We’re nearly 50 years down the line since the launch of the epic and properly robust Yashica FX-3 35mm film camera. Something of a legend in its own lifetime, the camera has been (kind of) reborn for the digital age, in the shape of this plastic fantastic Yashica FX-D S300. The new kid on the block isn’t a Japanese camera made by Yashica as such, more of a Chinese offering from a company paying to use the name.
While the Yashica FX-D S300 is undeniably a digital camera, its beating heart is a 1/1.56-inch image sensor, more typical of those found in recent mobile phones. And while it’s a digital camera, it’s dressed up more like a film camera in a party frock. Retro finery includes various control dials, a viewfinder cowl with an actual viewfinder built into it (unlike the similar but empty cowls of the sibling FX-D 100 and FX-D 300), a threaded circular shutter release button and even a ‘film advance lever’. The camera doesn’t take any actual film, ‘film simulation’ modes being as close at it gets.
