Yashica Mat 124 Test Rolls

I had bought a Yashica Mat 124 off of eBay a few years ago in an attempt to try some medium format photography, but when I got the camera I found out that it had some problems. The light meter did not work ("no big deal, I'm like MacGyver. I can figure it out") and the film counter did not work either (again, MacGyver). I had no way of knowing how far to advance the film for the next frame, so I went through a few failed rolls of trying to figure out how far the crank needed to go to take the next picture. After said failed rolls, the Yashica sadly stayed on the shelf until a few months ago when I decided to try it out again. But in my attempt to re-familiarize my self with the camera I made a huge mistake and ended up further crippling it. I mean... someone else broke it. When... would... I ever... admit.... to making... a mistake? The shutter wouldn't fire anymore so once again it was put on the shelf.

After some research on various websites, Jena thought she could probably fix it. And she mostly did. The shutter was firing now, although the film counter and light meter still did not work. I ran some test rolls through it to make sure the shutter was really firing correctly:

A walk through downtown Mesa.

I went out very early one morning (who needs sleep right?) and shot some houses I thought were interesting off of Main Street.

Also from downtown. The colors are spectacular but argh!, it was the end of the roll. Bah!

Cropped. I'm not sure if it works.

And from the Pioneer Festival in Snowflake. End of the roll again but it didn't mess it up too bad; the bottom is easy enough to crop out. And wow, Fuji Pro 400H is awesome in this light.

Yes, it looks like my precious Yashica Mat 124 is indeed "working" and is capable of taking nice pictures. There is however, one problem it did not have before. The shutter now only fires when the crank makes one complete rotation, which advances the film twice what it needs to in order to move to the next frame. So, I really only get half a roll of pictures. Blast! With 120 film, that turns out to be quite expensive. As much as I love using this camera, I would rather not go broke (or rather, become more broke) and it once again faces the possibility of going back on the shelf.