The Giant-Killer: Why the Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 is My Go-To 35mm SLR

This is a camera that has a lot of debate, and opposing opinions around it. I think it's truly a full-mechanical sleeper of a camera, and that's why this has settled in as my daily 35mm SLR.

This camera is one I got off of ebay in untested condition for $17.50, I was taking a risk, but at less than $20, it was a risk I deemed acceptable. This camera appealed to me for many reasons, some of them being both pros and cons.

The first big pro, is this camera can fully operate without a battery, the only thing that's battery dependent is the light meter, so while that is helpful, this can be operated fully manual across all of the shutter speeds without any electronics, which is a huge win in my mind, especially when buying vintage electronics.

Another pro, the camera uses the Contax/Yashica (C/Y) lens mount, that means I can use all of the Yashica ML lenses which are high quality and relatively affordable, but if I so choose, I can also use all the C/Y mount Zeiss Contax lenses, which have some really great options. I ended up picking up the Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2.8, which I'll save for another review. And there's a couple other lenses I'm looking at, that'll be able to come with me, if I decide to move to Contax body.

The next pro for me, while a controversial one, is the weight/material. Yes the camera does feel plasticy. It does not feel like a Leica, or a Contax in your hands, but that's kind of the allure for me. I can carry this camera around anywhere, and it doesn't look like an expensive camera, it doesn't feel like an expensive camera, and truth be told, the Yashica brand doesn't really stand out as a high end camera brand, lowering the chances of people knowing what this camera is. While I get it, if you're paying over $100, $150 for this camera, I'd be disappointed as well, and probably would go for a Canon AE-1, or Nikon FM.

The last big pro is the 1/2000 shutter speed, as the 2000 in the name implies, this camera can shoot 1/2000 which is great when you're running a higher ISO film and shooting in harsh bright light, or really want to open up the aperture. This is something that appeals to me, as a lot of the time I am shooting in bright light, so being able to ramp up that shutter speed is a nice choice.

Now to a couple of the cons for me:

1. The viewfinder isn't really that bright or anything to write home about
2. The focusing area is small, and sometimes is hard to get focus nailed
3. My light meter is a little off and has me overexposing images.

Testing

I ended up loading a roll of Kodak Gold 200 in, for my test roll since it's a known film stock, no surprises. I did buy an external meter to compare, and unfortunately with that I ended up grossly underexposing the images (pictures in the gallery), which ironically ended up being the opposite of the built in meter, which overexposed the images. So instead of going off the "perfectly exposed" my next roll of film I'm leaning towards the slightly underexposed setting, to see if these come out perfect, and ultimately if they don't, I'll just go to using my light metering app, since I use it on the S2A anyways, it's something in my workflow already.

Final Verdict

All in all though, for the price I paid, and the purpose of this camera for me, which is just my general walk around 35mm film slr, this camera checks the boxes, and gives me the flexibility to pair good glass, with a nondescript body, which provides me peace of mind. This is exactly what a budget walk-around daily driver camera should be.

Full Gallery https://gallery.mrthrax.co/gallery/Yg12kkF3qlYMxsc1PpmCGQOR