The Yashicaflex S is historically important, the first Japanese camera to have a built-in exposure meter. It was launched in 1954 and with numerous small modifications, was produced until 1957. Mine is from 1954 and it is rare to find such an early example outside Japan, as they were mainly produced for the domestic market until the end of 1954.
The camera is clearly a copy of the Rolleiflex Automat, introduced in 1937, but without the crank to wind the film, the Yashicaflex has just a simple knob. The Yashicaflex S does, however, have an automatic frame counter and the knob stops when you have wound on the film enough, there's no red window to peer through. It wasn't until 1956 Rolleiflex offered a light meter, two years after the introduction of the Yashicaflex S, so perhaps a rare example of the Germans copying the Japanese!
I had to get the shutter and aperture blades cleaned, lubricated and adjusted as the camera had been unused for a long time. There was also a slight light leak between the shutter blades, now fixed. The camera works well with the exception of the 1/10 shutter speed, which is on the cusp between the slow speed and fast speed mechanisms. Sometimes 1/10 fires at the wrong speed depending on whether you selected 1/10 after using a slower speed or faster one. The lens is a "Tri-Lausar", which I hadn't previously heard of, and the shutter is a NKS-FB, also new to me. The focussing screen isn't as clear and bright as on later cameras, but is perfectly usable. The lens has good detail and is coated, and I personally like the rendering. I've included some sample shots below, if you want to know more about these interesting and very useable cameras, Paul Sokk has an excellent and comprehensive website devoted to them.
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