The Yashica Electro 35 GSN is a rangefinder camera from the early 1970’s, famous for its super fast f/1.7 45mm Color-Yashinon DX lens and sharp focusing.

        It is (supposedly) an aperture-priority camera, which means that you select an aperture, in the case of the GSN, from f/1.7 to f/16, and it will automatically select the appropriate shutter speed, from 1/500th of a second to 30 seconds.

        I wrote “supposedly” because in my case, there seems to be a problem with my battery or with the camera’s electronics, and without power, the GSN operates at a fixed shutter speed of 1/500th of a second. Without power, I also can’t take advantage of the GSN’s built-in meter, which warns the user if the picture will be over/under-exposed.

        With a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second, I am limited to taking pictures in bright conditions. I used my digital camera to give me an idea on the exposure, given a particular aperture and the fixed shutter speed. My digital camera, however, only has an aperture range from f/2.6 to f/8, so beyond that, I have to estimate, but the rule, as I have read somewhere, is that when one moves an f-stop, one either doubles or halves the exposure. I also thought of bracketing my shots, so given the f-stop I selected, I took the same shots at an f-stop above and below it. Of course, there are conditions where even using f/1.7 (largest possible opening to allow light) at 1/500th of a second won’t be enough.

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        I went to IT Park last Saturday to take test shots with the camera, which I loaded with DNP Centuria. A security guard approached me and told me that one needs a permit to take pictures at IT Park. It wasn’t the first time though that I took pictures there and in those times, I was in plain sight of the security guards but none of them told me about it. So I left and took pictures somewhere else then I went to a photo-lab to have the pictures developed. It turned out that all of the frames were blank. I, being a n00b, didn’t load the film properly so I was advancing the film but it actually wasn’t moving forward. Ironic, isn’t it.

        Anyhow, the owner of the photo-lab gave me an expired roll of Fuji Superia. Here are the shots from that roll:

        More can be found here.