Picked up a Yashica Mat at a thrift store for $15 last weekend

After three rolls of expired Tri-X, the difference in sharpness between the central lens and the edges is way bigger than I expected, like the corners are just soft blobs. Has anyone figured out a trick for getting sharper edge performance on these old TLRs, or is it just a quirk of the design?

2 comments

2 Comments

river_hart181mo ago

Man, tell me about it, my Yashica Mat makes the corners look like I smeared Vaseline on the lens while chasing a squirrel. Might just be a quirk of the design, my Rolleicord is way better but cost me a hundred times more at a garage sale. Honestly, I just crop the edges and pretend they don't exist, works for my artistic delusions.

the_val1mo ago

Oh man, I feel you on that Yashica Mat soft corner thing. I've got a Minolta Autocord that does the same thing, and I spent way too long trying to figure out if I was just bad at focusing. Cropping is honestly the best hack, I just frame a bit extra and trim the fuzz off later, makes me feel like a genius.