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Sad News: The New Yashica DigiFilm Camera is a Major Let Down

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 10/11/2017
10/10/2017
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Last Updated on 10/11/2017 by Chris Gampat

All images taken from the New Yashica DigiFilm Camera Kickstarter

Here we were thinking that the announcement of the new Yashica camera would be a life changing and super amazing competitor of some sort to something like the Fujifilm X100F; but instead it has to be one of the biggest letdowns of this year. Before I start off, it isn’t the Yashica 35 GSN Electro. The Yashica Kickstarter recently launched and the new camera is, well, cool in some ways and completely heartbreaking in other ways. Let’s start with the cool: it’s called the Yashica DigiFilm camera and uses an interesting interchangeable digital film system where you have to buy different types of films to get different types of looks. Some of them are ISO 200 color, some are black and white ISO 400, and then there is 1600 which Yashica is saying is the grainiest option. So far that sounds really cool and puts very fun limitations on the shooter, which makes photography truly fun again–there’s even a winding lever!

But then your heart breaks.

Correction: The campaign was updated to say a 14MP sensor.

The new Yashica camera is officially a bust when you scroll down the page and look at the tech specs:

Yashica DigiFilm Camera Specifications

  • 1/3.2-inch CMOS sensor 
  • 14 megapixel photos 
  • Built-in viewfinder
  • Apertures of f2.8
  • Focal Length 35mm
  • A minimum focusing distance of 1m (~3 feet) to infinity
  • 5 selectable steps shutter speeds 1s, 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/250s, 1/500s
  • SD card storage (wifi card compatible)
  • Micro USB connectivity for data transfers
  • Tripod mount ready
  • Operate with 2 x AA batteries
  • Image controlled by digiFilm™

Dimensions:

  • Body Only: 100 (w) x 64 (h) x 28 (d) mm  
  • With lens and switch: 110 (w) x 70 (h) x 55 (d) mm

Really? A sensor size that is used in consumer point and shoots and phones? And only 1.4 megapixels? Plus, only five shutter speeds? Well actually the latter makes sense. Then you start to look at the camera more and realize that there is also data connectivity and so it’s targeting the mobile photography world in some way or another. But why?

Why couldn’t the Yashica DigiFilm camera have had at least a Four Thirds sensor? Even if it had the old Kodak Micro Four Thirds CCD sensor I would’ve been happy: those images looked great. They resembled slide film and they converted to black and white really well. Instead, we get this!!!

You can see more over at the Kickstarter.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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