The tragedy of Yashica. A series of unfortunate decisions

INTRODUCTION

I have a personal connection to Yashica. The Yashica EZ View point-and-shoot was my first film camera, and thanks to that camera, I have many cherished memories of a key period in my early adulthood. It goes without saying that I have an emotional connection with the Yashica brand, and I know I am not alone. In the last few years, however, this cherished camera brand has been in the news quite often, and usually not in a good way. Since 2018, I have watched in pained disbelief at the slow motion implosion of this once well-respected brand.

With the news of Pentax re-entering the film camera business, this has left me conflicted and lamenting, what exactly happened to Yashica? To understand how far the brand has fallen from grace, one needs to first appreciate the heights of innovation that Yashica once soared to.

AN OBSCURE BEGINNING

Yashica had a long and storied history. It was founded in 1949 by Yashima Seiki, a small electric clock components maker located in Tokyo. The company quickly gained a reputation for producing high-quality, reliable cameras, and it began to expand rapidly throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In 1968, Yashica introduced the Yashica TL Electro, which became one of the company's most popular and enduring products.

Some of the most popular cameras produced by Yashica include the following classics:

Yashica TL

This was Yashica's first single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, first introduced in the 1960s. It was a popular choice among photographers due to its reliable performance and affordability. It was the first set of cameras to feature the center-the-needle metering system. Variations of this camera included the TL Super, TL Electro X and the TL Electro.

Yashica FX-3

This was a popular 35mm film SLR camera that was introduced in 1979. With its compact and lightweight design, It was known for its durability and versatility, and it was widely used by amateur and professional photographers alike. Later variations of this camera include the FX-3 Super and the FX-3 Super 2000.

Yashica Electro 35

The Yashica Electro 35 is a 35mm film camera that is known for its quiet, smooth operation, which made it ideal for a wide range of photography applications, including portraits, landscapes, and especially street photography.

Yashica 635

Possibly my favorite TLR of all time, the Yashica 635 was known for its simplicity of loading and use, as well as the sharp, high-resolution images it produced. Producing multiple exposures on this camera is a breeze, and in general this camera is one that I highly recommend to beginners and experienced shooter alike.

partnerships and signs of trouble

At the height of it’s successes in the 1970s, Yashica was riding a wave of popularity based on some key strategic partnerships it had developed. The predominant one was its relationship with the Carl Zeiss, which led to the licensing of the Contax brand name to produce cameras with interchangeable lenses that worked for both Yashica and Contax cameras. The strength of Yashica was in its electronic component experience, which led to a series of cameras featuring the electronically controlled shutter mechanism under the brand name of both Yashica and Contax.

However, by 1974, Yashica had been mismanaged almost to the point of bankruptcy.

The then chairman of company, Yoshimasa Ushiyama, publicly accused Yashika's managers of doctoring financial statements to make the company's position look better than it was. There were accusations of embezzlement by the general manager of the accounting department related to the personal stock of President Yoshimasa Ushiyama and the drug case of the president's relatives. Mr. Yoshimasa Ushiyama was subsequently voted out of office in a shareholders meeting and Mr. Shiro Kaneko was appointed president.

Yashica began direct distribution in the USA the following year in 1975. The company released the Contax RTS with a built-in TTL fully automatic aperture and quick-return mirror that same year. The lingering financial pressures from the 1973 Oil Crisis and excessive investments by the company in infrastructure led to the company declaring bankruptcy in 1975. Even after declaring bankruptcy, the company managed to stay afloat, with the support of the main banks, Taiyo Kobe Bank and Nissho Iwai.

The company produced some of its best cameras to date during the ensuing period. Another key partnership was formed with Cosina, a Japanese company renounced for its manufacture of high-end optical glass. This partnership led to the development of the Yashica FX-3 camera in 1979. The FX-3 was popular due to its simple, lightweight design. It was also affordable, and stayed in production until 2002.

Unfortunately, the financial standing of Yashica’s was not sustainable, and in October 1983 it was forced to merge with Kyocera, the Japanese ceramics manufacturing company, at a ratio of 1 Kyocera stock to 13 Yashica shares. The partnership initially led to some success, with the release of cameras such as the Yashica FX-103 Program, which offered three different exposure modes such as program, aperture priority and manual.

This acquisition would mark the beginning of the end for Yashica, as Kyocera, through the 1980s to the early 2000s went on a aggressive, yet unfocused series of business acquisitions, ranging from manufacturers of solar energy products, photocopy machines, to mobile phone and wireless technology

THE FATAL DECISION

When faced with competition from brands such as Minolta and Olympus in the autofocus camera range, Kyocera released its own line of autofocus 35mm cameras including the Samurai series, which unfortunately were overpriced and poorly marketed.

As a reaction to this lack of success, Kyocera made a tragic decision to reposition the Yashica brand as budget-friendly point and shoot camera line, and moved production from Japan to Hong Kong. With this decision, they also discontinued production of their high-end SLRs. This strategy was a failure and ended up hurting the brand recognition and value that Yashica had worked for decades to build. In 2005, the dreaded news came, Kyocera was ending production on all its Yashica, Contax and Kyocera branded film camera and digital cameras. They weren’t just shuttering the film camera production, which could be excused by the decline in popularity of film photography, but they also were ending their digital camera production as well, despite that period being at the height of the digital revolution! It is worth noting that earnings prior for the company, as of March 31, 2004, showed net sales totaling $10.969 Billion with net income of $654.673 Million. The company was not struggling by any measure.

a rather unfortunate transaction

After a few short years, Yashica was back in the news, with reports that Kyocera had sold the trademark rights of Yashica to Hong Kong-based MF Jebsen Group, a camera distributer for Kyocera. A quick look at their official website would give one all the answers it needs. The link to their Electronics venture page just leads to a dead Wix sitebuilder placeholder. Bloomberg describes the business as “providing services and resources for traveling”. This was certainly from the look of it the last company that deserved the rights to the acclaimed Yashica name.

THE CLOWN SHOW

In 2017, the new “Yashica” appeared on (of all places) Kickstarter (???) to seek funding for its new re-imagined film-inspired digital cameras. The concept was not bad, I must say. It was quite innovative. You would have these cameras that resembled the classic Yashica Electro 35 rangefinder, but with cartridges that would load a particular film look for all shots made with that cartridge.

The sleek video production promised much, and led to a lot o excitement, even raising $1.28 million on Kickstarter, but the resulting product was so widely panned that it became the butt of many jokes on the internet.

Many reviewers of the camera felt catfished, and rightfully so. The camera was a hot mess, with fake buttons and a poor finish. Many found it simply unusable.

The unfortunate slide into irrelevancy continued, unabated. In 2019, the company announced not 1, but 3 new film cameras and its own line of film. The film cameras included a TLR, to be called the Yashica-44, based on the classic Yashica 44 TLR, the MF-2 , styled after the classic Yashica Auto Focus Motor line, and the MF-1, styled after the classic Kodak-type disposable cameras.

With many learning the lesson of the Y35, this project still managed to somehow beat its target of HK$100,000, but this time making only a modest HK$145,609, an equivalent of about $18,000.

Pause.

This is the once famous brand “Yashica”, now reduced to scraping for cash on Kickstarter of all places??! The second-hand embarrassment has been too much to take for a film aficionado like myself.

It is no surprise that not much fanfare came from the Kickstarter project or from the products launch. A quick look on Amazon showed the MF-1 listed, looking like any one of the cheap-looking and obscure point-and-shoots manufactured in China these days.

The MF-2 also seems to be available online as well, with less than stellar reviews. One reviewer even described it as the worst camera they had ever tested.

In 2021, the company launched the Yashica Supreme cameras, in partnership with American lifestyle brand Supreme.

This camera comes preloaded with Yashica’s own brand of ISO 400 film, and appears to be another glorified toy camera. Online reviews indicate a mixed reaction at the poor build quality but decent images they produce.

On a sad note, In 2021, the founder and Executive Chairman of MF Jebsen, Markus F. Jebsen passed away, leaving the future direction of the Yashica brand name uncertain.

THE FUTURE OF YASHICA

The story of Yashica is a real tragedy of a once successful company, with such great potential, that fell victim to gross mismanagement and an almost criminal neglect and lack of vision. The future prospect for the brand does not look good, as the new holding company with ownership of the brand name seem quite content to slog it out on the cheap toy camera market scene. One can only hope that a reputable company with experience in camera production would snatch up the rights to the Yashica name before the damage being done to the brand renders it unsalvageable.