Current Fixed Lens RF Collection - Yeah! Boo!

[NickTrop]

Yashica GSN
- Aperture priority - yeah
- Meters fine with modern alkalines - yeah
- Normal-range (45mm) focal length - yeah
- Parallax corrected view finder - yeah
- Very good, fast lens - yeah
- Very, very quite shutter - yeah
- Stepless shutter that will stay open ??? secs - yeah
- Great "strangely accurate" rather sensitive in low light, light meter - yeah
- Meters to 1000 - yeah
- Not too expensive and plentiful yeah
- Kinda on the "big" side - boo
- Not too fond of its styling 1/2-boo
- POD concerns down the road - boo

Konica Auto S3
- Wicked, killer Leica-quality fast lens - yeah x2
- Very compact - yeah
- Very, quite shutter - yeah
- sexy in black - yeah
- Great fill flash system - yeah
- bright rangefinder - yeah
- shutter priority only - boo
- no parallax correction 1/2-boo
- build quality a hair below earlier RFs 1/2 boo

Lynx 14
- Very fast, sharp f1.4 lens - yeah x2
- All manual controls - yeah x2
- Very quite shutter - yeah
- Parallax corrected view finder - yeah
- BIG, heavy front element - boo
- Lens flare prone - boo

Yashica Electro CC
- Bargain "Yashica standard" 35/1.8 lens - yeah
- Aperture priority - yeah
- Sexy in black - yeah
- Nicely finished, very good build-quality - yeah
- Bright, contrasty rangefinder patch - yeah
- Compact - yeah
- Uses modern alkaline batteries without adapter or DIY solution - yeah x2
- Very, very quite shutter - yeah
- Stepless shutter that will stay open ??? secs - yeah
- Great "strangely accurate" rather sensitive in low light, light meter - yeah
- Only meters to 500 - boo
- No "hot flash" - boo
- Attaching flash sets shutter to 1/30, no workaround - boo

Zorki 4K
- Cheap, cheap, cheap M39 - yeah x2
- Film advance lever - yeah
- No strap lugs - boo
- Remember to set that shutter speed after cocking the shutter! - boo

Iskra
- Medium format "in your pocket" - yeah
- It's a real rangefinder (and bright!) - yeah
- Folder with a film counter! (mine works perfectly) - yeah
- Great lens! - yeah
- Would be "thE perfect camera" and my favorite all time camera, if I can ever fix that intermittent light leak - boo

 

[Roger Hicks]

Sell the lot and buy a decent camera. I've had half of them and would rather have almost any interchangeable-lens camera than any of them.

Cheers,

R.

 

[NickTrop]

Sell the lot and buy a decent camera. I've had half of them and would rather have almost any interchangeable-lens camera than any of them.

Cheers,

R.

I'm an unabashed "bargain dweller" and like my fixed lens cameras. I would take any one of the fixed lens over almost any interchangeable lens RF. Note - the Zorki isn't a fixed lens but I only use one lens with it and don't intend to buy any others, so to me it is.

And "do" note what forum it is... the "Fixed Lens" forum.

 

[NickTrop]

Oh... and one more "PS". This collection cost me around $500-$600 including CLA and shipping costs. And that buys me what in "M" land??? A lens cap? A hood?

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Konica S2- Bargain prices, great finder, sharpest lens of any Fixed Lens RF that I've used.

 

[NickTrop]

You were very calm there Nick !

I think that I'd have told Mr Hicks where to go !

Eh - its a Friday. I've got the day off and I'm in a good mood Plus, everyone is entitled to his/her opinion, even if it's dumb.

 

[iamzip]

I just got these cameras so I'm not too familiar with them yet, but:
Fujica 35 Auto-M
- Cheap! ($15 on eBay) - yea
- Built like a tank - yea
- I've always like Fujica cameras - yea
- Auto f-stop with program shift - on a camera that's how old?! - yea
- Parallax correction - yea
- Weighs as much as a tank - boo
- About as big as a tank - boo
- Meter only functions in auto mode - has no display - boo
- Does the meter work at all? I don't know yet - boo
- Dim viewfinder - boo
- ISO only goes up to 200?! - boo

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 521/16:
- Medium Format in your pocket - yea
- Smaller than a 35mm - yea
- looks cool - yea
- scale focus - boo
- no meter - boo
- hard to find someplace to develop 120 - boo

 

[shadowfox]

I'll contribute with a picture:

Fixed-lens RF rocks

With these two, all "yeah", no "boo".

 

[Pherdinand]

minolta hi-matic 9:
Great fast rokkor lens, yeah.
Great silent mechanical shutter, yeah.
Works without stinkin batteries, yeah.
With stinkin batteries, has a good meter, yeah.
Nice bright easy to focus parallax corrected range-viewfinder, yeah.
Great ergonomics, even if it seems large, yeah.
Easy film loading, yeah.
Shutter got stuck and i could not fix it, so i gave it away, boo.

 

[Pherdinand]

canonet ql17 gIII:
tiny little body, yeah.
works w/o battery, yeah.
good meter with proper battery, yeah.
quite good wideish fast lens, yeah.
easy film loading, yeah.
Canonet No. 2 ran over by a tram, dropped at a rammstein concert, dragged through the rainforest, buried for ten years in the kalahari, and STILL working well, yeah yeah.
shutter speed minimum 1/4 s, boo.
Sticky stinky terrible "everready" case - boo.
after two years, Canonet No 1 (The "Pass-The-Camera") still somewhere in America - boo.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Okay.

My "Keepers" after the great fixed-lens RF sell-off.

Canonet QL17 , the compact version that was "made in Japan". Panda finish, from a Black parts camera.
Lens on this one is as sharp as my Konica S2. The Ql17 (new) tend to have better lenses than the more-mass produced GIII. They are also a little heavier built.
Soft shutter release.
No Metering on Manual Mode.

Canonet QL17 GIII.
Mint, got it cheap, repaired the shutter via flood cleaning.
Pick of the litter for lens sharpness, as good as the Konica S2. I've gone through 15 or so GIII's, and three had lenses this good.

Minolta Hi-Matic 9. Bought new in 1969.
Very Sharp lens, meter stays on in manual mode
Long throw for shutter release.
Meter stays on, no off switch except to remove batteries

Konica S2. Sharpest lens and best viewfinder.
Meter stays on, no off switch except to remove batteries
Viewfinder is bright, and has parallax correction and framelines that change size to indicate the FOV.

Yashica Lynx 14e, Bought cheap- cleaned lens-fungus out "soon-enough", and fixed electrical.
Fast, somewhat soft around the edges wide-open.
Smooth, Short-throw shutter release
Big. So what. Not as big as a lot of cameras.
The beamsplitter was weak on two previous Lynx 14's. This one is perfect.

Ricoh 500- A gift from an RFF Friend. Got the shutter working after 5 attempts.
Really neat bottom advance, great workmanship, well-defined edges in the RF patch. Body shows Nikon S2 styling, fitted case is a copy of the M3 ever-ready case. An interesting camera.

Kodak Retina Auto III- just a well made camera with a still accurate Selenium Meter. Xenar lens.

Kodak Motormatic 35, zone-focus with projected symbols and framelines. Nice, contrasty Ektanar lens, Spring-drive film advance, still accurate Selenium meter.

I'm not putting the "folders" in this category, but have and use a Retina II with Ektar lens.


And of course, my Polaroid 180 is a fiixed-lens RF.

 

[NickTrop]

I'll contribute with a picture:

Fixed-lens RF rocks

With these two, all "yeah", no "boo".

Oooooh. Two nice'ns. I want your stinkin' cameras

 

[jayfixit]

Sell the lot and buy a decent camera. I've had half of them and would rather have almost any interchangeable-lens camera than any of them.

Cheers,

R.

That's kinda what my dSLR is for. The fixed lens rangefinder is great for a "I'm goin' out, I'll grab it and see what I get" camera. If it gets a bit damp in the rain, or bumped around....who cares?

Canonet QL-17 GIII - reasons stated above....Canolite D is a nice "set it and forget it" flash...plus people think it looks cool.
Canonet QL-19 GIII - same....but don't use now I have QL17...will likely sell.
Canonet Junior - bought for a buck, works perfect. No battery required. ASA 200....if it ain't bright, forget it (boo)

 

[Al Patterson]

Oh... and one more "PS". This collection cost me around $500-$600 including CLA and shipping costs. And that buys me what in "M" land??? A lens cap? A hood?

My CL cost $500, but let's not start the "Is the CL a real Leica" thread yet again. You might find a user M2 for $600 if you look hard enough...

I really like both the Canon QL17 GIII and the Yashica GSN, botn have nice sharp lenses, although the Summicron C for the CL is a tad better.

I also have an Argus C4 and a Konica Auto S2 that need some work before I can comment on them.
After seeing your Auto S3, I may have to get one of them at some point. It might be time to sell the backup CL body...

 

[Sonnar Brian]

My collection as listed ran me under $250. And that includes the $80 for the HM-9 bought new in 1969. Of course, I picked up a lot of these cameras in non-working and needs-TLA condition and could fix them myself.

My M2 with the CLA at Essex was $600, and the CL was much less. That does not stop me from grabbing a Canonet or spending several evenings reviving a Ricoh 500.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I'm an unabashed "bargain dweller" and like my fixed lens cameras. I would take any one of the fixed lens over almost any interchangeable lens RF. Note - the Zorki isn't a fixed lens but I only use one lens with it and don't intend to buy any others, so to me it is.

And "do" note what forum it is... the "Fixed Lens" forum.

Dear Nick,

Fair enough; I was a little testy, and your point about the forum is well and civilly made. I apologize.

The reason I made the comment, though, was that I had just been looking at a load of my own 'bargains' and reflecting that if I hadn't spent so much money on substantially interchangeable cameras of limited usefulness, and lenses that add nothing to my armoury, I'd be more able to afford some of the rather better kit that I actually wanted.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[NickTrop]

Dear Nick,

Fair enough; I was a little testy, and your point about the forum is well and civilly made. I apologize.

The reason I made the comment, though, was that I had just been looking at a load of my own 'bargains' and reflecting that if I hadn't spent so much money on substantially interchangeable cameras of limited usefulness, and lenses that add nothing to my armoury, I'd be more able to afford some of the rather better kit that I actually wanted.

Cheers,

Roger

No apologies needed, m'brutha.

I have more fun with a bunch of little toys than one "super duper" toy. The cameras I have are better than I am as a photographer anyway. And truthfully, in 35mm, I honestly don't see that whatever quality jump exists between something like a GSN, or (reportedly) Konica S2, or my S3 to the higer-end interchangeable lens cameras justifies the huge difference in expense.

I've got a good Sigma 24mm/2.8 in Pentax-K mount, which rates 4.4 on Photodo (and an okay 19mm Vivitar branded wide), a converted to K-mount 2/85 Jupiter 9 for portraits in 35mm. I use these on a compact Vivitar branded S3000 SLR when I want other focal lengths. I actually think (shreik) SLRs are better in this regard. I can't see how much better a RF 24mm - even a Leica, would be than the $60 Sigma 24mm I have. And that's born out in quantitative lens tests. And even if it is technically better in a lens test, would it really make much of a difference in the pics? I have a Summar - it would fail miserably in any lens test positioned against a competent modern lens. But I bought it for the unique way it "paints" images not because if has "superior coma" and can resolve "60" vs. "50" lpm at f2.8... or whatever.

I also perfer leaf shutters because I do use fill flash and they're quiter than most/all curtain shutters. I used RFs for candids and "general" purpose photography - and because I just like'em

Nick

 

[JeffGreene]

Nick:

My rangefinder fixed lens collection is below:

1. Konica Auto S2 (Purchased recently from Chuck Bettis of this forum after salivating over your Auto S3.) Taking it out today with some Tri-X. Hope to soup the results this evening.

Olympus:
35 SP
XA (My daily carry-about camera)

Yashica:
14e
Electro GSN X 2

Argus C2

Scale-focused cameras (I realize these don't really belong here, but I do use the Minox a fair bit)
Minox 35 GT
Nagel Vollenda

That's pretty much it! Your Iskra was really nice.

Respectfully,

Jeff

 

[raid]

Konica I,II, III, IIIM, Auto S, S2, S3
Yashica GSN
Minox GT
Olympus XA
Zeiss Contax T2 ==> very sharp lens 38mm/2.8
Yashica T2
Fuji Natura Black ==> very sharp lens 24mm/1.9
plus other cameras.

 

[JeffGreene]

Raid ? Konica III versus S2

Raid ? Konica III versus S2

I've followed your discussion of your Konica III's elsewhere. How do they compare lens-wise? As mentioned earlier, I just acquired a new S2 and am looking forward to using it today!