Yashica Electro 35 CC

Most of the Electro 35 family came with a 45mm normal lens. The CC did not, and that is exactly why you want one. It carries a fixed 35mm f/1.8, a fast wide that gives you the angle of view you actually use on the street with enough speed to keep working after the light goes. That single lens choice is the whole argument for this body over its siblings.

The Electro line offered aperture priority and nothing more. You pick the aperture, the electronics choose a stepless shutter speed, and you read two arrows in the finder. Over for too slow, Under for too fast. On the CC that auto range runs from roughly 30 seconds at the long end up to about 1/600 per the camera's marked top speed, all metered by an honest center-weighted CdS cell that is genuinely good in mixed light. It will hold the shutter open for several seconds on a dim street without complaint, and a 30 second longest exposure covers most after-dark work you would hand-hold or brace for. The leaf shutter is nearly silent, just a soft clack, which is half the appeal of any Electro.

In the hand it is smaller and lighter than the standard GSN, a clean black body with a viewfinder that gives you a clean finder and a contrasty rangefinder patch. Focusing is quick. Loading is ordinary 35mm. The build is solid for a consumer rangefinder of its day, dense without being a brick, and it slips into a jacket pocket in a way the bigger Electros never managed.

Now the weakness, and it is real. The CC does not work without its battery, and there is no mechanical fallback. No power, no shutter, no meter. The good news is the part everyone gets wrong about the family: the CC runs on a 6V PX28 (4LR44) cell, which is still made and cheap, so there is no mercury-cell drama, no adapter, no metering offset to live with. It also lacks the infamous pad of death that plagues the larger G-series bodies, so that particular repair is not on your list. What you do watch for is the usual age stuff, crumbling light seals and tired electronics, so buy one that has been serviced or budget a small fix.

Because the shutter is a leaf type, flash syncs at every speed, right to the top. That is rare and useful. Load daylight stock, take a fill-flash reading off your subject's face with the Zone Light Meter app, and you can drop in a hint of flash at whatever shutter speed the scene wants, instead of being chained to a 1/60 ceiling like an SLR. For straight ambient work you mostly trust the camera, but it is reassuring to have a real reading in your pocket when you point that wide lens into a backlit street.

People cross-shop the CC against the Olympus 35 RC and the Canonet QL17. It usually wins on lens speed and angle of view and loses a little on outright compactness. The 35mm f/1.8 is uncommon enough, and the body small enough, that a clean serviced example is one of the better fast-wide rangefinders still worth shooting.