Yashica 200-AF (Red taped)

Our first case of the Red Tape

A truly consumer camera with all the features you would ever want.

Red-taped cameras in my collection mean that they do not function properly. This could be something I am actively attempting to fix, a simple problem, or something permanent. Red-taped cameras will not necessarily be fixed, but for most, there is hope eventually. I do not see myself attempting to fix this Yashica anytime soon, however.

This is my Yashica 200 AF, a consumer-grade SLR from the late 1980s. While it has a few features, such as auto-exposure, auto-focus, and different drive modes, it's ultimately a pretty basic camera. Nothing special here whatsoever. It’s a camera, it takes pictures.

One of the quirks of this camera is its battery compartment. It uses AAA batteries, and the whole compartment hinges open, which is a bit unusual.

Unfortunately, my specific camera has a broken mirror and a lens mount issue, making it unusable. The mirror is cracked and has slipped forward, preventing the shutter from fully opening, and resulting in partly underexposed images.

The lenses I have for this camera are Sigma auto-focus lenses, which are pretty mediocre. They're not particularly sharp, and the autofocus is slow and unreliable. No winners here.

While I have some fond memories of learning film photography with this camera, it's not a camera I would recommend. It's outdated, unreliable, and offers little in terms of unique features or image quality. If you find one for cheap enough though, go for it. Can’t hurt!

The roll below is one I shot in 2022 using a very expired roll of Tri-X. So if you use bad film with a slightly broken camera, this is what you can expect. I think I also scanned these around the same time using a film holder built out of Legos.