This site is actually the off-shoot of another project involving research into the process of remotely firing multiple cameras simultaneously. Why go to the trouble of hot-wiring a $175 compact camera? It is exactly the T4's compact size, high quality lens and modest price that makes it highly attractive for such work. In fact , a visit to Charles C.Benton's site made me aware of the popularity of the T4 in the area of K.A.P, Kite Aerial Photography and a recent article in the British photographic magazine Amateur Photographer, highlighted the use of the T4 for natural history research in Africa.

Briefly, the Yashica T4 is an autofocus fixed lens compact 35mm camera with an f3.5 (T4) 35mm Zeiss Tessar lens. It has built in flash with red-eye reduction, Active Infra-Red auto-focus, Self-Timer, Night-Scene, Infinity Focus and there is a databack version, the T4 D(ate). The programmed shutter provides a continuous range of speeds from 1 second to 1/700th sec. Auto exposure provides Programmed AE, Auto Backlight Correction, Daylight Flash Synchro and AE Lock linked with Focus Lock. The specifications make no mention of minimum and maximum apertures so it may reasonably be assumed that the aperture is fixed and all exposure regulation is achieved solely through shutter control (common enough amongst compact cameras).

Sadly, the original T4 has been discontinued. Yashica have replaced it with what is known in the U.S.A. as the T4 Super but strangely, is referred to in Europe as the T5, a serious deviation from the (apparent)naming convention!

It is widely believed, and not without good reason, that the T stands for Tessar, but then, where does the "4" come from? There was no T3! I am reliably informed that the definition comes from the f3.5 lens producing an actual transmission stop "T" of four, hence the name. Though not as common in stills photography, all motion picture lenses are calibrated in this way.

The new camera is operationally VERY similar but it sports a unique "waist-level" viewfinder that harks back to the Yashica A4 that was manufactured about ten years ago. (The A4 was so named because the macro facility allowed focussing to the picture area of an A4 210x297mm page).

What made(makes) the original T4 so popular was that it sported a lens of exquisite quality, sharpness, contrast and definition. The T4 also reliably exposes transparency film with just the correct amount of under-exposure that inclines one to the belief that Yashica heavily anticipated the use of slide film with such a fine lens. The camera is also light and durable. Having dismantled many cameras, I can attest to the excellent build quality and certainty that it was built to be repaired with ease rather than disposed of.

The following pages outline how to take the most useful control lines outside the body shell for remote use, either by contact closure or transistor switching. The approach being to provide a short, discrete pigtail lead and connector that may connect either directly or by further extension to a firing box of one's own choosing.

Contact link removed because of spam, Sorry!