Yashica 16EE

introduction |  Y16 | 16EE | 16EE deluxe

The Yashica 16 EE was introduced in 1964. It is very similar in design and features to the 1962 released Minolta 16EE but is more elegant in appearance. If has a fixed focus 25mm f/2.8 lens. Stopped down to f/16. It has a selenium meter with fully automatic exposure control from ISO 32 to 320. The exposure window shows "correct exposure", "over exposure", or under exposure". Shutter speed range from 1/30 - 1/250.  For flash use, the aperture could be manually set and the shutter speed would automatically be set to 1/30; another improvement over the Minolta 16EE. Mechanically more sophisticated than the Minolta 16EE since the meter sets both aperture and shutter speed it still failed to sell well.

A very nice touch was the dual viewing system -- the camera had a normal eye-level viewfinder, but by flipping the camera over a built-in right-angle viewfinder could be used - images reversed.  

Also built-in are a PC contact, tripod socket and cable release socket.  Accessories included tripod and filters. 

Although made by Yashica, not by Minolta, it used the Minolta cassette and Yashica turned out to be a major seller of "Minolta" cassettes. They are only slightly different from real Minolta cassettes and inter-changeable with Minolta 16 cameras. Films without a plastic case in small red boxes with Yashica 16EE or Minolta 16 on them where sold in the 60s and 70s. These where made in Germany and are not as good as the standard Minolta cassettes. 

Last Updated on 20th April 2006