Disappointments

The only disappointments are those bits of kit I have never had the chance to use properly - a canon dial 35 hf what a wonderful thing but never had a real need to keep one I got from a car boot sale, a kiev 60 sitting in the garage right now but again with a mamiya 645 it has no place. Possibly the biggest disappointment is having a pentax km (the original) for a month only and only getting one role through it.

Those are the only reasons to be disappointed in the miraculous mechanical and even electronic wonders of optical thought that any camera is.

I bet Jacques-Henri Lartigue had so few disappointments
 
QUOTE Possibly the biggest disappointment is having a pentax km (the original) for a month only and only getting one role through it.QUOTE



Role??? which was that then, photographer??
 
All the various Kyocera Contaxes that I tried (loved the Yashica lenses I used on them).
Every 50mm lens I've had (wrong focal length for me), except the VC 50/1.5 which really did have that "magic".
Oh yes, put me down as old enough to have been snagged by that Zenit CX2 copy in the 80's - horrible lens!
Mamiya 645 upset me by curling the film if I didn't shoot the whole roll in one day but I enjoyed using it handheld with the WLF.

Cheers, Robin
 
Maybe it's because I'm young, but I don't think that I have ever parted with my money for any equipment that has left me disappointed. I would guess that it has slightly more to do with doing proper research and trying things out instead of just trying my luck with a current trend. That seems to happen a lot in the world of the enthusiast photographer.

I have bought bad records that way, on the strength of recommendation, but never any cameras or lenses.

It's also pretty hard to go wrong with manual Nikons and Leicas I guess, the Nikons in particular.
 
Tom A., regarding your lack lustre performance with the 90/2 AA, I suspect it might have been a focusing callibration issue. I've found the lens exhibits a slight focus shift from f2 to f/4 despite the AA designation. Surprisingly, Leica chose to apply a thin coat of black paint or laquer to it's rf cam's bearing surface against the roller. As as it wore off with use, the lens became a hair short of exact rf coincidence at infinity but as a result is extremely sharp at f/2 and f/2.8 due to the focus change in rf focus with paint loss on the cam. By f/4 and beyond sharpness is still quite high. The bottom line is that the rf callibration is extremely critical on this lens for optimal performance at f/2 and should be adjusted as such by running some bracket focus test shots.
 
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1. Leica Elmarit 28/2.8 ASPH. - I loved the size, 39mm filter thread and handling, but... the drawing was so "plastic" and oversharpened. Probably very good for digital, but not for film.

2. Soft Leica lens coatings (even now). It's unbeliavable how some very heavy used lens from other manufacturers have their coatings intact while some carefully used Leica lens always show pack of coating/cleaning marks. I don't understand this.
 
John Robertson said:
Leica Minilux, great lens, crap camera, now landfill minus lens now used as a magnifier!!
Fuji 645 "Professional" folder, don't get me started on this one!!!!:bang::bang:
Thats why I'm blowing rather cool about the new Bessa 111!!🙁
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Yeah...same headbanging with the Fuji folder for me. Took it on a once-in-a-lifetime trip. The frame counter broke. The frame advance broke. And the bellows developed holes. Sold it on to a guy who had another spares/repairs model, and he sent the two to a repair guy who created a nice working copy. I wouldn't trust them again, though.

Other disapointments (more circumstantial than relevant to the gear itself):
-Canon f/0.95 - the focus was out on the copy I bought, and there was an undeclared fungal growth
- Bessa T/Heliar 50mm 101 set - seller calimed 'as new' condition. Shutter dial was tarnished, wind crack scratched, lens filthy.
- Nikon F100 - great camera on paper, but not for me. By the time I bought it (last Sep), the idea of a fast, well speced SLR for film use seemed silly! Something like that seems made for a silicon sensor. A manual Leica seems made for film. Have only used it for two or three roles and will sell shortly.
- Kiev 88 - focus screen or focus mechanism was out. Couldn't get a thing in focus on film.

And nice surprises:
- Voigtlander 75mm f2.5 - what a corker at that price. Magical on the M8.
- Jupiter-8 50mm f2 - £10 for a look that good? Bargain.
- Zeiss Tevidon 25mm f1.4 - wide open and close up on the G1, this thing is a thimble-sized gem. Can't wait to stick it on that new E-P1.
- Yashica 24mm f2.8 - Why pay for the Zeiss 25 when the yashica is this good?
 
chris00nj said:
The subject of the thread is disapppointments, not regrets.
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Don't regret not sleeping with Sherry. The latest RFF poll clearly indicates that she was a disappointment.

As is my Finepix F30. I understand it's got a fine low light sensor (and I can video concert snippets- whee!), but aside from those situations, it's useless to me.
 
Two lenses that get millions of raves: the LTM coated 50mm Elmar 3.5, and the Nikon AF 35-70mm 2.8. The Elmar just never seemed that sharp, and the 35-70 was a flare factory. Maybe they were both out of spec lemons.

I also sold a Voigtlander 21mm 4 because it had quite significant light fall-off on the sides of the frames: that could have also been an interaction with the shutter on the Leica IIIf that it was used on. No matter, that's the only LTM camera I own.
 
A Leitz 100mm Apo-Macro 100mm Macro R lens in 1989 which had a great propensity for ghost images when used with B&W and Leica filters. So I p/x'd it for an M6 with 35mm Summicron 🙂 .

Cheers

dunk
 
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2 things...

1. The Olympus XA. Liked almost nothing about it. Go figure.

2. The M8 I recently purchased. I just don't love it, and for that kind of money, love should be included. Thinking of trading it for an MP. I'm quite surprised by this.
 
fdigital said:
Thats the first time I've ever heard anyone ever say anything that wasn't raving about that lens. The one I played with for a few hours was stunning....
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It's a great lens but it sure as hell isn't worth 1800$. For one, the MF handling SUCKS. FD design is preferable. 50/1.2L is another rip-off. Most of the AF Canon lenses are just overpriced.
 
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All digital point and shoots, most recently the Lumix Lx3 (I know its good - Just not good enough). Some button lag, fidly to hold, no memory of the lens position, and a tendency to make me shoot everything wide with boring results. I still own it.

Pentax K10D. Noisy sensor. Auto focus that never made up its mind and missed focus when it did. Big package, average images.

CV 50mm Heliar f/2.0. The collapsing thing was a joke. And like a lot of lenses it pales next to my 50mm Hexanon which I paid less for. The Heliar's "character" lost out.
 
leitz pradovit ca2500 - i don't get the hoopla, probably because i haven't compared it to other projectors.
50mm f1.4 nikkor ltm - optimized for wide open, minimum focus performance? not even! still, it has a nice look to it. actually, i like it a lot, even though it's a disappointment.
hexar rf - mine's been rock solid, but it just doesn't have that "little something". i'll finish paying for a leica mp in a few months, which will be good with 50mm lenses and longer.
35mm summicron asph: bokeh at f2...not so great.
rolleicord vb: didn't like the controls. replaced it with a 2.8e2, much better!
medium format in general: visible grain in areas that are out of focus, even on prints smaller than 8x10, when using iso 400 film. i must be doing something wrong...
 
Any Nikon SLR other than the F and F2 - build quality was just not as good as it should have been, especially when compared to Canon pre-'T' series SLRs.

Hasselblad metered prism - too much money and weight on an already perfect camera (500CM).

Hasselblad EL - too noisy and pointlessly slow winder.

FEDs, 2 through 5 - mildly let down - just not as much fun as a Leica Barnack. Same for the Zorki 4.

I do like the FSU glass even though I want to eventually 'trade-up' for Canon, Leica, Zeiss LTM.

On the Canon 85mm 1.2L, my FD lens was excellent and rarely let me down but I can't speak to the AF version.
 
For me... I could say...

1. My SLR Minolta stuff... I had a great XD-11 that the handling was lovely and after 3 months of fun the shutter exploded... All my Minolta lens was crap and the only thing I loved was a Sigma 28-70 2.8 zoom...very sharp and great boheh at 70 2.8... surprisingly... I've hated all my other lens; no character and the handling was just a pain.

2. The Contax 137 quartz. The Carl Zeiss 1.7 is a fantastic lens... One of the best I've played with...BUT.... the camera is really hard to use. No manual mode... I had to find a spot with the F-stop I've wanted to use and to literally lock to camera on it and after using the +1 - 1 EV.... my god.... But the lens... I'm in love 🙂

3. The industar 61 LD... The piece I've received from E-bay....was just a piece of junk... The focus was really loose when I've received it...so I've tried to help with my little screwdriver... When I've verify the aperture it had the lovely shape of a potatoe in a really bad mood.... The blades was oily...very oily.. After 3 weeks of non-using, the focus handle just wanted to die I guess so it just pop off the lens... really great... The focus was so hard... and on my M6.... my finger was to close to the finder.... god...

4. The Jupiter 8-1 .... It's a really great lens optically ... Very snappy and sharp pictures... BUT... A real pain to use. First, the apperture... NO STOP-CLICK... It means... you focus, change the apperture... you've moved the focus ring...focus again...my god... The focus ring is has to much range. I understand that a lot of precision is important... when you work in studio. My medium format stuff has this caracteristic. But this is a 50mm lens for a 35mm rangerfinder... No need to be that loose. On my 40 summicron, I only need to turn half the lens to focus from infinity to the closest range... Really easy... But on the Jupiter, I had to first look at my subject, guess a distance, put the correct range on the lens, look in the finder, finish the focus... Pain... but still a great lens.

5. The Hasselblad 501C... Am I going to say something again this beauty... Oh...yeah baby. I must say that I hate the plain ground glass... I need a microprism with a diagonal line to focus on those beast... And the one on the hassy are very pricey ...

6. Panasonic DMC-G1... Ok... I must say that I really hate full automatic and menu based complicated machine... This one is in that range... Even the seller was unable to answer my questions to do manual stuff. I've opened the menu...ok...right... right... This is really complicated to simply take a picture with that consumer camera! The magnificient finder... The one I've tried... Really really noisy... I've ask the seller : Is it possible to buy the camera without the piece of junk of lens? He said : No... I've heard this was a good entry to use Leica and of 39mm type lens on digital and nobody told me I had to take a degree before using it...

7. Every prosumer Digital camera... I'm sorry but I was disapointed with all the model I've tried... Sony Alpha...Nikon D50... Canon Rebel... Those camera have the look of a pro without the muscles. A camera, for me, must be easy to set; a menu for the quality of the file... and fairly intuitive... When you shoot, you don't need to search in the sub sub sub menu all the time... Also, the quality did not meet my standard... I am maybe a quality freak... but when you're used to Medium format and quality lens and film... you need to have minimum in digital photography. Almost all those camera had a very noisy shutter, even for SLR... I don't care if they can shoot 1k photo in 3 seconds... Too much plastic... And I also need to press 6 buttons at the same time to change the shutter speed... Am I an angry customer? Yes 😀

My favors goes more for the Canon 5D Mark II... Not a perfect one... but... a really great camera.
 
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