COSINA CT1 super* and Yashica FX-3 super 2000

The "perfect normal", generic SLRs

The Cosina CT1 super* was the last of this series, introduced 1986. It has one special feature, the 1/2000s. This was because the Copal sectional shutter had it at some stage. The Copal CCS (CCS-M) was one of the best focal plane shutters of this era: Fast (synch speed 1/125s), reliable, long-lived, serving at all conditions and temperatures, not particular quiet, but quieter than most other metal plane shutters. Consequently, it was built-in a lot of cameras of this era by most of the big camera makers, and also Cosina. From about 1985 the 1/2000s became standard. For the Bessa rangefinder camera, a front curtain (light grey) need to be added to increase light tightness, because of the lacking mirror.




All of the controls and dials were at common places where to expect them to be. The lens design was an old (discontinued license) Zeiss Planar, like used by most other lower-class lens makers. Size of the body is 133 x 85 x 50mm, which is hardly distinguish-able from the SLR small size standard set by Pentax ME (131 x 82,5 x 49,5).


In the decade earlier (1970's) the Cosina SLR cameras were much larger, bulgier, quite crude, like designed to handle with builders gloves - quite the opposite to the full-mechanical, cloth-shutter, precision masterpiece of a PENTAX MX - which was abandoned without replacement. The 1980's Cosina CT1 super was quite a compromise between these extremes - probably easier to handle for people with average sized hands. 


The "Super Star" was the last of the series with sleeker prism than previous models.

On a scale. Lightweight at 416 gramms, because of simplicity of design, and outher shells made of plastic. That's really low for a 35mm SLR. But it don't feel weak in hands.
-- The Pentax K1000 was often captioned as a "students camera", means a simple, reliable camera to learn all the basics of photography including lots of cheap lenses available.
That's all as true for the Cosina CT1 Super Star, plus it's smaller, easier to handle, and weight's 1/3 less.


Sold as a "Carena" by Photohaus Porst Köln according to original bill.

Yashica FX-3 super

Now to a slightly different beast of the same era (about 1986), the Yashica FX-3 super, shown here with the incredible Zeiss Planar 85/1.4 ...


Yashica produced the CONTAX RTS in C/Y-mount, a high-priced, professional grade SLR, introduced in 1975 with tons of marketing effort paid by Zeiss, and the not less great the CONTAX 139 - mid-range, aperture priority, with electronic shutter (a Seiko MFC-E), introduced in 1979. A low-priced fully-mechanical C/Y-mount camera was also introduced, the Yashica FX-1 (1975), FX-2 (1976), followed by a much more compact FX-3 (1979) which eventually evolved to the FX-3 Super 2000 (1986)


You may notice that the ISO-dial isn't at the same place as it is on the CT1 super.  Finder view (positions of metering LEDs) is different with both cameras too. A very basic, three LED's, showing overexposure above (red), correct exposure in the middle (green), and underexposure on bottom (red). The CT1 super has the LED bar on the left, FX3 Super on the right side and less protruding into the image. Metering is performed by two Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) cells in the Cosina CT1 super, cheaper and not as precise in low light than the more sensitive Silicone Photo Diodes (SPD) on the FX-3 super. (The Bessa cameras all had SPD cells and were well known for metering precision).  They are all working with a set of two LR44 or SR44 cells. Prism finder field of view is about 92% with both.