Today’s biggest camera releases often focus on clinical sharpness, blazing fast autofocusing speeds, and the ability to capture images that are more perfect than what exists in the real world, and honestly, it’s kind of boring. If you pine for the days of film’s character and imperfection, Yashica has two new “digital film” cameras, the FX-D100 and FX-D300. But if you’ve been an owner of Yashica Y35, we don’t think you should be very excited at all.
Additional contributions have been provided by Chris Gampat.
Yashica FX-D100 and Yashica FX-D300: Two Cameras with the Spirit of Film
At their core, the FX-D cameras are a digital camera series that leans heavily on nostalgia. With design cues taken from the OG Yashica FX-3, the FX-D series looks to capture the spirit of film photography in a digital camera. That being said, Yashica is not just slapping a retro design on a digital camera sensor. Instead, Yashica has developed six film simulations that bring that nostalgic feeling of film to the cameras:
- YASHICA Sapphire 70s – a cool, bluish-hued simulation,
- YASHICA 400 – a slightly warm film simulation that Yashica recommends for portraits,
- YASHICA 60s
- YASHICA Golden 80s – this one reminds me of Kodak Gold 200 with its warmer image temperature – one that I’ll likely spend a lot of time using.
- YASHICA Mono 400 – a warmer monochrome look that will likely be a fan favorite among street shooters.
- YASHICA B&W 400
Beyond the film simulations, Yashica is also helping photographers slow things down with a film advance lever. One of the appeals of the Yashica FX-D100 and FX-D300 is that they promote taking time with each shot—a feeling that you may never fully experience if you’ve never shot analog. Instead of high burst modes, the Yashica FX-D cameras tries to get photographers to stop, take in the moment, and manually “wind” to prep their next shot. Is it a little gimmicky? Sure, but it helps tie the nostalgic feeling of analog photography beyond a simple filter.
But here’s the question: why not give us the retro digital film look too? Everyone’s doing film simulations these days.
Yashica FX-D100 and FX-D300 Modern Creature Comforts
These cameras are fully digital cameras as well. The FX-D100 sports a 13-megapixel 1/3-inch type sensor, and the FX-D300 has a larger, 1/1.56-inch, 50-megapixel sensor that can deliver more traditional digital images and video. Both cameras will allow for remote control and transferring images over to your phone or tablet via a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection and the accompanying Yashica app. Unlike previous Yashica retro-inspired digital cameras, the FX-D cameras won’t be bogged down by Yashica’s proprietary “film” cannisters like in the Y35. If the Y35 was a bridge camera for digital photographers interested in going analog, the FX-D is for digital photographers who only want the feeling of analog without ever exposing a roll of film.
The Spirit of Film
Film is not dead, but it’s also not sustainable for most. In that sense, I love that Yashica is continuing to release cameras that not only look the part but try to give photographers the feel of analog. Everything from the film simulations to the applied use of a film advance lever has me pining for the days I’d load film into my Bronica and walk the streets of New York, capturing the city with all the grit and grain of film. In that sense, Yashica has done what it set out to do – make this photographer wax poetic about film and take a second look at those early bird prices for the cameras.
But the truth is this: years ago we reviewed the Yashica Y35 camera and did just that — walk the streets of New York capturing all the grit and grain of film via a simulation. That review was done in 2018, and back then, we didn’t really recommend the camera. Truthfully, we’re not sure that we’d do so right now either. Looking back on that review with some time in between, I think that some of the images shot were really cool.
But here’s the truth: I could’ve done those with my phone. If I wanted a dedicated device, then I’d want to do something more with it. How about an optical zoom?
If you’re interested in checking out the Yashica FX-D100 or FX-D300, you can learn more and back their Kickstarter here.
