Compact rangefinder sugestions

bmattock said:
The Sears 35|rf is actually the Ricoh 500G in all black except for the trim on the lens barrel and the shutter release button. Same-same, right down to the huge thick (and usually gooey) foam on the inside of the back door. They're good cameras, and generally dirt-cheap since they say 'Sears' on them.
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There were a whole slew of cameras built on the same or similar chassis, and a 38-40mm f2.8 lens. I wouldn't be surprised if one manufacturer built them all, with variations on a theme. In the case of Ricoh/Sears, it may be either Ricoh is the original manufacturer of all the various brandings, or Sears is thus "3rd hand". Sears had the tradition of re-branding Nicca, Iloca, Olympus, Mamiya (IIRC), Ricoh, and probably others as well. All good products at a lower price.

Edit: Well, maybe not lower now ... auction 290376187989 ... sheesh!
 
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I have a Petri Computer 35. If that is the C35 people are talking about, it is a good camera. It is the same size as the Canonet QL 17, but I think a little lighter. It is different in that you select the aperture and it selects the shutter speed. Same with the XA. The Canonet does allow you to select both the shutter speed and aperture if you wish. The XA is the smaller of the three and takes good photos.
 
I didn't have enough time to bond with the Canonet QL17 when it came through my hands on the pass the camera project a few years back, but I *did* enjoy using it. But my vote would be for the Olympus XA. I could be biased. Actually, I am biased. Love that little camera. Perfect? Of course not. The Canonet may actually be closer to that. But the XA is still my recommendation. 🙂

Cheers,
Steve
 
Konica S3, small with an outstanding lens,
Olympus RC, REALLY SMALL with an outstanding lens (at 2,8).

You cant go wrong with both of them.

I have a lot of these fixed lens RF's and I tend to come back to the clunky Yashica GS... the meter is astonishing. Concerning the Rollei 35, the Tessar 3.5 is also a decent piece of Zeiss glass, but the scale focusing is a pain in the .... half of my pics were missfocused. A niced piece of engineering, though.

Go for the RC if the 2.8 wont bother you: a really small to take everywhere
 
The Konica C35 Automatic is a nice little camera with automatic exposure. While you can see what aperture-shutter speed combo the camera has selected, there's no way to select a different combo. Nor is there a range of manual speeds or aperture. I think that was one of the things that the original poster was hoping to have.

The Olympus 35 RC is a great little camera.
 
If you plan to keep a camera in your chest pocket as I do you will find
that a lightweight (i.e. mostly plastic) camera is far easier to live with.
If this is the case I heartily recommend the Olympus XA or Minox 35ML.

Chris
 
The best bang for the buck has to be the Canonet QL17. I hear from others that the non-GIII is as good as or better than the more popular, more prevalent and costly GIII. I have a nice GIII QL17 that ain't going nowheres any time soon.
 
Unlike the XA2 the XA indeed has a rangefinder and aperture priority. It's a great camera and the only rangefinder i know that really deserves the attribute "pocketable". If you're talking about jacket pocket size the vivitar 35ES aka revue SE 400 would be worth a look: very cheap, fast (f1.7) and very sharp lens. I got a vivitar and a revue for just about 10$ each on the flea market. They have shutter priority though which makes them a good choice for available light stuff.
 
I have a QL17 G3, and I won't get rid of it for anything. But recently I've been looking at a Contax T that is for sale locally. If it wasn't Christmastime, I'd definitely snap it up just for being a smaller RF than my Canonet. And by all reports the lens is worth having in any body. So I'm voting for a Contax T just because I want one.
 
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