Best RF for the sub $50 budget?

All of the recommendations for Japanese fixed lens rangefinders are good. I paid less than the equivalent of $50 for several I've owned.

Another possibility is a Fed-4. I bought mine for 10 UKP and it stood me in good stead for years [many of my personal favourite pictures were taken with it] -- I now use a Leica, but the Fed was fine.

At this point you'll be told that quality control is terrible on FSU cameras, etc and asked to budget for a CLA etc. If you're only spending a few pounds on a camera, I wouldn't bother. I've owned 4 or 5 FSU rangefinders. Only one of them was faulty -- minor light leak -- and was easily repairable.
 
st3ph3nm said:
Another vote for the Olympus XA. I like the Canonet QL17, though, too - but one play during the pass the camera project wasn't enough time to get familiar. One thing I love about the XA, is it fits in the front pocket of my jeans. Even the Canonet can't do that! I'm a big fan of the Oly lens, too. In the end, you can't go wrong either way (or with the other suggestions, for that matter)

Cheers,
Steve
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Yeah, I ended up getting a Canonet on ebay, thanks for all the recommendations from everyone here!
 
Candidates I'd nominate:
All the Yashica G-series and occasionally a Lynx 14 will sell for under $50, as would the Canon Canonet GIII QL-17 and QL-19, the Minolta Hi-matic 7S and Hi-matic 9, the Agfa Karat IV and Karat 36, and the occasional Kodak Retina II or IIa. Very occasionally, you may find a Voigtlander Vitessa selling for under $50.
 
FallisPhoto said:
Candidates I'd nominate:
All the Yashica G-series and occasionally a Lynx 14 will sell for under $50, as would the Canon Canonet GIII QL-17 and QL-19, the Minolta Hi-matic 7S and Hi-matic 9, the Agfa Karat IV and Karat 36, and the occasional Kodak Retina II or IIa. Very occasionally, you may find a Voigtlander Vitessa selling for under $50.
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Indeed, I ended up getting a Canon Canonet GIII QL-17 for $51 with shipping, so not too bad at all.
 
Yeah

Yeah

guy-montag said:
At the moment, I'm looking for a RF in the sub $50 range, hopefully with a working built in meter. Hopefully you're not falling over laughing at this point heh.

I usually use my Nikon D200, but in my spare time my Mamiya C330 TLR has definitely been getting some serious use. However, for things like street photography, the D200 is too large and too blatant, and the C330 is just large, heavy, and without a meter.

People have mentioned the Yashica Electro and the Canonet as possibilities. The Plaubel Makina 67 also looked pretty interesting, but then I saw the $1,000+ going price on ebay heh.

Any suggestions?
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There is a Voigtlander VF35 going for free in the give away thread, seeing as you live in the states I would prefer if you pay for the postage.

PM me if you want it.

//Jan
 
Hello folks,
I am also in the market for a reasonably cheap (under £50) rangefinder as I have recently had my interest in photography rekindled using the digital format.
Ideally I would like an interchangeable lens model, but guess my pricing precludes that. Am I correct?
If it has to be a fixed lens then it should be fast: i.e. under F/2!
I am currently watching a Yashica Electro 35 GSN, and a Cononet QL17 G111 on Ebay.
Any other recommendations?
 
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wakarimasen said:
Hello folks,
I am also in the market for a reasonably cheap (under £50) rangefinder as I have recently had my interest in photography rekindled using the digital format.
Ideally I would like an interchangeable lens model, but guess my pricing precludes that. Am I correct?
If it has to be a fixed lens then it should be fast: i.e. under F/2!
I am currently watching a Yashica Electro 35 GSN, and a Cononet QL17 G111 on Ebay.
Any other recommendations?
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Go for the Canonet G-III QL17 - manual controls, aperture priority mode and a good meter add up to a very workable rangefinder for the $50 budget. And f1.7 is a pretty fast lens too.
 
guy-montag said:
I tried looking up information on it, but there seems to be next to nothing about it out there :(
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You might look under its real name, VF 135: http://www.silvermoon.idv.tw/pho-vf135.html Turns out it is a rangefinder, but it is a fully automatic one, with no manual control over exposure. You might want to look up the Rollei XF35, which is the same camera.
 
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