22 years on RFF

I turned seventeen this week ;-) And after a hiatus of a number of years I'm back to using rangefinders, then Leica M2s, now a couple of Canon L2 and L3 (and a nice 7, but I prefer the smaller Ls). I have to say I do miss TomA, or Al Kaplan and others, our collective link back into times when photographers gargled Dektol and National Geographic photogs would burn through chest freezers of Kodachrome ;-) But we're still here ... and analog rangefinder photography is here to stay, some way or other. Cheers!

Joined in summer 2008.
I was on holidays and my mother in law gave me a Zenit 12xp that she found.
I found RFF as I was googling for reviews for the Helios 58. Then I decided to join.

See many familiar old names here, my time here has been off and on but pushing 20 years now.

Kiu

Congrats. Here is to another 22. 😀

To this thread, let me say, thanks a gazillion!! It got me thinking about, and interested again, in my once-upon-a-time posts here, so I went hunting, and came up with a few old, even historical (please let us not call them hysterical) musings.

One of my (very few, alas) surviving photo diaries goes way, way back to the period 2000-2009. It's online as a would you believe it! WordPro document - I still have that now-ancient software on one of my elderly laptops, so I accessed it and discovered a note I wrote about a post dating to 2006. It was about my Contax G1, I had a problem with this camera and asked for advice about sorting it out.

Several posters came to the rescue and gave me some timely tips. None of which I of course followed up, in my usual way.

So now I invoked the assistance of the search engine, which produced - nothing. It seems all those old old posts and threads have vanished, maybe to lurk somewhere in the far universe as so many electric visual zaps with all the original shows of I Love Lucy and the long-forgotten Hollywood potboiler screen flicks.

I don't even recall the moniker I used then. So much for my long ago much-vaunted elephantine memory, now sadly diminished.

I still have the G1, in fact two of them - in this I'm improving slowly, having once owned four - and the malfunctioning one goes on working as it did 20 years ago. I no longer have the fabulous Zeiss 45/2.0. Someone I knew in Japan wanted it more badly than I did, so I sold it, silly me. It's now AFAIK in Kyoto and in regular use, which pleases me, even if I still miss it.

I make do with the Zeiss 35/2.0 Planar, a less valued lens to many but in my estimation at least 95% as good as the 45. A second G1 has had the 28/2.8 Biogon on it for so long, I'm reluctant to try to take it off as it may be stuck firmly on to that camera.

Also a 21/2.8, a beaut lens, sadly too little used. And a 90/2.8, not quite so nice as the other glass, rarely if ever used, so in pristine condition.

My G1s go on making good pictures, as they did when I invested heavily in the brand in the early 2000s, thanks to a gentleman named Dave Shaw who was then at the Camera Exchange in Melbourne city, who convinced me that the Gs were almost as good as Leicas. Dave will surely be remembered by many as an exceptionally well-informed camera man, a most pleasant and polite seller and always a pleasure to deal with.

It took a while for me to work out the G1's limitations, but Dave sure was right about those Zeiss Contax lenses, they are no less than superb. Alas, with an odd and unique mount so they fit only the Gs. They can be converted, at a ridiculously high cost and only by someone in Japan, who it seems has a two-year backlog to work on, which says something.

Bolo Kukus said:

To this thread, let me say, thanks a gazillion!! It got me thinking about, and interested again, in my once-upon-a-time posts here, so I went hunting, and came up with a few old, even historical (please let us not call them hysterical) musings.

One of my (very few, alas) surviving photo diaries goes way, way back to the period 2000-2009. It's online as a would you believe it! WordPro document - I still have that now-ancient software on one of my elderly laptops, so I accessed it and discovered a note I wrote about a post dating to 2006. It was about my Contax G1, I had a problem with this camera and asked for advice about sorting it out.

Several posters came to the rescue and gave me some timely tips. None of which I of course followed up, in my usual way.

So now I invoked the assistance of the search engine, which produced - nothing. It seems all those old old posts and threads have vanished, maybe to lurk somewhere in the far universe as so many electric visual zaps with all the original shows of I Love Lucy and the long-forgotten Hollywood potboiler screen flicks.

I don't even recall the moniker I used then. So much for my long ago much-vaunted elephantine memory, now sadly diminished.

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If that post was on RFF, it should still be in the archives somewhere, unless @MP Guy knows where older posts might be?

Every now and again, I do a dive into the old posts of RFF and wonder where those posters have gone. Some are still here!

Bolo Kukus said:

I still have the G1, in fact two of them - in this I'm improving slowly, having once owned four - and the malfunctioning one goes on working as it did 20 years ago. I no longer have the fabulous Zeiss 45/2.0. Someone I knew in Japan wanted it more badly than I did, so I sold it, silly me. It's now AFAIK in Kyoto and in regular use, which pleases me, even if I still miss it.

I make do with the Zeiss 35/2.0 Planar, a less valued lens to many but in my estimation at least 95% as good as the 45. A second G1 has had the 28/2.8 Biogon on it for so long, I'm reluctant to try to take it off as it may be stuck firmly on to that camera.

Also a 21/2.8, a beaut lens, sadly too little used. And a 90/2.8, not quite so nice as the other glass, rarely if ever used, so in pristine condition.

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Interestingly, I originally wanted a Contax G2 as my rangefinder experience, but went in favour of the Zeiss Ikon because of the potential issues with repair, and the more widely used lens mount. I built a set of focal lengths and lenses to replicate, in part, the Contax G lineup. My first was the Zeiss Biogon 28/2.8 in M mount as this is what I imagined I would shoot the most, had I a Contax G2. But the Ikon was the gateway to Leica, then it all went a bit nuts.

For me the G2 was an upmarket G1 with a few bells and whistles but otherwise not much to heat the blood. The price tag also put me off. Even secondhand G2s still command premium prices - a shop in Surabaya currently has a well-used veteran G2 on sale for AUD $2500 which is, I reckon, ridiculous given its outdated electronics and the real threat of its going kaput soon.

As for RFF, it has had its share of ups and downs, minor wars are raged and a few inflated egos come and go (and usually return), otherwise it’s steady as she goes and all things tick over nicely. Unlike two other once big sites I can name but won’t, here we lack the down-your-throat responses of the keyboard warrior malcontents who try to take over and run everything. seem to frequent most sites. As a group, we here tend to be civil to each other, and our arguments are usually based more on trying to respectfully correct misinformation than in scoring points.

I see a lot of fine photography posted here. I was once a Flickr fan and for a while I had an account with them, but the endless downloads of digicrap and verbal driven I found when I went looking for images on specific subjects, bored me to the point that I left.

RFF has kept drawing me back, and while I’ve opted out now and then, more to give my weary brain cells a rest than for any other reason, I’m happy to return.

My wish to this site is, long may RFF go on going on, and long may we keep posting our respectful thoughts on all things photographic (and some other topics as well).

Bolo Kukus said:

It seems all those old old posts and threads have vanished,

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If you give me some possible keywords I may be able to track them down for you.

Nineteen years on here for me. I came over to RFF from Photo.net. RFF is more than a photography website; it's like a family.

Bolo Kukus said:

the Gs were almost as good as Leicas.

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That's faint praise. They were and are tremendous cameras and don’t really compare.

Wow, 20 years for me this coming July. Time flies.

I came over to learn more about some camera gear I'd inherited from my father. I've learned a lot here.

Freakscene said:

That's faint praise. They were and are tremendous cameras and don’t really compare.

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True. Or to put it in different words, same but different.

Unlike Leicas, they aren't rangefinders - rather, the Contax has a sort of point-and-shoot, see-through viewfinder, a lot like a modern day Albada finder once popular with German 1950s folding cameras,, the difference here being the G finder adjusts to whatever lens you have on it, but doesn't show the focusing. This has led to many unsharp images, notably with the 90/2.8.

Unlike Leicas, they do not have a great range of adaptable lenses. You have to make do with the six or seven branded Contax G lenses, and that's it.

Unlike Leicas, spare parts are no longer available from the manufacturer. So when your G1 or G2 breaks down, it's find someone who has cannibalised one for the parts to repair them, or put it on the shelf and dust it off every now and then.

No disagreement intended. Nor any complaints about those G lenses, which produce superbly good images.

I've long wondered what would have happened if Contax (okay, Cosina) had produced a digital G...

Bolo Kukus said:

True. Or to put it in different words, same but different.

Unlike Leicas, they aren't rangefinders - rather, the Contax has a sort of point-and-shoot, see-through viewfinder, a lot like a modern day Albada finder once popular with German 1950s folding cameras,, the difference here being the G finder adjusts to whatever lens you have on it, but doesn't show the focusing. This has led to many unsharp images, notably with the 90/2.8.

Unlike Leicas, they do not have a great range of adaptable lenses. You have to make do with the six or seven branded Contax G lenses, and that's it.

Unlike Leicas, spare parts are no longer available from the manufacturer. So when your G1 or G2 breaks down, it's find someone who has cannibalised one for the parts to repair them, or put it on the shelf and dust it off every now and then.

No disagreement intended. Nor any complaints about those G lenses, which produce superbly good images.

I've long wondered what would have happened if Contax (okay, Cosina) had produced a digital G...

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No comment on you, just of the person who said it.

In the 1990s, the G cameras, among other things, offered a set of lenses with equivalent colour transmission, contrast and aberrations. So photos taken with all the lenses have a familial look. This was particularly important with slide film. Leica were nowhere near this until the mid-late 2000s by which time you could get a set of first generation ASPH lenses across the focal lengths. And they still had more variation than the Zeiss set for the G cameras, particularly in contrast.

The primary flaw of the G - viewfinders: they have such a narrow exit pupil diameter. If the eye moves slightly off axis, the viewfinder darkens on the opposite side of the move. With practice (repetition) this can be overcome when bringing the camera up to the eye.

The AF system is not something one can just pick up and use immediately, it requires specific knowledge of how the system works and being aware of indicators to avoid misfocus.

The lenses are deliciously sublime!

When you dig into the earliest posts of RFF, you'll find members who have been here since the very beginning:

@MP Guy of course 😄

@back alley joined on the 30th of July 2003 and sadly has had health concerns which took him away from the forum last year or so

@SolaresLarrave who joined on 30 July 2003 and was last seen on the forum in mid 2025

@bmattock who joined around the same time, and has amassed over 10,000 posts. His last post was 2019 and he was last sighted here in 2023.

@Doug has been here since the beginning and is still here!

Now I'm really curious: how was RFF started, and how did people find it and join? Was it a spin-off from another site? There are a number of people who joined on the same date in 2003, with others coming very soon after.

@MP Guy @Doug @splitimageview

Archiver said:

Now I'm really curious: how was RFF started, and how did people find it and join? Was it a spin-off from another site? There are a number of people who joined on the same date in 2003, with others coming very soon after.

@MP Guy @Doug @splitimageview

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I joined under another name in July 2003. There were posts about the new forum on the old StreetPhoto list.

This past month I hit the twenty-year mark. I remember well the old-timers. I enjoyed their banter and the unpretentious spirit. People from different walks of life, united by the same obsessions. I am really glad the forum is still active, although thinking about the passage of time gives me a slight head buzz.

telenous said:

This past month I hit the twenty-year mark. I remember well the old-timers. I enjoyed their banter and the unpretentious spirit. People from different walks of life, united by the same obsessions. I am really glad the forum is still active, although thinking about the passage of time gives me a slight head buzz.

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It frequently makes me think “where the heck did the time go”, like when I look at the adult or near adult kids who I seem to think should still be infants or toddlers. ‘Memory [] makes one's head heavy and giddy, as if one were not looking back down the receding perspectives of time but rather down from a great height, from one of those towers whose tops are lost to view in the clouds.’ W.G. Sebald “The Emigrants”.

Freakscene said:

It frequently makes me think “where the heck did the time go”, like when I look at the adult or near adult kids who I seem to think should still be infants or toddlers. ‘Memory [] makes one's head heavy and giddy, as if one were not looking back down the receding perspectives of time but rather down from a great height, from one of those towers whose tops are lost to view in the clouds.’ W.G. Sebald “The Emigrants”.

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I think this way also.

Twenty years ago, I was 47, still had my parents, and felt like I still had my life ahead of me.

Now, at 67, both parents gone, I'm thinking in 20-more years (if I make it) I will be 87 and am looking at the other side of life. Crazy! Make's one want to maximize all the time they have left and enjoy life.

I hopefully have a few more decades left in me (both parents made it into their late-90's - Italian immigrants) and strategize how to enjoy each day now as time now feels more compressed.

Luckily, I am still working, enjoy my career in hi-tech, and hope to continue working into my early-70's then slow down a bit after that - maybe taking a remote gig here-and-there for play money.