Half-frame Rangefinders?

The only one that I know is the Pen-FT. Your post made me look it up on eBay - one going in 14 mins. for $27!! 🙁 🙁 I loved that little camera way back when but I was never able to own one. Now they're going for next to nothing...
 
I don't think any of them came with triangulation rangefinders except for the specialty Leicas which used regular production Leica bodies as their base. Most were scale focusing. Some like the Canons had zone focusing scales in the viewfinders. The Konica Auto Reflex, Alpa, and some special purpoase Exas as well as the Olympus F and FT were of course SLR's, and Konica also made an autofocus called the AA35.

There is the matter of the Yashica Samurai. I'm not sure whether it was autofocus or SLR. Does anybody know?

-Paul
 
pshinkaw said:
I don't think any of them came with triangulation rangefinders except for the specialty Leicas which used regular production Leica bodies as their base.
-Paul
Click to expand...

Don't forget the super-rare Nikon S3M, likewise based on a full-frame body.
 
pshinkaw said:
There is the matter of the Yashica Samurai. I'm not sure whether it was autofocus or SLR. Does anybody know?

-Paul
Click to expand...

I've got a yashica Samurai that I tried to give away but nobody wanted it. It's an autofocus SLR with a zoom in around the 35/70 range (35mm equivilent). It has a built in flash and is program only exposure. It looks kinda like a small video cam and is really easy and kinda fun to use. My local lab puts two pictures on one 4 by 6 photo. Having 48 shots per roll can be great but I usually don't use them all and take a few quick shots of my dogs just to use up the roll.
 
Forgot about that one. I gues it's just the Leica's and Nikon's then.

-Paul
 
That Ducati must be pretty rare.

I use up film on my dog too. He's pretty tired of it. He doesn't run away, but he frowns at me.

Actually a Samurai that works is pretty rare. Almost every one I've seen on e-Bay has been broken.

I used to request that the processor print two 3.5 X 5 prints on on one 5X7. It cost a little more but I got pictures that would fit in albums and frames without squinting too hard.

-Paul
 
How about the Zeiss Ikon Tenax II?

How about the Zeiss Ikon Tenax II?

Hi there,

what about the Zeiss Ikon Tenax II? Looks like a pretty impressive camera and shoots 24mm x 24mm....I think....even has interchangeable lenses and quite simply looks HOT!
 
The Tenax II is pretty cool, but most of us consider 24x24mm to be different from "half frame" (nominally 18x24.) If you're going to count the Tenax, then you'd have to include various 24x24 Robots, too...
 
Re: How about the Zeiss Ikon Tenax II?

Re: How about the Zeiss Ikon Tenax II?

Yes, the Tenax II is tres cool (I have 2 w/the 4cm/2 Sonnar), but as jlw points out, they're really more 2/3rds -frame . . .

akalai said:
Hi there,

what about the Zeiss Ikon Tenax II? Looks like a pretty impressive camera and shoots 24mm x 24mm....I think....even has interchangeable lenses and quite simply looks HOT!
Click to expand...
 
YEAH BUT...

YEAH BUT...

...the Robot isn't a range finder camera. 😉

OK well enough of being a smart ass, no I just really like the look of the Zeiss Tenax and if I could both afford one and justify owning it I would.....does anyone on here actually own one? And what about the rare wide angle lenses for it.....anyone ever seen them or used them? I just think that if you could get a good considtion example it would be a real contender to my Rollei 35 (all be it in a slightly smaller format, but I love the SQUARE format anyway....)

OK well thanks for the info anyway, chat soon, AKALAI
 
Chris got any more info?

Chris got any more info?

Hey there Chris,

I posted my last response before seeing yours....

Have you ever seen the wide angle lenses for the Tenax II or used the wider angle lenses...I am really curious. I think I saw a pic where one had a small accessory viewfinder mounted now that is TRES COOL!
 
That Ducati is pretty nifty! I hadn't realized there had been any coupled-RF cameras created for the half-frame format. My third or fourth camera was a Petri Half-7, simple viewfinder and AE operation. Later I had an Olympus Pen D2 which I traded in on the 35RC that was only a tiny bit larger, shot full-frame, and DID have a coupled RF. And I think that pretty much points up the reason for the decline of half-frame.
 
Re: Chris got any more info?

Re: Chris got any more info?

No, I've never seen the 2.7cm/4.5 Orthometar or
7.5cm/4 Sonnar for the Tenax II, outside of books, although I have seen the Tenax w/the 4cm/2.8 Tessar on eBay. I'm not sure that anyone on the Zeiss Ikon Collectors Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZICG/) has even seen 1!

BTW, Mike Elek, who often posts on the photo.net "Classic Cameras" forum, has a Tenax which he restored himself & has written a nice article on his site: http://host.fptoday.com/melek/zeiss/tenax_ii.html

I agree w/Mike that the Tenax is not only a neat industrial design (by the great Hubert Nerwin, see http://www.zeisshistorica.org/Nerwin cameras.html) & cool-looking, but also a really nice shooter in the field. The shutter/advance lever works well, the Sonnar is a good performer (just like the 5cm/2 for the Contax), & the focus lever is convenient (if you like focus tabs). 1 nice feature that Mike doesn't mention is that the Tenax actually has a true life-size (1.0x) finder, which is pretty rare in RF cameras (I can only think of the full-frame Canon P & Nikon S2).

akalai said:
Hey there Chris,

I posted my last response before seeing yours....

Have you ever seen the wide angle lenses for the Tenax II or used the wider angle lenses...I am really curious. I think I saw a pic where one had a small accessory viewfinder mounted now that is TRES COOL!
Click to expand...
 
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