Yashica 44LM 127 Tiny Travel TLR Camera Review and Sample Photos

If you’re old enough, you’ve heard this before: Small is the new big. When that cliché first took off it referred to fashion, to the fads of clothes and accessories. Small being the new big never meant to refer to an understated approach to anything, but instead referred to the conspicuousness of tiny. In the TLR world, 127 TLRs are the tiny. Sure the handful of 35mm TLRs are smaller, but the 127 TLR makes a loud, bold statement for its relatively diminutive size. A 127 TLR can hide in a large pocket, or within a couple of cupped hands while the photographer takes a candid photo.

127 TLRs grew from a demand for better-quality slides, you know, those old photos that could be projected from a slide projector onto the wall. The 127 TLR was small and created large negatives that could be, quite easily, fit into an ultrabright slide holder and projected using a standard 35mm slide projector. They didn’t need the expensive and large setups of medium-format slide projectors and in that way allowed the advanced amateur photographer to create better slides with larger images using a camera that was smaller, lighter, and easier to carry than most 35mm SLRs. Throw a few lenses into an SLR bag and the 127 TLR’s genius size, weight, and compactness become apparent.

The 127 format’s size also lends itself to an image quality and aesthetic more akin to large format work, too. The larger negatives and longer standard focal length on the lenses allowed excellent subject isolation for vacation portraits, too. And to that end, with an image look and capabilities that match the 120 TLRs, the 44LM proclaims not only that small is the new big, but that big is the new big.

With the 44LM, Yashica gave the 127 TLR photographer a capable camera with a light meter. The 44LM photographer wants for nothing that the professional 120 TLRs could provide. Point for point on specs, the 44LM matched the best of the top-end TLRs.

Yes, for the 127 enthusiast, the format is a luxury with films that can be expensive or hard to obtain. Cutting film to size with a 120 film slitter is possible, but requires re-spooling. Buying bulk from the Ilford ULF event each year is an option, but requires vintage paper backing and again re-spooling. 127 is either a hard format to use, an expensive format to use, or, honestly, both. For me, developing 127 film at home required some time and effort to find the correct film reels. Digitizing it requires an enlarger’s slide carrier to hold the film flat. Image-for-image, 127 film, and by association the Yashica 44LM, takes a lot of extra time to use, versus any 120 TLR, because of the challenges with the film format today.

And for all that, someone who has never used a 127 camera might see effort, cost, time, and hassle that simply don’t exist on other formats. And, yes, that’s true. But look beyond that and the Yashica 44LM shows itself to be a fun camera, easy to use, capable of exceptional photos, and small enough to easily be a vintage travel camera. So is the added hassle of 127 film worth it? Ultimately, that’s your call to me. But for me, sometimes, not every time, yes, I think it is.

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Yashica 44LM Instructions, Operation, Flash Use, Take a Photo, Load Film, Light Meter, and Focusing
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