Anything surprised you?

[p.giannakis]

I always avoided triplet lenses because they were 'old' and 'primitive'. On p&s compacts were 'meh' in the best of cases.
Until i was given a Rolleicord with a prewar uncoated (to make things worse) Triotar (75f/4.5).

The quality of this lens surprises me every time i develop a film. Actually, I don't even feel the need to upgrade to a rolleiflex.

 

[Erik van Straten]

Looks like a fine lens. These shots are very beautiful.

Erik.

 

[Peter_S]

Positive: VM Heliar 50mm f/3.5 - got it to test not expecting to keep it - bit I did, now its my favourite (and only) 50 mm lens.
Negative: Hm. Leica M9 perhaps. I really liked the M8.2, but never bonded with the M9. Not so with the M9 Monochrom - that is a keeper (the Heliar and the M9M go together really well).

 

[p.giannakis]

Looks like a fine lens. These shots are very beautiful.

Erik.

Actually I like it so much that I don't even feel tempted to upgrade to a rolleiflex.

 

[Darthfeeble]

I was surprised at how badly Nikon missed with the DF. Meant to be a film camera with digital back, but instead it was a big fat thing with poor AF, plasticky hollow feeling dials and a terrible manual focus screen.

And yeah, the Helios 103 is a korker. Best thing about my black Kiev 4a.

Take a look at the Zfc, I got one because it was cheaper than the Z50 and I wanted a crop sensor for my tele lens. I think its as nice to use as my FE.

 

[jsrockit]

Another surprising thing is that people go on and on about the CCD sensor in the M8 and M9, but never do the same about any DSLRs with CCD sensors. People might look back at a DSLR fondly, but they are no longer using them.

 

[Dogman]

I was surprised at how much I liked using the second hand Nikon D800 I bought a few years ago to copy film images I had done in the past. I liked it so much I now own several Nikons and I use them more than my mirrorless cameras. Nikon (as well as Canon) figured out how to make cameras that fit hands and how to place controls for use with fingers. While it's fairly easy to figure out handling and controls on today's mirrorless cameras, I always have to take a moment to adjust myself to the camera. None have felt as natural as those big old (D)SLRs.

 

[Dogman]

Oh, John, one more thing. I agree about how people seem a bit ga-ga over Leica CCDs while ignoring other cameras with the same sensors. Nikon's D200 has look to the images and some attribute this to the CCD sensor. The technical photography stuff doesn't really interest me but the Raw images from the D200 do look extremely nice to me. Especially for a camera you can buy for less than a hundred bucks. Unfortunately, the two D200's I bought both have a lot of dead pixels so it's frustrating to clean up the images in post processing.

 

[Godfrey]

I've kept one and only one DSLR: my original 2003 Olympus E-1. It's slow, largish, and only 5Mpixels, but is one of the very nicest camera bodies to hold and shoot with, ever, and has stunningly good lenses. Photos out of that measly 5Mpixel body, printed to 20x24 inch, won recognition at three exhibitions they were entered in. Back in the day, I'd never use anything higher than ISO 400 for color and ISO 800 for B&W with it, but raw converter technology has advanced so well that I can now use ISO 3200 for B&W and ISO 1600 for color.

Considering I bought it used in 2007 for a pittance... !

It's worth virtually nothing on the used market now, so even if I don't use it much any more, it's still in my equipment cabinet. Sometimes I just take it out to enjoy the shape and feel of its controls, and wish something else would surface that had that good a design.

Nearly every piece of equipment I have owned has had its interesting surprises.

G

 

[jsrockit]

Nikon's D200 has look to the images and some attribute this to the CCD sensor. The technical photography stuff doesn't really interest me but the Raw images from the D200 do look extremely nice to me. Especially for a camera you can buy for less than a hundred bucks. Unfortunately, the two D200's I bought both have a lot of dead pixels so it's frustrating to clean up the images in post processing.

Yes, that essentially should interest people who supposedly love the look the M8 gives (minor differences aside). Now, if you tell me you like using the M8 because you like the M8 or the M8 is special because you have to use IR filters and that somehow makes it very unique IQ wise, ok.