Fast lens. Very good autofocus mechanism. Spot metering. Small size compared to other P&S. Under $200. Remote control. Date imprint.

Shutter lag when using flash.

The Yashica T4 Zoom is made by Kyocera. It is assembled in China with Japanese parts and its lens is made by Carl Zeiss. The T4 Zoom is the best under $200 P&S camera available today. The T4 Zoom is the perfect supplement to an SLR if you want portability in a camera that can fit into a pocket or purse. The lens is 28-70mm, f4.5-8 and its very good in near darkness using ISO-400 film. The viewfinder is small, but still very usable for people like myself who wear eye-glasses. The exposure compensation is ok, but not great becasue it does not let you adjust in increments. Exposure compensation is +1.5 or -1.5, but its ok for an under $200 camera. In a roll of 36 exposure film, most shots were sharp at all focal lengths indoor and outdoor. The only big draw back of this camera is the shutter lag when using the flash. When taking a shot using the flash, often times the flash will fire three times after the shutter button is depressed. Once for red-eye adjustment(if set), then for auto-focus adjustment and then for shutter release. This shutter lag will fool people when posing for a shot, thinking the picture is done, they'll move after the 1st or 2nd flash firing. Its also a problem when taking pics of kids running around indoors. Depite all this, the T4 Zoom is still a great camera when compared to the competition in the 200-$400 price range.

Customer Service

Have not used Kyocera or Yashica support yet.

Similar Products Used:

Olympus Epic, Nikon Lite Touch and Rollei Prego.

Price lens

plastic feel not water resistent view finder

The T4 Zoom takes good photos for a point and shoot. However, this is not the same class of camera as the former T4 Super. It is not water resistent. It looks and feels plastic. It does not have the same solid feel as the T4 Super. Calling this a T4 is purely marketing. Yashica should reintroduce the original T4 Super with a zoom lens. I believe people would be willing to pay the price for the quality and zoom capabilities.

Customer Service

not used

Similar Products Used:

T4 Super

Sharp 28/70 zoom lens quiet operation small size easy to use remote release exposure compensation nice case

dim view finder diopter control Max shutter speed 1/360

I have used the T4 for six years with excellent results so when the T4 zoom was introduced I had to buy it. The T4 zoom is as good if not better than the old T4/T5. Very quiet operation and easy to use. I have taken several rolls of 400 film with both cameras side by side. I am not an expert but the results are very close to even. Very sharp lens and good metering. The T4 zoom is slightly smaller than the old T4 and it fits nicley into any shirt pocket. Operation is smooth. I like the exposure compensation feature and the remote control release for timed exposures. The sharp 28/70 zoom is very nice. I think Yashica has produced another winner.

Customer Service

none

Similar Products Used:

T4 Canon Z115 Canon Rebel 2000 w/28/105

Light weight. Good lens Carl Zeiss. Sharp lens. 2 minutes of bulb mode. Comes with remote control. Professional color (black)

Waek flash. Night metering not consisten. Fixed compensation os +1.5 or -1.5 only. Forget setting after switched off, but LCD still showing date & battery.

Th is a great point & shoot camera. If you are looking for something to gave you fine pictures, look else where. Pictures are sharp. Colors balance. This camera gave you a typical point & shoot photos. Metering dor day light is fine. Night shots got to be careful. Flash is too weak, possible for fill flash only. Shutter lags. Not so refine compensation. Only fixed +1.5 or -1.5. Overall only a great point & shoot.

Customer Service

Not use before.

Similar Products Used:

Leica Minilux, Leica Mini zoom, Leica C1, Leica C2, Minolta Weathermatic DL35 , Nikon L35AF, Canon Caption 135, Olympus XA, blad blad ......

Lens - Zeiss is nice Solid Construction Results are excellent

SHUTTER LAG SHUTTER LAG SHUTTER LAG

Good ergonomics except the viewfinder which is small and subject to flare and the diopter adustment wheel which moves too easily. Very annoying shutter lag, as bad or worse than the old slow trigger champ - Canon 105. Occasional inadvertant triggering of shutter, expect this to disappear as I become more familiar with camera. Photos are sharp.

Customer Service

New Jersey service chicks are polite but technically hopeless, they fumble for a brochure and a sample camera, then they look to see if they can find "shutter lag" listed in the specifications.

Similar Products Used:

Stylus Epic Canon Sureshot 60 Olympus 2800 Canon Elan 7

Very good Flash Optic nice contrast

I bought this camera 3 weeks ago and the only problem I have with the camera is overexposed when I take the picture outdoor other than that the camera is wonderful.

It is very sharper and more contrast than even my Ricoh GR1S that is soft and warm, and Leica Mini in its excellent metering, and sharper than Rollei Prego 90 but same color quality. No significant distortion is detected. Excellent color rendation that is the same quality Contax Vario-Sonar 28-85. It is thoughtfully designed and considerably comfortable than T4.

Diopter is not bad, but slightly slippy. But it is fine.

T4 Zoom is excellent in its optical performance and color rendation. It is really worthy to buy. Surprsingly good in all aspects in such affordable price.

Customer Service

Not need yet

Similar Products Used:

Ricoh GR1S Yashica T4 Rollei Prego 90 Olympus Stylus Epic zoom Leica Mini and Many high quality Contax and Minolta, and Pentax cameras and lenses.

Bright view finder Wide autofocus area but can be a -ve point Fast zoom OUT Very compact and well built 28mm zoom Long time exposure Very nice shutter release button, feels like an SLR button Spot focus Very go flash coverage at 28mm

Diopter Adjustment easily moved Switching to spot AF take 2 seconds and can only be turn on during power up. Slow zoom IN Zoom can be quieter Shutter lag

I was looking at Ricoh GR1V, Contax T3 & TVSIII and Leica Minilux & Minilux zoom but finally purchase T4 because it has a zoom range that I am looking for and not too expensive. Though the aperture could be slightly brighter. View finder is very bright though it is slightly small. I am happy with it taking into account it is a compact zoom. Dipoter adjustment is very loose and I need to correct it a couple of times but it is not big thing. Just stick it with a tape to solve the problem. Focusing area is wide using 5 points compare to other compact camera. However, you need to be careful that the subjects within the focusing area does not varies very much in distance. Otherwise, the camera is going to focus on the nearest subject. I have switched to spot focus with focus lock to narrow the focusing area and recompose my subject. It take about 2 second to toggle the spot focus when switching on the camera. It will be a pain if you need to get into action very fast. Very well built and compact. Long time exposure up to 2 minutes with remote is excellent but you cannot use it together with flash which is a pity. Zoom button not cheesy and I will not complain about them. Lens Zoom is smooth but rather slow. Zooming in is slower than zooming out. Zoom In is a 2 steps process where as zoom out is one step. Zoom range 28->40->55->60->70. I do not find the zoom quiet but average as I am used to silent focus of Canon EOS lens. Autofocus is spot on and very fast (almost instance) but the lens only physically focuses after the shutter releases. Thus there is a shutter lag of maybe 0.5 seconds. I find it difficult to take children. +/- 1.5 EV compensate is great but I wish I can manual control over it. I also wish it has a indicator to show the shutter speed as in the GR1V. But HEY! It is a SGD 350 compact zoom not a Leica Minilux, GR1V or T3. I have shot a roll of ASA 400 black and white negative and I am not very impressed with the contrast and grey tone. All the pictures tough sharp are very flat. I still believe it is due to the printer, the paper or the film. I am quite bias for ziess as I am also a G2 user. I am in the process of shooting color and I hope the outcome is different.

Customer Service

None

Similar Products Used:

G2 (21,28,45,90) EOS 3 & 5 (28-105, 17-35L, 70-200L, 70-300 Sigma) Fuji 645 Zi Minolta X300s, X700 (Minolta & Russian lens)

Pretty sharp lens(though not as sharp as I expected from the Carl Zeiss lens), nice 28mm wide angle zoom, exposure compensation, long time exposure, spot auto focus, compact size and light weight, metal front and layout.

No back light for LCD in dark.

Very good overall performance, except outdoor pics are a bit over exposed and heavy distortion at 28mm. Did some neck to neck comparison with my Leica C-1, beat the C-1 for indoor pics, and very close to C-1 for outdoor ones.

Customer Service

No need yet.

Similar Products Used:

Olympus stylus epic zoom 80, Olympus superzoom 3500, Leica C-1, Leica Minilux zoom, Contax T-3, Canon EOS 650, Nikon N-80 and old old Carl Zeiss Ikon.

Excellant Photos Nice metal front cover Wide angle zoom Nicely done vinyl case Very quite zoom and film advance + - 1.5 Excellant shooting through window glass

None at this time

This is the very best 35mm point and shoot camera with 28-70 zoom in the market today. I would highly recomend this camera to anyone looking to purchase a wide angle short zoom. Have shoot 10 rolls of different asa films with excellant results. I did not thank the zoom buttons where cheesy at all, and had no problems with the diopter adjustment moving. Love the Carl Zeiss lens. I also did not find a problem with the view finder.

Similar Products Used:

Yashica T4, Olympus Stylus, Fuji Super Mini, Pentax Mi120