Digital rangefinder

You are missing the juiciest part ... it is clearly not the old film shooting Yashica Electro camera but some new concoction.

Possibly a digital fixed lens camera on the lines of the Fuji X100f or even if wishful thinking is at play, an FF digital mirrorless camera with a native M mount.

You could well be right, I thought it was just a mockup.

If it is an interchangeable mirrorless with M mount I will be very happy to be proven wrong, especially if it's cheaper than the Sony A7.
 
I am interested in adding a digital rangefinder to my fleet. What are the members experiences with the Fuji X100 series cameras? I want a body with interchangeable lens.

I tried the X100T and returned it. I didn't like the ergonomics. I don't use my X-Pro1 much anymore, but it always felt pretty M-like to me. If I were you, I'd look at the X-Pro2.

But considering you might need a few Fuji lenses, a used M240 might not cost much more. There are a few on my local craigslist for well under $3K.

John
 
Basically the Epson was a Bessa camera with the electronics and sensor of the Nikon D100 shoehorned inside. The only reason it could work was the crop factor of the sensor, thereby avoiding most of the incidence angle problems at the edges and corners.
I very much doubt whether it has any development potential, given that the donor cameras have been discontinued very long ago.

If Nikon could resurrect the SP in 2005 ( from scratch. BTW), a camera that will be celebrating its original 60th birthday this week, Epson or Cosina or who ever wants to buy the rights to it can do a FF EVF version of the R D1

Maybe leave just 10% of the original in place or less for nostalgia value or instant retro . Sensor technology has improved in the last decade and we don't know whats up their sleeve and new players could have joined in by now even Chinese ones.
 
Every range finder and camera with a coupled range finder I have ever used involves a couple of images being merged. Do all these suggested cameras do that, apart from the M's and the Epson/Bessa?

Just asking as I am curious about what people call a range-finder these days...

Regards, David
 
Every range finder and camera with a coupled range finder I have ever used involves a couple of images being merged. Do all these suggested cameras do that, apart from the M's and the Epson/Bessa?

Just asking as I am curious about what people call a range-finder these days...

Regards, David

I think "rangefinder like" is the new catch phrase (RFL) is what is used in describing cameras like the Fuji X Pro 2 and the X100f.

That way they are not incorrect and on safe ground.
 
Every range finder and camera with a coupled range finder I have ever used involves a couple of images being merged. Do all these suggested cameras do that, apart from the M's and the Epson/Bessa?

Just asking as I am curious about what people call a range-finder these days...

Regards, David

Just such a thing that looks like a Leica or other oldschool stuff :D

Seems like it is more important what it looks like than what it does or is...
 
I say save your money and buy one of the newer Leica digital Ms if that is what you are looking for. It is really the only suitable candidate. The others are fine cameras but they are not rangefinders, just wannabes using hype, technology and styling to try and recreate the experience.

It is the only digital camera that I own, besides the Canon 5D, that I can work with for any length of time and not get frustrated.

If you can't bring yourself to cough up that kind of money then just use a film rangefinder and scan the results.

Of course, you may not really want a rangefinder at all and will be perfectly happy with the mirrorless options. A lot of people seem to like them.
 
I say save your money and buy one of the newer Leica digital Ms if that is what you are looking for. It is really the only suitable candidate. The others are fine cameras but they are not rangefinders, just wannabes using hype, technology and styling to try and recreate the experience...

I agree. For me, rangefinder focusing is a small part of the experience of using an M. It's more the minimalism and simplicity combined with the solid build, bright VF and framelines, small, tabbed lenses, and great manual focusing. You're right that there is no current digital equivalent.

John
 
Word on the street has it that the new Yashica will be a Yashicamat 124-D.
Yup, the world's first digital TLR.

(and then I wake up)
 
Word on the street has it that the new Yashica will be a Yashicamat 124-D.
Yup, the world's first digital TLR.

I'm still waiting for the world's first digital folding camera.

Lets go real minimal. Make it scale focusing!
 
I think "rangefinder like" is the new catch phrase (RFL) is what is used in describing cameras like the Fuji X Pro 2 and the X100f.

That way they are not incorrect and on safe ground.

Hi,

My thoughts too, but they really mean "not an SLR" NSLR...

Regards, David
 
Hi,

My thoughts too, but they really mean "not an SLR" NSLR...

Regards, David

As someone just stated, they really mean styled like a classic M Leica.

So if it is a mirrorless digital camera that somewhat has the body line styling of a Leica M2 or M3 but with no real optical RF and a EVF or even no EVF, just back screen everything then they mistakenly call it an RF camera.

With that criteria my late parents early 1960s Anny 44 camera would be called an RF camera, which it was not, but it was styled like a mini Leica M3, and took 127 roll film.
 
If Nikon could resurrect the SP in 2005 ( from scratch. BTW), a camera that will be celebrating its original 60th birthday this week, Epson or Cosina or who ever wants to buy the rights to it can do a FF EVF version of the R D1

Maybe leave just 10% of the original in place or less for nostalgia value or instant retro . Sensor technology has improved in the last decade and we don't know whats up their sleeve and new players could have joined in by now even Chinese ones.
I shudder at the cost. No only the R&D to resurrect the camera, the complete tooling up for a product that will only be small series, getting a sensor designer and maker to do a small-run RF suitable sensor (FYI, Leica orders tens of thousands dedicated sensors, at a cost - to Leica- of 1800 Euro each). At a conservative guess, such a camera would cost more than half as much, if not double, the price of an M10.
And being an EVF camera, there will be plenty of competition, like the Leica SL, the Sony R series, etc.

The Nikon SP of 2005 was a film camera, not a digital, and it was more expensive than a Leica M7...
 
I shudder at the cost. No only the R&D to resurrect the camera, the complete tooling up for a product that will only be small series, getting a sensor designer and maker to do a small-run RF suitable sensor (FYI, Leica orders tens of thousands dedicated sensors, at a cost - to Leica- of 1800 Euro each). At a conservative guess, such a camera would cost more than half as much, if not double, the price of an M10.
And being an EVF camera, there will be plenty of competition, like the Leica SL, the Sony R series, etc.

The Nikon SP of 2005 was a film camera, not a digital, and it was more expensive than a Leica M7...

Yes I know the 2005 SP was a film camera, and Nikon had to make that from scratch and nothing from the original was available not even a body part making die. That was a remarkable feat and it would never be a cheap camera as neither was the original in 1957.

Sensor technology would get cheaper with passing time, right now a Sony A7 body can be bought new for 900 dollars but it does not come with a native M mount like say the Epson R D1 did.
 
Wait for the Yashica new camera that will be announced in October. Maybe it is a rangefinder, or at least X100 type of "rangefinder".

I'm hoping that it will be an optical viewfinder, nice fast lens, and simple controls (read limited). Yes the Fuji X100 finder is wonderful, but I'm ok with a simple optical viewfinder (with parallax correction please). I'd love to see it with a 1:1 view, but I fear it's too much of a stretch. October it's too far off.

B2 (;->
 
Yes I know the 2005 SP was a film camera, and Nikon had to make that from scratch and nothing from the original was available not even a body part making die. That was a remarkable feat and it would never be a cheap camera as neither was the original in 1957.

Sensor technology would get cheaper with passing time, right now a Sony A7 body can be bought new for 900 dollars but it does not come with a native M mount like say the Epson R D1 did.
Nor does it come with a sensor that performs optimally with rangefinder lenses, especially legacy wideangle ones. A dedicated small-series sensor like on the M and SL would come at more than double the street price of the camera. Add a rangefinder, which costs about 1000 Euro to build, and the Leica M starts looking cheap... ;)
 
I'm hoping that it will be an optical viewfinder, nice fast lens, and simple controls (read limited). Yes the Fuji X100 finder is wonderful, but I'm ok with a simple optical viewfinder (with parallax correction please). I'd love to see it with a 1:1 view, but I fear it's too much of a stretch. October it's too far off.

B2 (;->

Looking at the camera in the video (and pausing) it doesn't look like it has an optical viewfinder. No light passing through it when it is sitting on the ledge. It also has a film advance lever and the rewind dial actually looks like it has a fold out handle. Of course this may be a total fake body, the model doesn't bring it to her eye the same way. One place looks like the finder is on the extreme left of the body, another place it looks centered.

My somewhat wacky prediction... a 35mm film camera with a smallish integrated digital camera using the window above the main lens as the digital camera and perhaps an EVF for framing/playback. Target the hipsters shooting film that also wants to quickly post to social media.


Shawn
 
I have a feeling many people are going to be very disappointed by this Yashica... even if it looks like the camera at the 7 second mark. No offense Paul T, but why would Yashica offer a camera with a M mount?
 
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