Bessa L and 15mm Mini Review

[oscroft]

I did notice the shutter noise a few times, but it is not as obnoxious as a SLR.

Yeah, it's louder than a Leica, but quieter than an SLR. I was a bit worried about the sound of Bessa shutters at first, because they sounded quite loud indoors in quite surroundings. But outside, with the noise of people, traffic, etc, they really don't get noticed

Only one person noticed the camera, he told his family "don't get in the way of the pro photographer"

Hehe, nice I often find it frustrating when people see me pointing a camera at them and move because they assume they're in the way, when they're my actual subjects.

This lens requires me to on top or into the subject because of the extreme angle of view.

I found exactly the same thing when I started using my 15 - I just found myself wanting to really get close into the scene myself. It's a lot of fun.

This has forced me to move around more than I used to when I shot with zoom lenses. Moving around to get my subjects framed actually provided me with more inspiration and subject matter than I would normally have seen. This lens has 'changed my vision', or a least provided more opportunity. After shooting two rolls with this lens exclusively, I am able to pre-visualize shots and get set up easily. Much easier lens to learn than broad range zooms.

Oh definitely, yes, that really is the effect that using prime lenses rather than zooms has on you. I prefer prime lenses on SLRs too, so I already had some experience of that before I came to rangefinders. But I'm firmly convinced that our natural biological zoom mechanism (our legs) is far superior to zoom lenses

Anyway, it sounds like you're having a lot of fun with your new camera and lens - do let us see some results when you have some.