After Shin Yasuhara left his job at Kyocera, the large Japanese high technology company, he set out on designing his own dream camera. In the 1990’s the major Japanese camera manufacturers had long since been concentrating their efforts on making SLR cameras and smart auto-focus compacts and had no intention to go back to making manual focus rangefinder cameras.

Mr Yasuhara had other ideas, as he felt that there was still room in the market for a camera that emulated most of the features of a rangefinder Leica, but with a TTL light-meter with electronic readout, a modern design shutter and with a Leica screw lens mount, taking advantage of the wide range of excellent Leica thread mount lenses available on the used market.

While he was at it, he wanted a more compact shape, with a hinged rear door for fast film loading, no removable take-up spool and a really large viewfinder window that was easy for spectacle wearers to use.

For the shutter mechanism, which is the heart of the camera, he decided to use the established and reliable Copal vertical metal shutter, commonly fitted to SLR cameras. This decision was sensible since it meant that a huge part of the design process was now taken care of, but it did lead to some issues later on, as I will explain.

When his design was nearly complete, Mr Yasuhara went to find a manufacturer willing to make his camera, but had no luck in Japan. Instead, he approached the Phenix Optical Company, based in Jiangxi, China, who agreed to make his camera and also to make the camera for the domestic Chinese market under their own brand. Phenix are the biggest camera manufacturers in China and make cameras for a lot of other brands, for example the respected “Widepan”.

In 1998 Yasuhara-San announced the forthcoming camera, to a very enthusiastic response from Japanese photographers and photo magazines, who saw the potential of the design.

A couple of thousand pre-orders were taken, and the cameras began shipping in the Spring, of 1999. The name “Isshiki” was given to the camera, which in Japanese means “Complete” or “All you need” and is embossed into the top plate in Japanese Kanji characters. For some unknown reason, the camera is also named as “T-981”, which is a mystery that only Yasuhara-san knows the answer to.

As the finished cameras began shipping, a few issues began to be reported. The otherwise excellent Copal vertical metal shutter, was designed for use in SLR cameras, which have a mirror in place that shields the shutter from light between exposures, and especially when changing lenses. The Isshiki has no capping blind to protect the shutter from light, so some fogging issues began to be reported. There was nothing to be done except warn buyers of the problem, and suggest that they use a lens cap when possible and not to change lenses in direct sunlight. (I have carried out a test of sorts by carrying the camera around with no lens cap on, and sometimes with no lens at all, and have not found any light leaks).

There were some reports of back focus issues as well, but given that a vast range of lenses from different manufacturers, some of whom did not adhere meticulously to the Leica screw mount specification, were being used, it was not entirely surprising. (I have done my own testing on this issue, see results further below).

So the Isshiki was born, with a few teething problems and sold steadily in the Japanese home market, but never in high enough volumes to allow Yasuhara-san to design a mark II. In total somewhere between 4000 and 4500 were made, along with a Yasuhara-branded 50mm f/2.8 lens to match the camera.

The production ceased in 2001 and the company closed its doors in 2004, only to re-open them again in 2007, and is still making niche lenses of unique designs, notably a fisheye lens for mirrorless cameras and currently a super macro lens with integral led lighting.

The remaining stocks of new T981s were purchased by the Lomography enterprise, and sold via their website under their “Rarest Jewels” banner. They sold out fairly quickly.
Although it did not take the market by storm, the interest in the T-891 raised a few eyebrows at Konica and Voigtlander, who were then inspired to design the Hexar and the Bessa respectively. It is possible that neither of these cameras would have been produced had it not been for the work of Mr Yasuhara.

Hands-on with the T981

First look and the overall size compared to a Leica M6 is that it is shorter and is a bit thicker. In the hand, the grip is very good and the weight of the camera is reassuringly heavy, I have been told it is built on a solid brass frame but not taken it to bits to find out.

The ergonomics are very good (for me) with the viewfinder showing a huge field of view even in glasses, and the bright frame lines for 50mm. Unusually, the moving part of the rangefinder image is actually brighter than the stationary panel and is very clear to pick up visually and match to the static image. There is parallax correction of the bright frame as you would expect.

There is an electronic metering system built in, with a “two red dots and a green one” type of display. The meter cell reads off the shutter blades, and the center shutter blade is light grey to provide a reflective panel for this. I was not able to test the meter as the one I have is not working.

The film wind-on is a solid one-piece aluminium lever which is a pleasing shape and a short single throw advances the film and cocks the shutter. There is a standard type exposure counter beside the wind on lever. The shutter speed dial is very nicely made, reminding me of those found on newer Contaxes, with a raise and turn collar to set film speed for the meter. There is a red dot on a pillar to mark the shutter speed index.

Moving from right to left on the top plate we find the hot shoe, which is half-sunk into the top plate. It is not flush with the top plate as on a Leica M, but up sticks up a couple of mm. It is not a problem, but it might have looked better with it fully recessed. The engravings in the top plate are cleanly done, with the name of the camera “一式 T981”, serial number and Yasuhara Co.,Ltd. under that.

The rewind knob and flip out crank are smaller than on an M4, but work perfectly well (see comment below). On the back are the flash sync socket and the viewfinder window, which is unusually large and helps spectacle wearers like me.

On the front is the distinguishing feature, a huge viewfinder and rangefinder window. The rangefinder base length is a lot shorter than a Leica M at 35mm, but is fast and bright in use and allows for easy focusing. The top plate and viewfinder housing are an interesting shape.

Instead of perfectly rounded ends like a Leica M, or angled large facets like a Canon rangefinder or a Nikon F, Mr Yasuhara decided on a curved but at the same time faceted design that I have never seen before. I find it pleasingly different.

It is then that we notice something unusual about the top cover and the viewfinder frame plate that is attached to the front by screws and holds the glass panels. The screw on plate is perfectly flat, but the top edge of the viewfinder housing is very slightly curved.

When I first noticed it, I had to look twice and then I realised what was going on. The lines of the camera are very carefully designed, in a way that I can only describe as a very subtle Japanese artistic way. The front of the camera is ruler flat but the back is slightly curved to fit the hand more comfortably. The dimensions of the body and the placement of the controls suit a smaller hand, the shutter button falls naturally under your finger, you don’t have to fumble for it. You can advance the film without removing the camera from your face. The more you handle the camera, the more comfortable it feels.

The satin chrome finish is not as non-reflective as a Leica M, or as silky smooth as a Contax, and at first I thought it was a little bright, but compared to the finish on Canon rangefinder lenses for the Canon 7 and similar, it is about the same and matches well. When you look very closely, you can see that some parts have not been fully polished prior to chrome plating, and some machining marks are showing in the hot shoe and the exposed edges of the viewfinder window plate. This is down to the camera being made to a price, I suppose, it is not a Leica price, after all.

I have spent some time and film to get to know it, and in use it can hold it’s own with equivalent Voigtlander Bessa’s and Konica Hexars. Although the quality of the finish is not perfect, it is an all-metal design (the only external plastic I could find being the rewind button on the base plate).

All the exposures I made with the camera were as sharp as I expected from the various lenses I tried, from Canon LTM 50mm F/1.4, and Canon 35mm F/2.8, to a 25mm Voigtlander Snapshot Skopar, which suits it very well. There was no fogging between frames, even though I deliberately changed lenses in normal daylight, and walked about with no lens cap on. The frame spacing is a little variable for some reason, with sometimes a 2mm variance in gap either way. This is not a problem in use.

Shutter accuracy was not tested on a machine, but changing speeds sound right and had the expected effect on exposures.

The shutter is quiet and the sound is not a sharp click as you might expect, rather more like a cloth shutter. When I had finished my first roll, I went to rewind and noticed the direction of the arrow on the rewind crank. It points anti-clockwise, not clockwise like every other 35mm camera I have ever used. When I had rewound the film I looked at the way it worked. Pulling up the rewind knob opens the back as you would expect, but then it gets weird.

The knob and the actual dog that engages the spool in the film cassette are not in line, they are offset by about half a centimeter. The reason is, that there are gears that connect the rewind knob to the film dog and that causes the dog to spin in reverse! Why Mr Yasuhara did that I have no idea, there must have been a reason because you don’t design something like that for fun.

The more you look, the more you see. Some camera top plates are stamped out of sheet brass or steel, and others made of aluminium or other light metal alloys are cast in a mould. The master shape for the casting mould is created nowadays by CAD CAM machines or 3D printers, but back in the 1990s, it was often wood or clay, or a mix of both. As I looked at the lines and angles of the camera, I saw that where it was allowed by form and fit, the shapes were hand carved, not machined on a milling machine.

In other words, the shape of the camera is deliberately not rigidly square and symmetrical as a Leica would be, there is an organic, hand-crafted element that has been retained from the original shaped models of the camera through the manufacturing process.

This is a uniquely Japanese concept and is called Wabi-Sabi which describes a kind of perfect imperfection. This camera has it and I find it refreshing in today’s world of clinically perfect cameras.

~ Howard

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36 responses to “The Wabi-Sabi rangefinder: Yasuhara 一式 T981 (Isshiki T981)”

  1. Trevor White Ros Avatar
    Trevor White Ros

    I have just come across this camera and was very pleased to find this excellent exposition

  2. The Yashuhara T012 Akizuki with fixed 30mm lens was amazing but does anyone know its story? It is a beauty!

    1. You should get a copy of Shin Yasuhara’s book ‘Yasuhara Works Retrospective’ which gives some info about the T012 as well as the T981. The book is all in Japanese but I scanned mine then put it through an OCR program then Google can translate it. Not easy to read but it gives a lot of info about the background to both cameras.

      1. Thanks Peter I’ll look for the book. What’s an OCR program? Sorry for my tech ignorance. Best wishes, Dave

        1. Dave, OCR, Optical Character recognition, is an extremely useful piece of software that is mostly found with flatbed scanners. I assume there will be mobile phone apps that provide the same function.

          When scanning a document in OCR, it is not captured as a jpeg or TIFF, but the software “reads” the document and produces a scan than can be edited just like a normal document. I’ve found it very useful for the exact same reason as Peter, because the OCR scan can then copied into google translate, for example, to provide translations.

          1. Thanks very much Terry

  3. Thanks for article! It appeared right on time when I was considering to get into RF world second time. I’m rocking T981 now! 🙂

  4. Hi there, Does anyone know the story of the beautiful little Yasuhara T-012 Akizuki (秋月) please? I got one from Lomo in early 2000s but there’s very little info about it apart from a small entry on a camera wiki page.

  5. This is a fascinating and wonderfully thorough review! Could you do the same for the lovely Yasuhara T012 too please? I’d love to read that. I purchased the T-198 and T012 from the Lomo site in the early 2000s but sold the T-198 and immediately wished I hadn’t. I did keep the little T012 Akizuki with fixed 30mm lens but I’ve never found any reviews or found any information about it, save for the small entry on a wiki page. Does anyone have any interesting historical about it please?

  6. I just read that T981 (特種相機)means special camera built in 1998. Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/kVmqGOY6fM8HSIg7Kq1h6Q

  7. Thank you for the article. It is a great read and an interesting story.

  8. I just finished reading Wabi-Sabi For Artists,Designers…. by @leonardkoren and your article really… https://t.co/3a882TvxIc

  9. Thomas Lindemann Avatar
    Thomas Lindemann

    That was a great read. Thank you for this article. I have this camera for year about a year now. It’s so much joy.

    But it is so hard to find information about it. This is how I stumbled over your article. My rangefinder got vertically misaligned. Is there a way to adjust it. Any tips or pointers in the right direction would be great.

    So now I start reading so many tempting articles on here.

    Thanks. Thomas

      1. Thomas Lindemann Avatar
        Thomas Lindemann

        Wow, thank you. That’s great.

  10. As soon as I saw the photos and before I read the article, I could see a heavy Konica influence. The style and finish remind me of a Konica IIIA, but with Auto Reflex T trim. The shutter speed dial and the film advance could have been made from the same dies or even come from the same parts manufacturer.

    Out of curiosity, I checked eBay and was surprised to see several up for auction. Due to your review, they’re probably selling for higher prices – thank you very much! 🙂

  11. Nice review and article. I think the rewind crank is offset to allow for the oversized viewfinder. Had it been in-line with the dog for the canister, the finder would be affected.

    1. That seems logical, There is a book, written by MR Yasuhara, about the whole process of designing and manufacturing the camera which I have ordered via Amazon It is in Japanese but I have a friend who could translate some of it for me. If anything interesting comes out of it I will post it. Thank you for your kind words.

      1. Did you get the book Howard?

        I tried to buy one through Amazon Japan but none of the sellers would ship to the UK.

      2. Did you get the book Howard?

        I tried to order one from Amazon Japan but none of the sellers would ship to the UK.

  12. What a remarkable camera this is and a thoroughly interesting review. It surprises me that the rangefinder base is so short but otherwise I love the thinking behind this design. The anticlockwise rewind mechanism got me wondering then it clicked. Anticlockwise is a more natural movement for the left hand just as clockwise is for the right. Perhaps it is because I’m left-handed that I see it that way but it does make sense to me.

    1. Thank you for your kind thoughts, Jeremy. I am also left-handed, and left eyed (my dominant eye, and I wear glasses) so the camera is very comfortable for me in use. The rangefinder base is as you say, very short, but seems accurate enough. In the sample pics is a shot of an eagle sculpture, and I shot that close up with a Canon f1.4 50mm and it is spot on focused where I intended.

  13. thanks for the article It was very interesting! I never heard of this camera, I try to find now some information about Yasuhara T012 ? Did you heard something about this camera ?

    1. It is a camera with 30 2.8 lens. It also appears to have a small LCD screen. I have seen this camera on taobao (similar to ebay) in China. Its Chinese name is “autumn moon”

  14. From the perspective of 2019, it might make more sense to spend similar $$$ on a Cosina Bessa: Near-identical design and ergonomics, same shutter, same lensmount … and several years younger which is usually a benefit with infrequently-used mechanical devices.

    1. Totally agree, the Bessa is better made and has the best features of the T-198. I don’t think that the Yasuhara would survive daily professional use for very long, but the Bessa would (and spare parts are available)

      1. All true. But who wants a common or garden Cosina made Bessa when you can have this one-off? 😊 Curiosity has got the better of me and I’ve just bought one. It will be interesting to see what its like when it arrives.

      2. An interesting comment. My opinion would be the complete opposite. The Bessa rangefinders are built on the Cosina CT-1 chassis while the Yasuhara is built on a Yashica FX-3 chassis. Having worked on both types and used cameras built on both, I would rate the Yashica chassis above the Cosina. The Yashica FX-3 is one of the most reliable cameras out there. I can’t say that about any of the cameras built on the CT-1 chassis.

        1. Peter, thanks for this interesting info.

  15. Fascinating! My Wabi-Sabi from today. Thanks for the post Howard!

  16. Howard,

    Thanks for an interesting review. I heard about this camera in the late 1990’s. http://www.cameraquest.com had a lot about it. It was something of a Kickstarter of its day, in that it was a long wait to see if it would make it to market, although Mr Yasuhara didn’t ask for money up front.

    I really wanted one as I couldn’t afford to sell my kidneys to buy a Leica. Sadly it never really made it to the UK, but you are right that Cosina saw the interest and made the Voigtlander Bessa models as a result. I got one of those instead.

    1. Thank you for the kind words. It is a shame that Mr Yasuhara never got the chance to make a Mark II improved version, that would have been a real contender. The Cosina/Voigtlander Bessa cameras benefitted from Cosina’s vast experience and manufacturing skills so they are undoubtedly better made than the T-198, but when you look at a Voigtlander R4A and M, for example, you can see the definite influence with the big “sit up and beg” style viewfinder window and the identical control layout (without the wierd offset backwards rewind)

    2. This camera is not in large production, but since it was made by a camera factory in China, it can also be found on the shopping website in China

 

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