Yashica's metered 6x6 TLR — fixed-lens twin-lens reflex, CdS meter, waist-level finder, 1967.
The Yashica 12 is a fixed-lens medium-format twin-lens reflex from Yashica, produced in the late 1960s as part of the company's long-running TLR range. It succeeded earlier metered models and carried a CdS exposure meter. It sits in the middle of the Yashica TLR line and was aimed at photographers wanting a metered 6x6 camera without the cost of a system camera.
It is a twin-lens reflex shooting 6x6cm square frames on 120 roll film, twelve to a roll. The lens is fixed, with a separate taking lens for exposure and a viewing lens feeding the mirror and ground-glass screen. Focusing is by knob and composition is through a waist-level finder used from above. A leaf shutter sits in the front lens standard rather than a focal-plane shutter in the body, and the camera carries a built-in CdS meter for exposure readings.
The Yashica 12 is bought today as an affordable metered entry to square-format medium format, suiting portraits, landscape and general work where the slower waist-level style is welcome. It is quiet and relatively compact for a 6x6 camera. The fixed lens means no changes are possible, and the mirror-reversed viewing image, as on all TLRs, takes some getting used to.
On a used example, inspect the taking and viewing lenses separately for haze, fungus and element separation, and check the focus knob runs smoothly. Fire the leaf shutter across several speeds and confirm the aperture blades move cleanly on the front standard. Check the film-wind and counter, and look at the ground glass for brightness. The CdS meter often no longer reads accurately and originally used a mercury cell, so verify it against a hand-held meter before relying on it.