Not Enough Exposure

 

Yashica was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras from 1949 until 2005 when its then-owner, Kyocera, ceased production. Original the Yashima Seiki Company, its initial eight employees manufactured components for electric clocks in Nagano, Japan. By 1953 they introduced their first complete camera and in 1956 the world's first commercially successful electronically controlled 35 mm camera, the Electro 35 (above). Its various model subvariants eventually selling 8 million units. The Yashica brand was a viable alternative through the 1970s. In 1983, Yashica Company Ltd. was acquired by ceramics giant Kyocera. Increasing market competition from other manufacturers, particularly Minolta, introduced competitively priced and advanced autofocus 35 mm SLR cameras. Yashica eventually introduced its own version but was overpriced and poorly marketed. In response, Kyocera gradually repositioned the brand as a budget-priced point-and-shoot camera line.