My Hi-Matic Impressions...
My Hi-Matic Impressions...
>can i ask, what are your overall impressions of the 7s?
Well, I've had mine for awhile and had never gone out to shoot with it. I bought it at about the same time as a couple of Konica Auto S2's and a Petri Color 2.8. The Konicas were both jammed, the Petri had no rangefinder patch, and all 4 had been described as 'mint' (of course) on eBay. So in disgust, I put them all on a back shelf.
Last night, I got the bug to fix the Konicas if I could. I took one apart based on instructions I found online, and I seem to have fixed it. Adjusted the rangefinder, and decided to go out today and have a comparo.
I took a Konica Auto S2, a Minolta Hi-Matic 7S, a Diax IIa, a Ricoh 519, an Aires Viscount, and a Zeiss Contina IIa.
I took similar pictures with all of them (scanning them now on a Minolta Scan Dual III) and so far, my results are:
1 - Minolta Hi-Matic 7S. By far the sharpest lens. Build quality is similar to the Konica Auto S2 - which is to say, somewhat crappy. Lens wobbles on body. Viewfinder, which looks great indoors, seems cloudy outside. Not too hard to focus, but the rangefinder patch flares out a little bit. Frankly, it feels big, clunky, cheaply-made, and if I had to guess on looks alone, I'd have never bought it. However, the proof is in the pudding. That lens kills!
2 - Ricoh Five One Nine. Next to the Minolta, it has the sharpest lens. High marks for build quality, the absolute easiest to focus as well. Best viewfinder / rangefinder outdoors, period. Love that kinky trigger-winder on the bottom of the camera. Don't get the 500, get the Five One Nine. Also, seems to be better wide open than the Minolta - I'll post one of those as soon as I get the scans done.
3 - Aires Viscount. Who would have guessed it? El cheapo camera from a no-name manufacturer who bit the dirt a long time ago. Build quality feels better by far than the Minolta / Konica's, but the gold-plated rangefinder cover is hokey, and the patch is way too dim outdoors. Lens is hard to turn as well - old grease in there has hardened up. But nice, sharp images, with a touch of roundness to them - good bokeh. Not as sharp as either the Ricoh or the Minolta.
4 - Diax IIa. I dunno, I thought this would do better. Nice Schnieder lens, shutter speeds seem right on. Build quality is very high - solid steel, heavy little sucker. I like the feel of these nearly as much as I like the Braun Paxette, and the actual build quality is probably better. Overall, though, it was just so-so in perfomance.
5 - Konica Auto S2. My bad, most likely. Dang near everything is out of focus. But it could not have been my rangefinder adjustments for the shots I took at infinity - if the lens is cranked all the way out to the infinity mark, I should get sharp shots at infinity, right? But no, everything is totally fuzzy. Did get a couple of sharp shots by accident, so it's not the lens, either. I've destroyed the other one I have by disassembling it, so I guess I'll have to get another. Now that I know the trick of fixing the stuck shutter/aperture blades that they ALL seem to suffer from, I won't wreck the next one.
6 - Zeiss Contina. Not properly a rangefinder, but I put a Prasiza rangefinder on top and shazam! Should have been one of the sharpest, and maybe it was - but I cranked too hard on the last shot and broke the film off the take-up reel in the film canister. No way to rewind, no dark bag, so I just dumped the film out. No pictures from Mr Zeiss today...dang it.
My 7S seems to have a good meter. but I shot manual anyway - I have a nice Sekonic L-358, since I shoot so many cameras that lack metering or their meters are too old to be trustworthy. Surprisingly, the old BEWI meter on the Zeiss seems to agree with my Sekonic on every shot. Wow!
Hope you find this helpful!
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
