Ever use your fixed-lens rangefinder to force yourself to see differently?

Hi !

I'm very new to rangefinders and even newer to analog film shooting.

Three years ago (I'm 40 years old now) I started with a simple digi cam and no photographic background at all.

After the simple 2 MP camera I stepped up the ladder with some Panasonic superzoom cameras (no need of walking, everything can be caught were you stand 😀 ), then the great Panasonic LC-1/Leica Digilux 2 (less zoom) and then a Nikon D50.
At first I bought many zoom lenses for the D50 (18-200, 70-300, etc.), but one day I got the cheap 50/1.8 lens and from that on I was hooked to primes.
Now I had to think before I took a picture 😱 !

And this helps me to get better in what I'm doing.

One day I noticed some old and odd looking cameras in a shop window and did a little research in the internet about that things.

Bad idea 😉 !!!

Thanks eBay I nowown about seven rangefinders (e.g. Canonet QL17 GIII, Revue 400 SE aka Minolta Hi-Matic 7SII) and three SRL's (one is a Revue AC-4 SP aka Chinon CP-6 SP) with only fast primes.

I have to admit that I use these analog cameras more and more and my digital gear just for occasions with many pictures to take.

Primes and rangefinders force you really to think about what you do.
For a newbie like me it was enlightened to learn with my rangefinders the meanings of ISO, DoF, the interaction between shutter speed and aperture, etc.

All this things meant nothing to me because my digital cameras did this things for me and all I had to do was pressing the shutter in the right moment 🙁

A few months ago I laughed about the silly idea of implementing a winding lever in a digital cam (Epson R-D1), but now I often find myself trying to pull the (imaginary) lever on my digitals :bang: 😀

Sorry for the long (and boring) story, but I'm really glad that I've found my way to analog rangefinders and hope to learn more and more from them.


Happy shooting,

Martin

BTW, is there some one with any experience with the Hewlett-Packard Scanjet G4050 for digitalizing my negatives ?
 
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Manie_de said:
I have to admit that I use these analog cameras more and more and my digital gear just for occasions with many pictures to take.

Primes and rangefinders force you really to think about what you do.
For a newbie like me it was enlightened to learn with my rangefinders the meanings of ISO, DoF, the interaction between shutter speed and aperture, etc.

<snip>

BTW, is there some one with any experience with the Hewlett-Packard Scanjet G4050 for digitalizing my negatives ?
Click to expand...

Martin, This is the disadvantage of analog cameras. There is the extra step of digitizing, unless you pay the extra to have them scanned at the time of development.

Now, I'm really going to rock your world. Stop messing around with digitizing (aside from the odd scanned print here and there, and get a basic darkroom set up. You have only truly discovered about half (maybe less) the joy of film photography until you develop & print your own stuff. This is not so practical with color, but a lot of us prefer B&W anyhow. If you're going primitive, you may as well do it right. 😀

To cap it all off, start mailing your prints to friends & family. (Mail? Gasp.)

If you haven't got one yet, get a yellow filter for your favorite B&W lens.
 
alcovia said:
What is the yellow filter for? Are there various types of yellow filters or just a standard one?
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Hi Sophia-- There is a progression of strengths from light to medium to dark yellow, yellow-green, yellow-orange, orange, red-orange, and reds. These filters and others darken their complementaray color. Yellow darkens blue, so is a favorite with B&W film to make white clouds stand out against a darker blue sky. It will also darken blue-sky-lit shadow areas. The deeper the yellow, the stronger the effect. Red has a very strong effect, often making a blue sky black.

You might scan the filter descriptions at http://www.bhphotovideo.com/, as there's a short commentary for each.
 
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