I "need" a new fixed lens compact RF.

[bscarr]

Hi,

Have you considered any of the following:

* The Cosina made Vivitar 35ES - or any of its re-badged variants (shutter priority, IIRC)

* The original Olympus XA - aperture priority and smaller than an Olympus 35RC

* Yashica Electro 35 again, aperture priority and a bit of a lump, even compared to an Olympus 35SP. Prices for these seem to have come down over past few months. They often succumb to an issue known as the "pad of death" which stops them from winding on, but its a well known problem and quite fixable.

I have all three of the cameras mentioned above and they all take great photos. If I were to pick one, it would be the Oly XA.

Cheers
Barry

 

[splitimageview]

There is an internet myth that the Vivitar 35ES is a clone of the Konica Auto S3 and/or the Minolta Himatic 7S II (or that they are all clones of each other coming from the same factory)...that is not the case. They are very similar but construction is entirely different internally.

I bought many fixed lens RFs and did a shootout among them all.

Manual operation with metering wasn't a factor so I can't comment on that.

Konica Auto S3
Minolta Himatic 7S II
Vivitar 35ES
Olympus 35SP
Olympus 35RD
Olympus 35RC
Canonet QL17 GIII

All of these turned out to be great performers, but the Auto S3 and the Canonet ended up tying for first.

I liked the S3 for the lens and the light weight, plus the super-smart fill flash; the Canonet for the beefy, solid build (and the cool black paint) and the best viewfinder (with parallax correction.)

As far as shutter priority is concerned, I just turn the shutter speed ring until the meter needle shows the aperture I want. 🙂 So it's really aperture priority, just disguised.

 

[agentlossing]

Ricoh 500G. Nice little camera, and mine has been dependable.

 

[CameraQuest]

hard to beat a Leica or Minolta CL with broken meter

and beat up LTM lens with adapter!

 

[wwfloyd]

„Budget“ and „RF“ don‘t seem words that go together well nowadays. Patience is the key. The Konica Auto S2 has a very good rf and is corrected for parallax error. The Hexanon is superb.

And, for a major bonus, the Auto S2 has a built-in sliding lens hood.

 

[Forest_rain]

Ricoh 500G. Nice little camera, and mine has been dependable.

Yes I'd like a 500g, but it seems like all of the ones on eBay are untested. I will have to keep my eye out for a good copy, or try to find one to repair.

Lens looks a little better than the 7s.

Actually I managed to service the shutter of my Vitomatic II, miraculously, it turned out to be fairly easy. Really well made camera. Seems to be better designed than the Zeiss Contessa series and easier to service and align the rangefinder.

I may buy another one of these as well and fix it up since I know how to service them now. Turned out to be more fun and less frustrating than I thought.

 

[Austintatious]

Originally Posted by agentlossing View Post
Ricoh 500G. Nice little camera, and mine has been dependable.

There are also re-badged copies of this camera. Vivitar and Sears both had them. Try looking for these as well. I had the Sears copy with a dead meter that was fine using a handheld meter.

 

[steveyork]

Post war Zeiss Ikon had some fixed collapsible. Coated tessars I imagine.

 

[Pál_K]

Yashica Lynx 14 or 14E, possibly?

F/1.4 lens, aperture and shutter dials on the lens. Battery needed for metering only. All manual operation. Parallax corrected rangefinder.

https://camerapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Yashica_Lynx_14

https://camerapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Yashica_Lynx_14E

 

[David Hughes]

I took the little solar panel out of a cheap calculator, one of those $5 drug store ones. Wired it into a Yashicamat LM. Had to adjust some resistors to get the response level and 'curve' somewhat accurate, but it worked. I mean, close enough for B&W outdoors, which is about what any 50 year old selenium is limited to these days anyway.

(compared to cheap toss-offs at Walmart, I don't think that the old film camera selenium cell replacement market is quite that big, eh?)

Hi,

I was thinking along those lines and then wondered if say a few hundred made for some specific camera would sell. I have my doubts individuals could do it without ending up like a lot of horrors on ebay...

And getting an expert to do a one off would end up with a frightening bill.

Regards, David


PS Remembering how TV's and radios were repaired many moons ago with a brass wire brush and elbow grease I wonder if taking a lot of cameras to bits and putting them back again without doing anything else would work, for a while. The CL's linkage comes to mind first.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

How about the Petri Color 35?

This model doesn't have a rangefinder but it does have a terrific scale focus system.
Distance set is read out directly in viewfinder by a needle along a scale.

This model has match needle manual exposure control only using built-in CdS meter.
Like most cameras of its time it was designed for a mercury cell.
Today a common 675 hearing aid battery can be used.

Here's Stephen's page describing this little beauty:

https://www.cameraquest.com/petri35.htm

Chris

 

[splitimageview]

hard to beat a Leica or Minolta CL with broken meter

and beat up LTM lens with adapter!

There is a lot to be said for this suggestion. 🙂

 

[benlees]

You're going to have to be flexible. You want compact, budget friendly, good lens, and unfiddly manual exposure with metering, in a fixed lens RF? Compromise on one or two of these things.



Have a look at the Konica C35 series. The Olympus XA is by far the best take anywhere compact RF.

 

[AlexBG]

Minolta AL-s or Minoltina fits what you need. Small and still good value. Sharp lens, battery for meter only.

 

[willie_901]

I agree with David Hughes. Unless you are lucky, any inexpensive fixed-lens 35mm compact RF will have issues. Often a simple repair will suffice. Some people are better at this than others.

I picked up a refurbished Canonet QL17 GIII. I shot a lot of film with it for about 18 months. During that time the RF mechanism became misadjusted and the electrical contacts became erratic. But Canonet showed me how well suited a RF camera is to my work. I replaced it with a Zeiss Ikon ZM.

Later I picked up an inexpensive, but cosmetically excellent, Yashica Electro 35 for a good price. As bscarr mentioned, my example was just beginning to develop the pad of death. So the good price actually was a bad price. Also the electrical contacts were flakey. I displayed it on a shelf for a while then I threw it away.

 

[Phil_F_NM]

What about something that is not disposable, like most fixed lens cameras? Along the lines of Stephen's suggestion of a dead meter CL or CLE, you could get a Nikon S2 with a 5cm f/1.4. A combination that could be used daily and easily outlive you. One more option to seriously consider.
Phil Forrest

 

[dourbalistar]

OP, looks like there might be some RF options for you in the classifieds:
https://rangefinderforum.com/photopost-classifieds/showproduct.php?product=56056

 

[Bingley]

Hi,

Have you considered any of the following:

* The Cosina made Vivitar 35ES - or any of its re-badged variants (shutter priority, IIRC)

* The original Olympus XA - aperture priority and smaller than an Olympus 35RC

* Yashica Electro 35 again, aperture priority and a bit of a lump, even compared to an Olympus 35SP. Prices for these seem to have come down over past few months. They often succumb to an issue known as the "pad of death" which stops them from winding on, but its a well known problem and quite fixable.

I have all three of the cameras mentioned above and they all take great photos. If I were to pick one, it would be the Oly XA.

Cheers
Barry

+1 on the Oly XA. Very nice lens in a camera that slips into a jeans pocket. Aperture priority metering is very accurate. And the shutter is nearly silent.

 

[BillBingham2]

Looking for a compact budget fixed lens rangefinder to complement my SLR. Interchangeable seems like it would be too expensive. Just a "carry everywhere" type camera.

Looking for manual exposure possibilities with metering.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

I'd like to avoid cameras older than the '70s or so. I haven't had good luck with shutter operation for older cameras and want something that will "probably work" with minimal fiddling, I'm getting tired of trying to repair my own stuff.

Have to second the recommendations for IIIc-ish and Konica S2 (stellar glass) from personal experience. I've always wished the Konica S3 had the same ability to manually control that the S2 had......

What about another SLR with a pancake lens?

If you can learn to love automation, I LOVED my GR1 years back. Slipped into freshly washed jeans front pocket with ease. Excellent glass, never had a picture out of focus and exposure with a bit of thinking on my part were spot on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricoh_GR_film_cameras

I have heard of the GR1v, but DAMM I NOW WANT ONE..... I've owned the GR1 (gravity sucks some times), the first digital GR and the GR III and loved everyone. I was shocked that the first digital wasn't as small as the film cameras, but none were back then, but it was close enough.

B2 (;-<

 

[Archlich]

Get something pre-1970. Usually a big larger but much better made than the Yashica Electro 35 series or one of the Cosina built small cameras (all of Konica C35, Minolta 7s, Revue, Vivitar, and more). Konica Auto S2 (plus the S1.6) is an excellent starting point.

Post-1970 Olympus and Canon cameras are fine though. Tough built and well featured.

The XA and Contax T are fine choices too but are more like point & shoot. Out of the two I'd choose the T for the better lens.