advice please?

[wlewisiii]

I'd be inclined toward the G2 rather than the R3A as I'd prefer the Zeiss glass. Which brings up a whole other can of worms - you've said you use a Nikon SLR. Do you want lenses on your RF that will have a similar look to Nikon glass or do you want something different? This is one of those purely personal preference areas that you'll need to decide.

I like the "look" created by the classic Zeiss designs, so that tends to influence my purchases.

But the prices on G's and their lenses have been seriously dropping. Good deals to be had on quite new cameras.

William

 

[JoeFriday]

the Contax is a very unique RF in that it has autofocus.. perhaps you'd acclimate well to that, given your SLR use to date.. I personally was very skeptical about having autofocus in a RF camera, but the comments I've read about the G2 from users are generally very good.. still, I can't comment on it, having never seen one 'in the flesh'.. but I'd strongly recommend trying one out before purchasing

as for the Bessa R3a.. it's a camera that I'm still considering buying for myself.. it's generally considered the best bang for the buck as far as new bodies go.. but chances are that I'll take that money and put it into a Leica M3.. meterless, but reliable.. and if I ever decided to part with the Leica, I'd almost certainly get all my money back

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Claire... try with a Canonet first. It's not terribly difficult to find one of the G-III QL17 type in good condition for a reasonable price. If you like it, then, aim for the stars. But also first decide whether you want to shoot with a built-in meter or if you want to get yourself a hand-held one.

Again... as I said in your other thread, good luck, happy shooting, and check out the CL for sale in the classifieds in Photo.net! 🙂

 

[SolaresLarrave]

BTW, the Contax G is a remarkable performer. I really like mine, but haven't used it much since I went Leica. However, I would recommend it to someone coming from using an AF SLR.

The G1 is really inexpensive now. The G2 is an improved edition.

 

[Fred]

Welcome Claire,

As your used to the fine engineering and build of the wonderful F100, you'll probably want something that has a similar build, whilst the R2a/3a are fantastic machines, they are not quite up to the same build (nothing wrong with them though).

A used G1, G2 is a better build but is also packed with electronics and unfortunately is now discontinued. A shame as the G is a cracking machine. Which leads me on to a used Leica M6 or M7, these should not loose there value as fast as some of the others mentioned and with a little experience will focus very fast indeed.

I suggest you try as many of your choices as possible.

It's worth thinking about if your going to use longer, faster lenses in the region of 90mm F2 +. If so the longer RF base length of the Leica would help a lot. I wides are the order of the day the R2a may well be fine.