Help me focus my project - lens & finder for a If RD?

Ken Ford

Ken Ford

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Some of you may have seen my thread from the other day where I treated myself to a clean If red dial:

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I'm having fun deciding what I want to put on this body. It will hopefully be used as a semi-regular carry camera for my walks in town.

Not having a RF I feel it is best suited for a wide, but I'm also considering an Elmar 50. My original intent was to use a C-V click-focus 25/4 but the finder for these isn't the most durable. I thought about an ultra-wide, but I'd like something more versatile. A 24mm was my preferred walkaround lens for many years on a Nikon.

Any arguments for the choices presented? I'm not promising to follow the pack choice, but I'd love to hear what arguments are presented for various lens/finder combinations.

Thanks!
 
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try it with a 50mm Elmar or its FSU clones, and a SBOOI finder.
guess focusing a 50mm lens on a sunny day is very easy and accurate.
 
Ken Ford said:
Not having a RF I feel it is best suited for a wide, but I'm also considering an Elmar 50. My original intent was to use a C-V click-focus 25/4 but the finder for these isn't the most durable.
Click to expand...
Use the 25/4 lens anyway and use a different finder. You can make your own compact finder from a shoe (from a dead flash) and a door peephole. It won't be rectilinearly corrected, but with a little practice and/or a cutout mask it works surprisingly well. A friend uses one for his 21, and the peephole "finder" is very small, all-metal and quite durable 🙂

Or use a Helios finder (cheap, reasonably compact and durable) and a Jupiter-12 (excellent low-cost wideangle). You can get an excellent 35mm solution for under $50. The high-cost variant of this would be the Cosina 28/35 minifinder.

Philipp
 
The 28 Color Skopar with mini finder is a killer lens on any Barnack.
And on your camera, you have room for both finder and CV meter.

Roland.
 
In a recent thread, opinion was fairly evenly divided between 35 mm and 50 mm. In the absence of a range-finder, 35 mm wins. The SBLOO is an excellent finder, if you can get hold of one.
 
Ken Ford said:
I'm starting to lean to keeping this a period piece with either a 5cm Elmar and SBOOI or a 3.5cm Summaron and SBLOO...
Click to expand...

Yep, that`s the best thing to do........F3.5 50mm Elmar and SBOOI was the standard equipment plus a chrome FOKOS rangefinder (I think that`s what they called them?)
The IF RD is more a collectors item then shooter, I know they were crazy about these back in the 1990`s back in Europe, all the collectors wanted one, they are hard to find in good condition

Tom
 
Tom, I really enjoy the simplicity of a rangefinderless camera - my daily carry for almost five years when I worked in downtown Chicago was a nice Retina Ia stoked with XP2. Collectors be damned!

I became very proficient in estimating range with that camera...
 
The body showed up today - very, very nice. I'm about 99% sure it's going to be an early (A36) 3.5cm Summaron of the same vintage as the body and a SBLOO.
 
Finally managed to get out and test the If and Summaron at lunch today. I'm happy - the body functions property and the lens is a gem. I definitely need a hood, though!

Totally unexciting test shots:

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