camera with four small screws. Removing the viewfinder exposes the mirror and the viewing lens. I sprayed a little eyeglass cleaning solution onto a microfiber cloth and gently cleaned the mirror. The haze was gone, and when I reattached the viewfinder and ground glass, the image was much brighter than when I received the camera.
After receiving the sheet of light-seal foam and cleaning out the residue from the old seals, I cut thin strips to fit the grooves in the camera back and glued them in place. The camera was ready for a field test with a roll of the cheapest black and white film I could find.
Back then, I didn’t have a scanner capable of handling 120 film, so I just inspected the negatives, and they looked very good. The camera worked perfectly: there were no light leaks, the exposure seemed to be accurate, and the spacing between the frames was even. On this happy note, I ordered a box of Kodak Gold 120, and my wife and I started using the camera together. She even took it on our next vacation.
We only discovered the issue later, after bringing about ten rolls of film from the trip to a lab. Photos featuring a bright light source, not necessary the sun or the sky, it could be pretty much any highly reflective surface, had a massive flare that washed out contrast. It was very annoying. I had seen reviews mentioning that this camera’s lens was prone to flare, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. The next step was to 3D-print a lens hood. Unfortunately, it didn’t improve the situation much, as it couldn’t block strong, direct reflections.
When I discussed the issue with a lab technician, he asked whether there was any haze on the lens. I strongly doubted it, as the lens looked clean. At home, I opened the camera back again and shone a flashlight through the taking lens. It turned out that the rear element was actually very hazy. The problem was that the haze was on the side that couldn’t be reached from the back of the camera. Thinking there was nothing I could do about it, I more or less gave up on the camera and eventually bought a medium-format Bronica S2A.
Later, I read an online discussion in which someone said they had disassembled the lens and cleaned its elements, claiming that the lens became less prone to flare afterward. That made me curious, and I started looking for information on how to disassemble the lens.
Most of the material I found mentioned unscrewing the retaining ring by inserting a special lens spanner into its notches. The problem with lens spanners is that, according to many people, the cheap ones are poor quality and the good ones are expensive. I don’t want to open a camera repair shop, so I needed something else. I also came across a rather unusual method that involved using a rubber cane tip to unscrew the retaining ring. The tip was supposed to be exactly the same size as the ring and have enough grip to turn it. I decided to try this method, since I wouldn’t lose much if it didn’t work. The problem was that cane tips come in several standard sizes, but no one mentioned which exact size was required. I decided to go with a 1-inch tip.
It turned out to be slightly larger than the retaining ring and therefore didn’t grip it properly. I tried pushing it down harder while turning, but it still didn’t catch the notches. Instead of giving up, I shaved it down a little with a utility knife and tried turning the ring again. It worked like a charm!
The Yashica Mat-124G uses a Yashinon 80mm f/3.5 taking lens that consists of four elements: two in front of the shutter and two behind it. After unscrewing and removing the retaining ring, I carefully took out the front elements and put them aside. This exposed the leaf shutter. The rear element group is cemented together, so with the shutter fully open, I could access the surface that I couldn’t reach from the back of the camera. I set the shutter speed to Bulb mode, in which the shutter remains open while the button is pressed, and triggered it with a cable release so that I didn’t have to hold the button down manually. This allowed me to reach the surface I needed to clean.
Apparently, haze on the rear element is a common problem with Yashica TLR cameras because oil from the shutter tends to evaporate over time. Thankfully, it was easy to clean with the same eyeglass cleaning solution. I sprayed a little onto a cotton swab and gently cleaned the element. Then I blew away all the dust particles with an air blower, released the shutter, and reassembled the lens.
I’ve already shot several rolls of film since cleaning the lens, and the camera is now an absolute delight to use. Here are several photos I took without even using a lens hood.
Maintaining old cameras and keeping them alive is a big part of the film photography hobby. In my experience, some camera repair shops refuse to work on inexpensive cameras. I understand: it makes sense to charge 300–500 euros to repair an expensive Leica or a Hasselblad. On the other hand, when it comes to a 100-euro Yashica, it’s easier to buy three of them for the same amount and hope that at least one is in good condition. The problem is that we won’t get very far with this approach, since new film cameras aren’t produced at scale. Some fixes are easy to do and don’t require any tools beyond a set of screwdrivers. I decided to write this post to share what I’ve learned, and it will make me happy if someone gives their Yashica Mat-124G a new life after reading it. After all, it’s an amazing medium-format camera!