Big Dog, sorry to hear that the Canonet is not in better working order . I also have a Canonet QL17 GIII, of which I am the original owner. After 25 years, I had it CLA'd & it works like new again. Stephen Gandy at
www.camerquest.com will do the job on a Canonet for $100, which should address all of the problems you mentioned. Look for details under Camera Repairs. It's a nice camera & you can do a lot with it.
I also like a rangefinder to cut down on the bulk of an SLR kit, which is why I shy away from the bigger RF lenses. A rangefinder kit with 2 or 3 lenses can be carried much more easily than the same combination of SlR lenses. But sometimes only a bigger lens will do the job. The 40 Nokton is very unusual in being both ultra-fast & compact.
I really like the CV 75/2.5 & agree that it is excellent for portrait shots. It's reasonably compact for this type of lens, reasonably fast, & its focal length will reduce depth of field without having to use wider apertures.
You ask about people's favorite 35 & 40 mm lenses. There are only a few 40mm lenses from which to choose. In addition to the Nokton, you can consider the supeb Leica 40/2 Summicron-C, which was also made as a Minolta 40/2 Rokkor. both are from the 1970s & often available on ebay or from dealers in the $300 +/- range. I have the newer Rollei 40/2.8 Sonnar, which I like a lot. All of the 40 mm lenses have received extensive discussion on photo.net with pictures & comparisons with 35's. Just look through the list of topics under Leica lenses. Taking the same pictures with your Canonet & with a 35 on your SLR is probably the best way to see which field of view you prefer - or if the difference really matters at all to you.
There are so many 35's available that it is almost impossible to inventory them on this kind of forum. Owners of both the CV 1.7 & 2.5 sing their praises, so it would seem that you can't go wrong with either. The choice is size vs speed. The CV 35/2.5 Classic is compact. The 35/2.5 Pancake II is very compact! But it loses some of its size advantage if you use a shade. Optically both of these 2.5 versions are essentially the same. There are multiple versions of Leica 35's at varying speeds & prices. The best reference on their different optical qualities is the "Leica Lens Compendium" by Erwin Puts, available from amazon.com for $35. Puts reviews Leica lenses & some Konica & CV lenses on his website at
www.imx.nl/ The latest Leica lenses are aspherical & very sharp. Older versions are preferred by some for their rendering of out-of-focus background (bokeh). However, even older Leica lenses are more expensive than new CV lenses, so it's hard to justify the cost for many amateurs.
In deciding between 35 vs 40 or R2A vs R3A, I would not get distracted by the differences. 35/50/90 are the classic - if somewhat arbitary - rangefinder focal lengths. The Bessa R, R2, & R2A all offer these frame lines plus 75.
The reason that Cosina offers the R3A with 40mm frame lines is somewhat serendipitous. Cosina teamed with Epson 2 years ago to develop a digital rangefinder, which came to market in 2004. For a variety of reasons, the development of this camera resulted in a viewfinder with 1:1 magnification on the same body as the R2. Never slow to see a marketing opportunity, Cosina installed this viewfinder on its R2, but the widest frame lines that could fit with the higher magnification were those for 40 mm. The result was the R3A.
This is the only reason that the 40/1.4 Nokton exists. There was no great demand for the 40mm focal length. Now that it's available, some people are finding that they like it. To make it different from other lenses in their line-up & to make it attractive in its own way, Cosina chose a lens design that makes it unusually compact - a design in some ways similar to Leica's older & also compact 35/1.4 Summilux.
The development of the R3A provided a real service for CV customers. The shorter Bessa base line - about half the length of a Leica-M base line - is a less precise focusing instrument. This doesn't make much practical difference for lenses wider than 50mm because these lenses have such great depth of field to begin with, but it is a factor with ultra-fast 50's & for any telephoto lens. The R3A now offers an alternative for users of these lenses in much the same way that Leica offers alternative magnifications for those who favor wide lenses vs. those who favor telephotos.
The 40 Nokton came as part of the R3A package & it also offers an alternative for the CV user - a very compact & very fast moderate wide angle lens. The CV 35 Ultron & 28 Ultron are excellent wide angle lenses but they are bulkier than their slower focal length alternatives. The 40 Nokton offers both speed & compact size. Some don't like the look of its pictures - although I think that the number of sample photos are too small to judge from internet scans. Some feel too cramped by the focal length, so this is not the lens for them. But for those who don't want to carry botha 35 & a 50 and who want speed, this does seem to be the lens for them. And it has quickly developed its fan base, who swear by the "look" they get in their photos. I happen to like the pictures I've seen taken with it & it's surprisingly flare resistant - unlike the old 35 Summilux.To each his own.
Best of luck choosing.
Huck
