Jarvis
in quest of "the light"
Over the past weeks I had the opportunity to test 3 cameras, each from early morning until late afternoon. A friendly second hand photo shop her in Salzburg provided this great service.
As can be read in earlier threads on this forum I was interested in switching to Leica M, I also envisioned a Bessa 3R . What I was looking for was a camera which would give me the opportunity to fully manually operate, somewhat like the operation on my Hasselblad 503CX which I thoroughly enjoy, but is to bulky to lug around all of the time. Principally I was in the market for a 135 50mm setup. I contemplated 35mm, but 50mm suits my needs better, I have this “standard” lens vision in my head, I always shoor 80mm on hasselblad, although I have the 50mm as well.
My test procedure would include a standard delta 100 and 400 pushed to 1600 which I would develop myself, Provia 100 slidefilm and Fuji reala normal colour picture film.
My first day was spent with a relatively young M6 TTL and a standard 50mm summicron, the touch and feel was great, feels like solid engineering, taking the lens off and putting it back on again felt good and tight, the looks where good to and the handling was a bit fidgety for my huge hands. At first my first thought was to skip the other test and buy this directly, I’me glad I didn’t once I had to change the film, this is a hassle, no matter how one tries to compensate this action with numerous arguments that you’ll get use to it… it is a hassle. Secondly, compared to the other exposures I sincerely doubt that the shutter speed is accurate, this is particularly noticeable when using provia 100, B&W exposures were great I need to say, I was also confronted with a max shutterspeed of 1/1000 since it was a beautiful sunny day and I like to shoot at large app’s. Grey filters would do the job … but still….
A 1799€ cameraset with which I wasn’t completely pleased, but would do … Thinking whilst lying in my bed thinking about the events of the day that if the camera was called Canon for instance I would of passed it by immediately.
Second day was the bessa 3R test, I picked it up and put it down, simply doesn’t feel like a real camera compared to the leica anyway, but still I took it out and made the pics with a colour scopar lens, I must say the slides, film and B&w exposures impressed me, over the line as good as leica’s. But I wasn’t at all pleased with the touch and feel thing, I am a clumsy 6”10 guy with quite a bad hand-eye coordination, I will bump, bang and drop my camera multiple times and the Bessa according to my feeling would live up to that……
Absolute impasse, the Bessa was to flimsy, but good pics, the Leica to harsh and ancient….
The salesman at the shop came up with an alternative… Nikon FM3a with a 50mm 1,4 …. I took it out for the day, shot film, replaced fim and … the results were great, the touch and feel of the FM3a is great, the handling is great the exposures are different to the Leica ones but I like them… so instead of the rangefinder I ended up with the FM3a and 50mm 1,4 and best of all this was the cheapest setup … camera and lens in original packaging, 17 months old, not a mark on neither, B&W filter set Pol, UV, Sky, Red, Orange, Yellow, for 825€ … I am a happy man…… not only because of the FM3a but that I am cured of this Leica thing I had, all this camera has is the name and the looks…. certainly not the technology ……
As can be read in earlier threads on this forum I was interested in switching to Leica M, I also envisioned a Bessa 3R . What I was looking for was a camera which would give me the opportunity to fully manually operate, somewhat like the operation on my Hasselblad 503CX which I thoroughly enjoy, but is to bulky to lug around all of the time. Principally I was in the market for a 135 50mm setup. I contemplated 35mm, but 50mm suits my needs better, I have this “standard” lens vision in my head, I always shoor 80mm on hasselblad, although I have the 50mm as well.
My test procedure would include a standard delta 100 and 400 pushed to 1600 which I would develop myself, Provia 100 slidefilm and Fuji reala normal colour picture film.
My first day was spent with a relatively young M6 TTL and a standard 50mm summicron, the touch and feel was great, feels like solid engineering, taking the lens off and putting it back on again felt good and tight, the looks where good to and the handling was a bit fidgety for my huge hands. At first my first thought was to skip the other test and buy this directly, I’me glad I didn’t once I had to change the film, this is a hassle, no matter how one tries to compensate this action with numerous arguments that you’ll get use to it… it is a hassle. Secondly, compared to the other exposures I sincerely doubt that the shutter speed is accurate, this is particularly noticeable when using provia 100, B&W exposures were great I need to say, I was also confronted with a max shutterspeed of 1/1000 since it was a beautiful sunny day and I like to shoot at large app’s. Grey filters would do the job … but still….
A 1799€ cameraset with which I wasn’t completely pleased, but would do … Thinking whilst lying in my bed thinking about the events of the day that if the camera was called Canon for instance I would of passed it by immediately.
Second day was the bessa 3R test, I picked it up and put it down, simply doesn’t feel like a real camera compared to the leica anyway, but still I took it out and made the pics with a colour scopar lens, I must say the slides, film and B&w exposures impressed me, over the line as good as leica’s. But I wasn’t at all pleased with the touch and feel thing, I am a clumsy 6”10 guy with quite a bad hand-eye coordination, I will bump, bang and drop my camera multiple times and the Bessa according to my feeling would live up to that……
Absolute impasse, the Bessa was to flimsy, but good pics, the Leica to harsh and ancient….
The salesman at the shop came up with an alternative… Nikon FM3a with a 50mm 1,4 …. I took it out for the day, shot film, replaced fim and … the results were great, the touch and feel of the FM3a is great, the handling is great the exposures are different to the Leica ones but I like them… so instead of the rangefinder I ended up with the FM3a and 50mm 1,4 and best of all this was the cheapest setup … camera and lens in original packaging, 17 months old, not a mark on neither, B&W filter set Pol, UV, Sky, Red, Orange, Yellow, for 825€ … I am a happy man…… not only because of the FM3a but that I am cured of this Leica thing I had, all this camera has is the name and the looks…. certainly not the technology ……
T
Todd.Hanz
Guest
Congratulations on finding something that fit you, and at a better price! You can hardly go wrong with an FM3a combined with the 50 1.4.
Something to consider when it comes to limited shutter speeds is most model rangefinders only have a top speed of 1000, probably not a good choice if you shoot sports or use really fast film in bright sun. The benefit though is that they don't have a mirror so there is no mirror slap, which means you can handhold them at slower speeds, I have done this to 1/2 second when properly braced against a wall. Another idea is to use slower film (Acros 100) or pull the film (Acros 100 rated at 50-80 ISO) to get the shutter speed you want.
Another consideration you should make is the need for a CLA, many older cameras have been sitting on a shelve or have been used extensivley thus need some cleaning and calibration, this might be the case with the M6's shutter speeds.
I'm not knocking SLR's, I use a Nikon F with 50 1/4 that I bought from Brian Sweeney, a fellow RFF member, it's one of my favorite cameras (it's top shutter speed is 1000!), it's all about what works for you, good luck and congrats on your new cam.
Todd
Something to consider when it comes to limited shutter speeds is most model rangefinders only have a top speed of 1000, probably not a good choice if you shoot sports or use really fast film in bright sun. The benefit though is that they don't have a mirror so there is no mirror slap, which means you can handhold them at slower speeds, I have done this to 1/2 second when properly braced against a wall. Another idea is to use slower film (Acros 100) or pull the film (Acros 100 rated at 50-80 ISO) to get the shutter speed you want.
Another consideration you should make is the need for a CLA, many older cameras have been sitting on a shelve or have been used extensivley thus need some cleaning and calibration, this might be the case with the M6's shutter speeds.
I'm not knocking SLR's, I use a Nikon F with 50 1/4 that I bought from Brian Sweeney, a fellow RFF member, it's one of my favorite cameras (it's top shutter speed is 1000!), it's all about what works for you, good luck and congrats on your new cam.
Todd
MCTuomey
Veteran
Excellent choice. And a good story, thanks for sharing it. I like especially your apparent openness and objectivity. We all seem to forget that cameras are simply instruments that fit all of us differently. Good shooting!
R
ray_g
Guest
Thanks for sharing the story. Enjoy your new camera. Did you consider the Hexar RF? Sounds like the perfect "compromise" between the two RF's you tested. Just some food for thought...
peter_n
Veteran
Thanks for the post Jarvis! I still have my F3hp which is a really wonderful camera and I gave one of my kids an FM2 for a birthday present a couple of years ago. She loves that camera and I have to say I really like it too. Good luck with your new cam! 
N
Nikon Bob
Guest
I think your method to choose a camera that is right for you was a good one. I agree with your comments on film loading and shutter speeds and if I am going on a trip I might take my FM2n for those reasons. OTH my M4 just keeps growing on me, for other reasons, to the point where it is a toss up as to which I would use. You should get years of good service out of your FM3a, happy snapping in the future.
Bob
Bob