My favourite camera - Jon Nicholls

Welcome to the second in a series of blog posts entitled 'My favourite camera'. I thought I would contribute a post about a camera that has reignited my love of film photography, the Yashica Electro 35 GTN:

My first camera was a Nikon EM which I received as a 21st birthday present from my parents in 1986. The body was lightweight and compact. It wasn't the most sophisticated camera body in the world but the f1.8 50mm lens was a beauty and I loved using it. I've owned several Nikons since then and I'm particularly fond of the F-301 mainly because of the beautiful mechanical noise its auto-advance system makes when you fire the shutter. It was the first Nikon camera without a film advance lever.

In recent years I've used various Canon DSLRs and it's Canon cameras we have in school. I'm no expert when it comes to cameras so I don't know that much about the various pros and cons of particular models. I've never had the resources to buy Pro equipment so I've made do with more affordable models. To be honest, I'm very much an amateur when it comes to photography.

I have a colleague in school who is something of a camera collector. I suppose it was talking to her about the cameras she owns and uses that inspired me to look on eBay for old film cameras. I'd never owned a Rangefinder and so my first purchase was a 1970s Canonet 28. I enjoyed using it, replaced the light seals and should really have stopped there but I'd seen a couple of other cameras that looked fascinating. One of these was the Yashica Electro 35. After doing a bit of research I decided to bid on a black GTN, one of the later models which has a hot shoe. I was also keen to make sure that the seller provided an alternative battery to the now defunct original. In the end I paid £40 for mine and have been using it regularly ever since.

It's a brilliant street shooter. The f1.7 lens is fast and sharp. It's almost all auto with very little to get in the way. I select an appropriate aperture and set the focus to 10 feet. Most of the time I don't have time to use the big rangefinder window to check the focus. It's simply a matter of judging my distance form  the subject, raising the camera to my eye and clicking the silent shutter, hoping for the best. I love the sense of anticipation, waiting for the prints to be developed, wondering which of the photographs I think I've taken have worked.  For me, there's nothing quite like the thrill of shooting on the street. My favourite photographers are those American heroes of street photography from the seventies: Garry Winogrand and Joel Meyerowitz. As Meyerowitz describes so perfectly:

We all experience it. Those moments when we gasp and say, “Oh, look at that.” Maybe it’s nothing more than the way a shadow glides across a face, but in that split second, when you realise something truly remarkable is happening and disappearing right in front of you, if you can pass a camera before your eye, you’ll tear a piece of time out of the whole, and in a breath, rescue it and give it new meaning.

I'll never be able to afford a Leica M6, or even a Contax G2. I might one day treat myself to a Konika Hexar. Until then my beloved Yashica Electro 35 GTN will always be the camera I reach for when I feel the urge to head out into the crowd.