Yashica T series
Kyocera Β· Fixed lens Β· 24Γ36mm on 35mm film, hinged back Β· 1985
Known as βthe Terry Richardson cameraβ
Also known as: Yashica T AF Β· Yashica T2 Β· Yashica T3 Β· Yashica T4 Β· Yashica T4 Super Β· Yashica T5 Β· Kyocera T Proof Β· Kyocera Slim T Β· γ€γ·γ«T4
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yashica T AF (Kyocera T AF) | 35mm compact | 1985 | β | No figure published |
| Yashica T2 (Kyocera T) | 35mm compact | β | β | No figure published |
| Yashica T3 / T3 Super (Kyocera T Scope) | 35mm compact | 1988 | β | No figure published |
| Yashica T4 (Kyocera Slim T) | 35mm compact | β | β | No figure published |
| Yashica T4 Super / T5 (Kyocera T Proof) | 35mm compact | β | β | No figure published |
- No production or sales figure has ever been published for any camera in this family, by Kyocera or by anyone else. Every source consulted that addresses the question says it could not find one. The only quantitative record of the line's scale is secondary-market pricing, which measures demand rather than supply.
- Every statement attributed to camera-wiki on this page comes from archived snapshots of its articles. The live site was unreachable for the whole of the work behind this entry and again when the entry was checked, returning nothing at all rather than an error page. Where a camera-wiki claim could not be re-read against the live article it is carried as archived text and said to be so; the year categories in particular are tags on an article rather than statements in its prose, and are treated here as the weakest evidence in the family.
- The shutter row above covers the T AF, T2, T4 and T4 Super. No speed range for the T3 is given here, because none was confirmed from a source that could be read in full for this entry β one more instance of the T3 being the model everybody quotes and nobody documents.
- The Yashica T Zoom, with a 28β70mm Vario-Tessar T*, exists and is documented, but it is a different optical class with essentially no written following behind it. It is noted here rather than given a row.
- A Tessar is four elements in three groups. That is what the name denotes β two front singlets and a cemented rear doublet β and it is why the four-in-four formula printed for the T3 is treated here as an error rather than as a design variation.
- Some write-ups distinguish a single-coated "T" from a multicoated "T*" across the series. No source consulted supports that split: the earliest T AF bodies are engraved T* like the rest. The distinction is not carried here.
- Close focus is inconsistently reported at the small end of the line. 35mmc gives the T4 as 0.35 m; The Machine Planet gives the T4 Super D a 25 cm close-focus distance. The earlier T AF and T2 focus no closer than 1 m on camera-wiki's specifications, which is the one figure the sources agree on.
- The price history is the reason this family is written about, and it is worth stating without reverence: these were cheap cameras. The T AF sold for $112.50 in 1985, the bodies are plastic, there is no control of any kind, and both 35mmc and Casual Photophile spend much of their reviews saying that comparable results come from compacts costing a fraction of what a T4 now costs. What the family has that its rivals did not is a licensed Zeiss lens on the front, and that is what the market has been paying for.
How to tell them apart
- Carl Zeiss T* engraved on a plastic-bodied drugstore compact β the licence is the entire proposition
- No aperture control, no shutter control, no manual focus and no exposure compensation on any model in the line
- Every model carries a 35mm lens; only the T3 carries f/2.8
Yashica T AF (Kyocera T AF):
- Lens engraved Tessar 3.5/35 T* β the Zeiss licence is on the front of the cheapest camera in the line
- A sliding cover that the shutter release itself uncovers
- Manual film-speed ring; the later DX bodies are marked DX on the body and have DX pins inside
Yashica T2 (Kyocera T):
- Refined single-window body with no waist-level finder β the plainest camera in the line
- 6V 2CR5 lithium cell in place of the T AF's two AA cells
Yashica T3 / T3 Super (Kyocera T Scope):
- A 35mm f/2.8 lens β two-thirds of a stop faster than every other camera in the family, and the only one
- A second, downward-looking window on the top plate: camera-wiki names it the New Angle Scope
Yashica T4 (Kyocera Slim T):
- Back to f/3.5, and the smallest and lightest body of the line at 116.5 Γ 63.5 Γ 37 mm and 170 g
- No weather sealing, and β on this model β no waist-level window
- Generally black; camera-wiki records a limited-edition Safari model in green
Yashica T4 Super / T5 (Kyocera T Proof):
- Weather-resistant seals β rain and dust, explicitly not submersion
- The Super Scope waist-level window returns, beside the LCD on the top plate
- Larger and heavier than the T4; camera-wiki records silver, gold and black finishes
- Yashica T AF (Kyocera T AF): The first, and the one that established the formula: a licensed Zeiss Tessar of four elements in three groups at f/3.5, autofocus from 1 m, a programmed shutter of 1/8 to 1/500 and a flash the photographer switches on by hand. Sold in non-DX and DX versions and as the T AF-D with a databack whose calendar stops at '19. camera-wiki says the camera is believed to have eight focus steps, and marks that as a belief.
- Yashica T2 (Kyocera T): The least documented model in the series, and the honest entry says so: no source consulted states an introduction year in its text. camera-wiki files it under 1986 as a category tag and describes it without a date; Casual Photophile's review places it between the T and the T3 and gives no year at all. Specification is otherwise well established β the same 35mm f/3.5 Tessar T* in four elements and three groups, autofocus from 1 m with focus lock, a programmed shutter of 1/8 to 1/500, metering EV 6.6β17 at ISO 100, and DX decoding from ISO 50 to 1600.
- Yashica T3 / T3 Super (Kyocera T Scope): The odd one out, and the one a buyer most needs the table for. Every other T carries f/3.5; the T3 carries f/2.8, which camera-wiki notes plainly as faster than the other lenses in the series. It also introduces the top-plate waist-level window that the T4 Super would later carry as the Super Scope. The T3 Super, sold as the Kyocera T Scope 2, is a later revision of the same camera. The circulating four-elements-in-four-groups formula for this model is almost certainly a transcription error β see disputed.
- Yashica T4 (Kyocera Slim T): The model the hype attaches to, and mechanically a step back from the T3: the faster lens is gone and so is the second finder. What it gains is size. Three-point active infrared autofocus, a programmed shutter of 1s to 1/700, exposure range EV 3.5β17 at ISO 100, DX from ISO 50 to 3200, a CR123A cell. Kyocera never explained in print why the f/2.8 was not carried forward.
- Yashica T4 Super / T5 (Kyocera T Proof): One camera under three names: T4 Super in the United States, T5 in Europe, Kyocera T Proof in Japan, with T4 Super D denoting the databack. Several sources treat T4 Super and T5 as two different cameras of different years, which is the single commonest error about this family; camera-wiki's article covers all three names in one page. Same 35mm f/3.5 Tessar T*, shutter to 1/700.
Specifications
- Format
- 24Γ36mm on 35mm film, hinged back
- Finder (main)
- reverse Galilean direct-vision finder with autofocus zone icons β a head at 1β2 m, a group at 2β4 m and a mountain beyond 4 m Β· no rangefinder image
- Finder (waist-level)
- A second downward-looking brilliant window on the top plate, present on the T3 (New Angle Scope) and the T4 Super / T5 (Super Scope), absent on the T AF, T2 and T4 Β· no rangefinder image
- Shutter
- programmed electronic lens shutter Β· 1/8 β 1/500 on the T AF and T2; 1s β 1/700 on the T4 and the T4 Super. No shutter or aperture setting is available to the photographer on any model
- Film advance
- automatic motorised wind and rewind
- Back
- hinged; databack versions sold as T AF-D, T2D, T4D and T4 Super D
- Meter
- Silicon photodiode, programmed automatic exposure with no override. The T AF offers manual film speeds of ISO 50, 100, 200, 400 and 1000 and, in its DX form, DX decoding from ISO 50 to 1600; the T2 decodes ISO 50β1600; the T4 and T4 Super decode ISO 50β3200.
- Country
- Japan
- Original price
- $112.50 in the United States in May 1985 for the T AF, $135 with the date back, from an Executive Photo & Supply advertisement reproduced by Mike Eckman (today $328)
Where sources disagree
- T3, lens formula
- Four elements in three groups β the construction the Tessar name denotes, and the formula reviewers who handled the camera report
- Four elements in four groups β the Camerapedia record for the T3, repeated widely since
Better supported: Four elements in three groups
A Tessar with four elements in four groups would have no cemented surface and would not be a Tessar; that argument, not any source, is what settles this. The four-in-four figure is in the Camerapedia record and is repeated across dealer listings. Where camera-wiki's own T3 page stands on it could not be re-checked: the site was unreachable throughout this check, and the search index attributes an element count to it that its archived text does not obviously carry. The entry therefore rests the correction on the definition of the formula rather than on a count from a page nobody here could open.
- T AF, introduction year
- 1985 β Mike Eckman, citing a May 1985 New York advertisement with prices
- 1984 β camera-wiki's year category for the model
- 1986 β the year one account gives for the first Kyocera-branded T
Better supported: 1985
A dated advertisement with a price in it is the strongest evidence available for any date in this family, and it puts the camera on sale in the United States by May 1985. It does not rule out a 1984 Japanese introduction, which may be what camera-wiki's tag records.
- T2, introduction year
- No year stated β Casual Photophile's review and Mike Eckman's series account both decline to give one
- 1986 β camera-wiki's year category, and the year given by writers who identify the T2 with the Kyocera-branded T
Better supported: Unresolved
This is an absence rather than a conflict, and it is recorded as one. No source consulted states an introduction date for the T2 in its own text; 1986 exists only as a category tag and as an identification with a differently badged camera. The T2 is the least documented model in a poorly documented family.
- T3, introduction year
- 1988 β the year most commonly given
- 1987 β the year given in at least one chronology of the series
Better supported: 1988
Neither is sourced to a document. 1988 is carried here as the majority reading.
- T4, introduction year
- 1990 β the year most commonly given in the review literature
- 1992 β the Camerapedia record
- 1994 β camera-wiki's year category for the model
Better supported: Unresolved
Four years of spread on the most famous camera in the family, and nothing behind any of the three but assertion. years.first is left unset on this variant rather than picked.
- T4 Super / T5, introduction year
- 1995 β Mike Eckman, and camera-wiki's year category
- 1993 β given in several accounts, some of which then treat the 1993 T4 Super and the 1995 T5 as two different cameras
Better supported: 1995
The 1993-versus-1995 split is entangled with the naming error. Once T4 Super, T5 and Kyocera T Proof are recognised as one camera, the two dates are competing dates for a single introduction rather than evidence of two models, and 1995 is the better attested of them.
What reviewers say
- Mike Eckman (blog) β Sets the T AF in its market rather than in the later hype, and supplies the family's only dated price: $112.50 in a May 1985 advertisement, $135 with the date back. On the lens he is deflating in a useful way β by 1985 the Tessar formula was eighty-three years old and had been copied by nearly every lens maker β which is the correct frame for a camera whose whole reputation is four elements in three groups.
- Jeb Inge (Casual Photophile) (blog) β Rates the pictures highly and the camera moderately. The Zeiss lens delivers, the body is a good travelling companion, and the autofocus is the limitation: it works, but in his phrase it will not happen fast. He gives the T2's specification carefully β 1/8 to 1/500, DX from 50 to 1600, one metre minimum focus β and no introduction year, because there is not one to give.
- Dmitry Zhilyaev (35mmc) (blog) β The most useful corrective written about this family. He jokes that T4 stands for too pricey for what it is, and backs the joke with a comparison: an Olympus AF-10 Super costing a fraction of the money produces results he finds nearly indistinguishable. He does not dispute that the Tessar is good; he disputes that it is several hundred dollars better than the alternatives.
- Dmitri (Analog.Cafe), Yashica T5 / T-Proof (blog) β A dozen rolls through rain and mountains: the Tessar renders bokeh like a Rollei 35S Sonnar, and one missed-focus frame in all of them β better than almost any autofocus camera he has owned. The T4 is the same lens, shutter and autofocus without the Super Scope or weather seals and with a louder motor, and he finds it "less special."
- Ben Kepka (Cultured Kiwi), Yashica T4 (blog) β The Tessar out-resolves faster rivals and focuses to 35 cm, and three buttons leave nothing to do but compose. The plastic is slippery, scratches and is not weatherproof, and with no manual ISO there is no pushing or pulling β so at today's prices the premium is hard to justify.
History
One family, five cameras, one lens design. Every Yashica T carries a licensed Carl Zeiss Tessar of four elements in three groups, engraved T* on the front of a plastic body that offers no aperture control, no shutter control, no manual focus and no exposure compensation. That combination β a serious lens in a camera with no controls at all β is the whole proposition, and it is why the family sits awkwardly between the premium compacts it is shelved with and the drugstore autofocus cameras it was actually sold against.
The one camera that breaks the pattern is the T3, and it breaks it in the direction a buyer would want: 35mm at f/2.8 rather than f/3.5, two-thirds of a stop faster than anything else in the line, plus a second downward-looking window on the top plate that camera-wiki calls the New Angle Scope. Kyocera then went back to f/3.5 for the T4 and never explained why in print. A widely repeated specification gives the T3βs lens as four elements in four groups; that is treated here as a transcription error, and on one ground only β four-in-three is what the word Tessar means, and a fourth group would leave the formula without the cemented surface that defines it.
The dating is where this family falls apart. Mike Eckman anchors the T AF to a May 1985 New York advertisement that prices it at $112.50, which is the strongest single piece of evidence anywhere in the line, and camera-wiki nonetheless files the camera under 1984. The T2 has no stated introduction year in any source consulted β not a conflict, an absence, and the T2 is simply the least documented model of the five. The T4 is dated 1990, 1992 and 1994 by three different records. The T4 Super is dated 1993 or 1995, and the disagreement is tangled up with a naming error, because T4 Super, T5 and Kyocera T Proof are one camera under three regional names and are frequently written up as two cameras of two different years.
Nobody has ever published a production or sales figure for any of them. That is worth saying flatly, because this is a family whose fame is now largely financial: the T4 and T5 went from worthless to several hundred dollars inside a decade, and that movement is what brought the whole premium-compact market into being. The number of cameras chasing that price is unknown, and Kyocera is not going to say.
Which leaves the reviewers, who are more sceptical than the market is. Dmitry Zhilyaevβs verdict at 35mmc is that a cheap Olympus produces results he cannot reliably tell apart from the T4βs. Eckman points out that the Tessar formula was eighty-three years old by the time it was fitted here. Neither is arguing the lens is bad β it is not β and both are arguing that what is being paid for is the engraving as much as the glass.
This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap β but no human wrote these sentences.
Example photos
Sample photo wanted β shot with a Yashica T series? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
Asking price, USD: a median of $580 across 23 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $190β$780). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: up 13% from $510.
By day
| Date | Median | Middle half | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-11 | $580 | $190β$780 | 23 |
| 2026-09-06 | $510 | $150β$600 | 17 |
Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.
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