So very close!

[travis forsyth]

It's been 3 months since I started saving money for the first time in my life. Now I am on the home stretch for a Bessa R3M as my first rangefinder. Funny all it took was handling a friends to develop the desire to save money.
I am still undecided on the lens but the 40mm 1.4 looks like a good choice from what I have seen here but I will let this years tax return be the judge of what I actually buy.


It has been a pretty hard fight, I've almost pulled the trigger on my credit card a few times to get the hard part over with.

 

[kshapero]

An R3M and a CV 40mm is a mighty fine rig.

 

[travis forsyth]

An R3M and a CV 40mm is a mighty fine rig.

Excellent 😀 The only thing I am worried about is it not being delivered soon enough. I hate to wait.

 

[charjohncarter]

You will like a Bessa. I bought one from the 'head bartender' and have been very happy. I needed a BessaR because I only had LTM lenses. But they are probably very similar. The meter is excellent (reflective, of course), and the shutter is heaven, plus the 1/125 flash synch is helpful. I read that the 'R' suffered from some kind of shutter dislocation so I'm very slow at advancing my film and I stop at the first hint of the end of a roll. I felt liberated after using my 1/50 synch Leica IIIf for so many years.

This winter I went to Mexico and used my flash with the BessaR, very fun. This is fill flash with Elitechrome:

and, guess what these guys were up to:

 

[travis forsyth]

Pulled the trigger and placed the order. Waiting is driving me absolutely crazy. My new loader and 100ft roll of HP5 showed up before it... but they only had a fraction of the distance to go.

Sure hope the weather is fair the day this shows up.

 

[travis forsyth]

It's here! I got to give it to the guys at Leica Boutique in Montreal, incredibly helpful fellows even from over 2000 km away!

 

[pbo]

Congrats on a new camera! Now you only need cartridges for all that HP5 😀

 

[travis forsyth]

Congrats on a new camera! Now you only need cartridges for all that HP5 😀

I have 20 rolls made up! Owner of the loader threw in a bunch for me. Just need a day off now to go shootin.