Yashica Electro 35 GSN (Showpiece)

This camera does not work. It is sold as a showpiece or for parts.

The Yashica Electro 35 GSN is the camera that made aperture-priority automation ordinary. Yashica built the whole thing around a single idea: you set the aperture, the electronics work out the shutter speed, and a pair of arrows in the finder tell you if something is off. No match needle, no maths. Paired with the fast Yashinon-DX 45mm f/1.7 and a near-silent leaf shutter, it made a serious rangefinder accessible to people who had never used one — which is largely why over eight million Electro 35s left the factory. The GSN was the 1973 final revision, with a hot shoe and updated electronics.

Specifications

• Type: Fixed-lens coupled rangefinder, 35mm
• Lens: Yashinon-DX 45mm f/1.7, 6 elements in 4 groups
• Shutter: Copal electronically-timed leaf shutter, roughly 30sec to 1/500sec
• Exposure: Aperture priority automatic only — the camera picks the shutter speed
• Metering: CdS cell, with over/under warning lamps in the finder and on the top plate
• Power: Originally a 5.6V PX32 mercury cell, long discontinued — modern replacements need an adapter
• Filter thread: 55mm
• Weight: Approximately 750g — dense, all-metal, satisfying
• Known weakness: The rubber "pad of death" behind the wind mechanism perishes with age and disables the shutter on most surviving examples

Condition

• Cosmetic: Excellent. Minor signs of age and use.
• Functional: Non-working. Sold as a showpiece or for parts. Parts may be missing internally.

Included

• Yashica Electro 35 GSN body

This one is sold as a display piece or for parts. It does not take pictures. Parts may be missing internally. We have not attempted a service. What you are buying is the object — heavy, chrome, beautifully proportioned, and one of the best-looking cameras ever put on a shelf.