Cheap 35mm rangfinder

[Zack]

So i find myself in a photography class my senior year of high school, and i walk in only to find out the teacher wants eevrything to be taken on either a point and shoot 35mm or a point and shoot digital. I have a complete darkroom setup in my basement from my dad, and have been taking and developing pictures since i was a freshman. After explaining this to the teacher he told me i could use my own camera but all prints had to be made at school on 5x7 RC. I learned on a nikon slr but a year ago a bought a fuji gsw690II and now can never go back to the cumbersome slr. The enlargers at school only cover 35 so the point of my post is to ask what is a good cheap 35mm rangefinder i could buy to use only for this semester(short term) and then when its over go back to the fuji.

Thanks for your time,
Zack

 

[Chaser]

Canonet ql17 GIII,
Yashica Electro GSN come to mind

 

[captainslack]

So i find myself in a photography class my senior year of high school, and i walk in only to find out the teacher wants eevrything to be taken on either a point and shoot 35mm or a point and shoot digital. /QUOTE]

You've got to be kidding me! 😱

 

[davidbivins]

What Chaser said, and in addition an Olympus RC or Minolta 7s or 7sII.

 

[Sedaku]

My vote is for the QL-17, but you could just make a contact print. A 6x9 on 5x7 might look pretty nice.

 

[Trius]

I agree with all above, especially Sedaku's suggestion of contact printing. I'll add my favourite fixed-lens RF, the Olympus 35 SP.

If you can buy something locally and not rely on eBay, it would be good. No need to be riskier than necessary. If purchased locally, you can get a return privilege after shooting a test roll.

Earl

 

[Zack]

thanks for the suggestions, yeah the school did a very interesting job of budgeting money, instead of buying good enlargers or something they choose to buy 2 mac g4's for photoshop purposes, one cannon dslr for the whole class to use and then like a bunch or 4 megapixel point and shoots and 35 point and shoots. as far as buying locally there is a camera expo coming up in mid febuary but i dont really wanna wait that long and the only 35 rangefinder stuff ive seen at the shops around my house is 2 m6 bodies. Yeah i thought about the contact printbecause my dad has a wista dx 4x5 so i thought about bringing in a sheet and doing a contact print just to see if he would notice the quality. i guess ill be xchecking ebay unless anyone has anything for sale

 

[captainslack]

Now that I'm over my shock of the photo course being shot on P&S's, I'll second all the suggestions for a Canonet QL17 GIII. Never used a Yashica GSN, but I've never heard anything bad about them.

If I were you, I'd post a "Want to Buy" thread in the Classified section here. You'll have a better chance of getting a model in good working condition there than on Ebay.

 

[amateriat]

Here's an offer you can't refuse (well, maybe you can): I happen to have a Konica S2 fixed-lens rangefinder I can simply give you, so long as you cover the cost of getting it to you (probably not much via USPS). Main caveat is that I'm not certain just how well the metering system works, but it might be worth a try for a lark. Just a way-out thought...

 

[Zack]

Yes, id be interested in that, the metering is not a big deal because i can just test it agaisnt my spotmeter and if it the meter doesnt work use the spot meter like i always do. i would be more concerned on if the shutter speeds are accurate. i live in chicago. im not sure how much shipping would be or how to calculate it without knowing the weight of the package.

 

[DougK]

A photography class using point-and-shoots only? Good heavens, how are you supposed to learn what photography is all about? Granted, you can learn a lot about composition but without knowing what the camera is doing... <shudder>... OK I'll stop now. From the camera in your signature I'm guessing that I'm preaching to the choir. 🙂

Back on topic, the Konica S2 would be a great choice (and a princely offer on it, I might add). Figure shipping weight for that camera would probably be around 2 lbs.; it's probably guessing on the high side and the camera itself is about a pound if it's anything like my Konica C35.

 

[Zack]

Its actually quite comical hearing him try to explain things. he starts saying something then realizes he might actually get into some kind of detail so he stops and switches subjects for example

"yeah so an important thing about the camera is aperture, thats a fancy name for opening, moving on"

"yeah so your gonna make a print so yeah just use uh f8 yeah just move it all the over then 3 clicks back and uh if its to dark or something use a filter uh there is 1 to 5 so yeah moving on"

but im definatly excited about this s2, after a year of using a rangefinder i picked up my old slr and was like woah this stinks.

 

[RML]

Good heavens! The horror! I hope you don't have to pay for that course. 🙂

My choice? A real P&S, the Oly Mju. Cheap and wonderful, with great fixed lens. You could do worse than that. 🙂

Anyway, good luck on your course. And I do hope you get to shoot the Fuji and print a shoot the way you like it. I'm curious to hear how teach' regarded it, compaired to the other prints. 😛

 

[wamjam]

try the russian FED 2. alot of good deals on ebay.

 

[wyk_penguin]

Go and teach your teacher.

I think he/she is trying not to break the banks of people who are not as lucky as you are. A $25 FSU may be just too $$ for some. However, I doubt what he/she can teach except from composition using P&S.

 

[Zack]

THe cost thing isnt it either because for a developing tank like 8 rolls of arista film and 100 sheets of 5x7 rc and some neg sleeves it was $60. so its still a little steep, today he dropped the bomb that half of what we shoot MUST be digital and morphed in photoshop. he said might consider letting me scan print or negs instead of used a digital camera but he would prefer if i didnt. oh and when he says morphed he doesnt just mean burning the sky or something he means like take a bald eagle and photoshop it into the desert.

 

[nomade]

The FSU are the cheapest usually and they r good, i've 2 feds...Zorki or Zenit should be cheaper, i dono what is it like where u r, but i think it's not gonna be so different, just that the zenit is kinda big...

 

[Rob]

Your instructor sounds like an idiot to me. Bet the work out of that class will be pretty ugly in most cases. Go for the S2, great lens. It will weigh over a pound for shipping, at least 2 lbs. Blow him away with good pictures, then hit him in the head with the s2.

 

[dmr]

A photography class using point-and-shoots only? Good heavens, how are you supposed to learn what photography is all about?

I never took photography in HS. However, some friends of mine who went to another school took a course in photography and the one rule was that all assignments had to be taken with a specific kind of very cheap box camera.

Why? Because the instructor wanted them to concentrate on composition and such, as opposed to how to use the features on a fancy camera, plus, it leveled the playing field, those who were better off did not have the advangage of nicer equipment.

I assume this is for the same reason, the box camera was the P&S of the era.

Oh, and back on topic, I further recomend the QL17 GIII. It's not P&S, but a very good camera and you can find them quite easily.

 

[kvanderlaag]

A GIII QL-17 will not disappoint you later, either. Maye you're not really into 35mm, and that's fine, but I can almost guarantee you, a camera that nice has an appeal that'll get you to shoot it AT LEAST once after.