Hall of underrated cameras

Have to second this, owned an AF-C for a while in the 90's and have regretted giving it up ever since. Relatively hard to find though, at least in Canada, especially with the flash intact.

valdas said:
I have just picked Minolta AF-C for 2 EUR. Well, i read in reviews that Yashica T4 is sharper, but I am not that convinced, at least the difference is not that huge (especially compared to price difference).

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Trius said:
Mike: I curious as to why you prefer the Yashica over the Spotmatic. At some point I would like to have a M42 body, just haven't gotten around to it.
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I like the placement of the meter switch, it seems more intuitive to me. And the LED "over-under" arrows make it much easier to read the meter in low light. Plus, the stepless shutter gives it an edge for me.

But there is a caveat. It is much easier to find a Spotmatic with working electronics, and the Yashica is a paperweight when the electronics fail, as the shutter is electronically controlled, while the Pentax will work fine as a non-metered manual camera.

So far, my ratio is about 50/50 on finding working TL Electro X cameras.
 
PAN F said:
Build quality is superb, lens is superb and the Vito III is so compact to carry being a 35mm folding rangefinder camera.I just drop it into a simple CCS slim waterproof carry case and off I go to enjoy my days photography outing. Photography couldn't be more simple and enjoyable.
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That's exactly why good quality 35 folders from the Fifties still enjoy a devoted following. Prices of IIc, IIIc and IIIC Retinas in good working condition, not to mention the very Vito III, are rising and real bargains are getting harder to find.
 
Most underrated, overlooked of all the fixed lens 35mm rangefinders:

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NickTrop said:
Most underrated, overlooked of all the fixed lens 35mm rangefinders:

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I definately agree. I handled once a nice one that belonged to the passed father of a friend and was quite impressed with the build quality and the ergonomics. Not easy to find though... At least, not in the big auction site.
 
I'm not sure if this counts as an underrated camera... but it's certainly underrated in relation to it's successor.

I picked up an original Olympus Mju/Stylus for about $5 on ebay (living in Canada, I was not eligible for free states side shipping and had to pay $10 for international shipping across the U.S. border). Nobody else bid on the camera. I'm sort of convinced that nobody bid on it because everyone was looking for the Mju-ii, which I've seen go for $175 on ebay... or anywhere from $30-100 (depending on condition) on the classifieds.

For $5 (or $15 if you're not from the states)... what it lacks from the Mju-ii, namely the spot metering and the 1/3 stop in aperture size, seems rather... insignificant, especially when you compare the price tags ($5 to at least $30... or even $100).

The lens is sharp, autofocus is fast, I prefer the ergonomics... and it takes photos like this:

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Been quite a while since I've posted so I'll chime in with ...
the super ricohflex
And
the Mamiya ze's
the ze series eats batteries, locks up, but produces some absurdly good images
Really, nothing to fault with any of the lenses I have tried and I have tried many and for the price you can get them for they may as well be disposable.
 
I picked up a contaflex slr with a fixed 40
Tessar lens for 35€ at a street market in Brussels in the summer. It has astounded me. Seriously underrated. Compact, contrasty and characterful,
 
dotur said:
Voigtlander Vito B.
The best mechanical compact ever. Superb chrome, excellent optics, simple and reliable.
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These make fantastic street cameras because they fit in the hand so well. And lets face it, you have to zone focus a lot of the time for street shots anyway.

For under rated SLR's, almost any manual focus Minolta. Most of them are very tough cameras, especially the SRT's.
 
PAN F said:
Getting on in age I find that I cannot carry a load of photo gear so have limited myself to my all time favourite film camera the classic 1950's "Vito III" coupled rangefinder with f2 Ultron lens in Synchro-Compur shutter. Build quality is superb, lens is superb and the Vito III is so compact to carry being a 35mm folding rangefinder camera.I just drop it into a simple CCS slim waterproof carry case and off I go to enjoy my days photography outing. Photography couldn't be more simple and enjoyable.
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Just stumbled across a Vito III for sale today. Decent enough detail I can probably sell it for parts if it doesn't work but hopefully its in good shape as I'd like to try one. I have a Retina IIIc which is a great compact camera and I'm curious how the Vito compares.
 
Midwinter said:
Been quite a while since I've posted so I'll chime in with ...
the super ricohflex
And
the Mamiya ze's
the ze series eats batteries, locks up, but produces some absurdly good images
Really, nothing to fault with any of the lenses I have tried and I have tried many and for the price you can get them for they may as well be disposable.
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yeah always overlooked and that is a good thing..4x ZM bodies, 1x ZE2, 1.7 50/ 2.8 135 /4.0 300 / 3.5 28 and a good 80-200 all got for the price of a beater F3 body. The lock up is usually fixed in about 2 minutes...keep it to your self though😉
 
Okay, I'll go with one from out of the blue...The Vivitar SLR's.
The 200/SL to 420/SL are all pretty cheap on Ebay and are good walking around camera because they will take a great deal of abuse. The 450/SLD has a nice spot or averaging metering system and is generally pretty cheap on Ebay.

The later XC series is also very nice....nearly the same size and weight as an OM-1. The XC-3 and XC-4 are cool,but the very rare XC-2 with spot or averaging metering is very nice-and I get a kick out of the add-on automation with the XC-A adapter.

I also think the Chinon CE Memotron (CE & CE-II) and it's clones (GAF LE-S & LE-S II) never got the respect they should have. I mean, come on...auto exposure with ANY M42 lens !
 
Retrotech68 said:
I definately agree. I handled once a nice one that belonged to the passed father of a friend and was quite impressed with the build quality and the ergonomics. Not easy to find though... At least, not in the big auction site.
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This camera (Fujica Compact Deluxe) is my first rangefinder. It was given to me by a very kind member of this forum. I used it to shoot my first roll of film in 20 years... but not my last. The results were fantastic!!!.

--
Bill
 
Brian Legge said:
Just stumbled across a Vito III for sale today. Decent enough detail I can probably sell it for parts if it doesn't work but hopefully its in good shape as I'd like to try one. I have a Retina IIIc which is a great compact camera and I'm curious how the Vito compares.
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For what its worth, I have a Vito II which I like very much (although quite different apparently than a III). The Color Skopar lense on my Vito is good enough for my purposes but not nearly as sharp as the Schneider lense on my Retina IIc.
 
yes, the fujica line, 605, 701, 801 and yes konica AR, B U T

i think the most overlooked camera without doubt, especially on this forum, is the ricoh gxr m mount. this camera is simply superb in every way, an M/m39 lens owners digital wet dream. unless youre buying into leica multithousand dollar digicams, i just dont understand why you dont have one of these to shoot your leica glass. sure some folks here use it, but when you see the gobs of gook poured over the xpro (a great camera, no doubt) and the sony nex line, and the real paucity of discussion about the gxr, which when couped with leica glass is everything a digi shooter could want and more, i'm left to scratch my head. if you want to digitally shoot leica glass and cant afford/dont want an M9, you SHOULD have a gxr! and btw, the articulating evf is a streetshooters best friend.
tony
 
Hi,

Konica A4 anyone? Or Minolta Riva Mini? Or Olympus XA1, XA2 or XA3?

All dirt cheap as they are overshadowed by others.

Regards, David
 
MrFujicaman said:
I also think the Chinon CE Memotron (CE & CE-II) and it's clones (GAF LE-S & LE-S II) never got the respect they should have. I mean, come on...auto exposure with ANY M42 lens !
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The Yashica AX claimed this as well. OK, almost any M42 lens, except those pesky Yashinon DX lenses ... sigh. No wonder it was a disaster. The Chinons have always intrigued me.
 
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