C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The Yashica Penta Y (1962) is a fully mechanical M42 screwmount 35mm SLR produced under Yashica's Penta designator, a parallel brand strand to the J-series that Yashica operated in the early-to-mid 1960s. The Penta Y shipped without an internal light meter; all exposure setting is manual. The shutter is a cloth horizontal focal-plane unit running 1 second to 1/500s plus Bulb, synchronized for flash at approximately 1/60s. No battery is required for any function.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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Before you buy used
Bodies trade in the $25-90 range, often toward the lower end due to limited collector recognition. Condition and included lens drive price more than model prestige at this tier.
About this camera
A refined 1962 M42 SLR from Yashica's Penta line - improved finder clarity over the Penta J, fully mechanical, no meter.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm |
| Mount | M42 screwmount |
| Introduced | ~1962 |
| Shutter | ~1s - 1/500s + B, cloth horizontal focal-plane |
| Flash sync | ~1/60s (X sync) |
| Meter | None |
| Modes | Manual only |
| Battery | None required |
| Mechanical fallback | Full (no electronics) |
Yashica's early 1960s SLR catalog was broader than most histories acknowledge. The Pentamatic of 1959 was Yashica's first 35mm SLR, using a proprietary mount. The company quickly recognized that market success required compatibility with M42, the de facto interoperable screwmount standard anchored by Pentax. Yashica responded with multiple parallel M42 lines - the J-series and the Penta series - aimed at slightly different market segments or export regions.
The Penta J preceded the Penta Y and established the design language. The Penta Y (1962) represented an incremental refinement, arriving contemporaneously with the J-3. By the mid-1960s, Yashica was consolidating its SLR lineup, and the Penta designation was phased out as the J-series and subsequently the TL-series absorbed the product range.
The Penta Y is a rare camera in collections today, partly because of lower production volumes relative to the J-series and partly because the "Penta" branding has been confused with Pentax-adjacent labeling, obscuring search and identification.
The Penta Y is historically minor but contextually interesting as evidence of Yashica's early-1960s strategy of deploying multiple model lines to test market positioning simultaneously. The camera demonstrates that M42 compatibility was already the industry norm by 1962 - Yashica, unlike some competitors, did not hold to a proprietary mount after the Pentamatic experiment.
For film shooters today, the Penta Y functions identically to the J-3 in practical terms: a fully mechanical M42 body requiring external metering or zone exposure, with access to the vast M42 lens ecosystem and no dependence on batteries for any camera function.
M42 screwmount gives access to one of the widest compatible lens pools in 35mm photography:
BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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Kodak Ektar 100 is a fine-grain C-41 color negative film with saturated color and high sharpness.
View profile →Yashica Penta Y
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