Konica Auto S S2 S3 or ...

S

shutterfiend

cheap and lazy
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This GAS is getting progressively worse. I'm toying with the idea of getting yet another one of these fine pieces of machinery. Here's the tough decision.

Konica Auto S or S2 or S3 or... (I'm not sure which one's more desirable)
Canon Canonet GIII QL17 or
Olympus 35 SP or
Minolta 7sII

The six odd "or"s that I had use have taken a lot out of me. I can't even justify the purchase of any one of these cameras. So please help this poor soul make a decision or persuade him to invest his funds elsewhere.
 
Of the cameras you've mentioned (some of which I have, some of which I'd like to own), here's how I'd break it down, in order of desirability:

Olympus 35 SP - all around great camera, great lens, easy to use, spot metering. Sadly, I don't have this one

Konica Auto S2 - amazingly sharp lens, camera is shutter priority and offers fully manual settings. Sample Auto S2 photos

Canonet GIII QL17 - I know of few people who own this camera who don't love it. Great lens, very compact design. Can shoot shutter priority with the excellent built-in meter or fully manually. Sample Canonet GIII QL17 Photos

Minolta 7S-II - Also a nice camera, very compact and the glass is excellent; however, it's a bit small and fussy with the controls. Viewfinder seems more difficult to read the meter/rangefinder patch than with other cameras I own. Sample 7s-II Photos

Notice how the one I rate highest is the one I don't have? That's GAS talking, baby! ;)
 
There is no "all including perfect camera". But almost every camera suits better than other certain tasks. So if you would like to describe what you would like the camera for, then the thread will be better taylored to your needs. Don't be shy.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
Juan, that was a very informative breakdown. I'll have to take a look the pictures when I get home. Flickr is blocked at work. !@#$ing secuity. I wonder if there's therapy for GAS. If not, a class action against evilbay.
 
Ruben, are you really in Jerusalem? That place must be a photographer's haven. I'd love to go there someday, im yitrzeh hashem. Everybody around me believes I have too many "junk" cameras already.

Himatic 7s (x2), Electro CC, GSN, Lynx, K1000, OM-2n, Stylus Epic and last but not the least Rollei 35S!!!

I probably don't "need" another camera per se. But that's like telling my 2 year old that he doesn't need another toy. The only positive aspect of all this is that it forces me to expose a few test rolls for every camera I purchase.
 
BTW, I like taking pictures of people doing various things. I get angry looks and birdies. With family I get poses. So I take pictures of kids playing. I have 3 kids. I have to make sure they're around so parents are not freaked out by some weird bald middle aged man taking pictures of their kids. Kids are good subjects. They ignore cameras. I like big-cities too. But getting interesting pictures in a big city is not much of a challenge. I like challenges. Like taking pictures at a farm (I don't like landscape).
 
How big are your hands? If you are like me, ham fisted with sausage fingers, bigger cameras some times feel better.

The Konica Auto S2 has parrallax compensating frame lines, is almost the same size as your GSN, and has an annoying "sand in the gears" sounding winding mechanism. Very clear view finder and great lens.

Canon QL-17 G-III (I wish they had put a few more characters and numerals in the name so it would take longer to type) smaller than the GSN, but larger than the Rollei 35S. I like the Canon QL-17 G-III well enough, but changing settings can be a bit annoying. I own 5 or 6 of them.

Minolta 7 S-II -- Can't say yet as the mail man has not arrived with mine.

Olympus 35 SP _ Can't say yet, I keep getting outbid.

Wayne
 
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Wayne, 5 or 6 GIIIs! Fascinating!

I'm fairly small, 5'8''. The Rollei fits just fine. It's a great camera. I got it recently. Light meter doesn't work. I'm not done with the test roll yet. The primary drawback is zone focus. I'm not good at that yet. I really like its all manual functions. I miss that on my CC.

The GSNs pretty chunky. The Auto S2 looks smaller in pictures. The Auto S3 looks like it could be the size of a CC. The Canon looks like it's the size of a GSN. I'm so off.
 
The Canon GIII-QL17 is a bit smaller than my Oly 35SP. My Koni S2 is the same size as my GSN.

So size wise, it's GIII-QL17 then Oly 35SP then Koni S2. All 3 are sharp, but the Koni S2 has the best viewfinder. I also have a Koni Auto S, same size as the S2.
 
The Konica S and S2 are nice cameras, especially the S2. It's a size bigger than the others listed and to my mind, not quite as desirable. (I own a variant of the S2.)

I've owned the S3 and the Canonet GIII - I loved the S3, but sold it because people were paying insane prices on ebay for them. (Sold it for $294 in 2003. The S3 was nice, the $294 was nicer.)

My favorite was the GIII - I bought one from Brian Sweeney. It was the nicest compact rangefinder I've owned. Felt like it was made to a higher standard than the Konicas with a wonderful lens.

Can't help with the Minolta - have never owned, used or even seen one.
 
I have used an S2 quite often with excellent results. I like the fact that it can be manually controlled. Its lens is of a very high optical quality. Its size is large enough for a man with big hands. I just got an S3 as gift from someone on PN! What a nice gesture. I need to take photos with the [smaller] S3 to see how the two models compare. The S3 does not have manual exposure control. I have an S but I broke it before using it once.

Raid
 
Juan, those are great photographs. I liked the way you've used the canon's sharpness and the konica nice bokeh.

John, the Canon does seem to have a nice sharp lens. $294 can get me 5 or 6 of them (trying to catch up with Wayne)

Thank you all for your help.
 
Actually $294 would buy 15 of the QL-17's for what I paid for them. I was on a streak a few years ago when the most I paid was $17.50. Then the QL-17 became popular and Good-Bye Good Buys!:)

Wayne
 
Where to start here?

Canon GIII: Had one a long time ago (black, with the correct lens hood; never mind what clean S3s fetch on the 'Bay...it's chump-change next to what this combo would get now). Very good camera.

Konica Auto S2: Again, very good, but heavier than my Hexar RFs, and no smaller, for certain, which for a fixed-mount camera never quite sat right with me.

Konica S3: Love it. Yes, framelines are non-parallax-coupled, but this hasn't been a liability for me. Fairly compact and light, which does matter to me. Killer lens. Great GN-based flash setup. Shutter-priority only, but again, not a liability in my eyes (I shoot with my Hexars in aperture-priority AE mode 75% of the time). Generally worh the sometimes-silly money asked for one on That Auction Site (I paid $155 for one there last year, so it can be done).

Provided you come across a reasonably clean and properly-working example, you can't go too wrong with any of the cameras recommended here thus far (and I'll put in a good word for Minolta's Hi-Matic 7 series as well). But I love that S3.


- Barrett
 
Oh, so the S3 doesn't have an all-manual mode like the S2. There's another reason to like the GIII. I like my Electro 35 CC, but it aperture-priority only. Thanks Barrett.

$17.50 for a G!!! I don't even need an authorization for that one. Simply need to go hungry one afternoon. But alas, can't turn time back. I'll have to settle for 2-3 famished afternoons instead.
 
All of these cameras used to be pretty cheap - Canonets used to litter tables at camera shows for $10. Then, I remember a thread on popphoto's website extolling its virtues, (thousands of responses to it), and then a follow up article in either Pop Photo or Shutterbug and Canonet prices went crazy.

Back then, if CameraQuest or Matt Denton put the seal of approval on a camera, the value went up straight away.
 
shutterfiend said:
Oh, so the S3 doesn't have an all-manual mode like the S2. There's another reason to like the GIII. I like my Electro 35 CC, but it aperture-priority only. Thanks Barrett.
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As far as "full-manual" exposure control goes, I think it's all relative. The S3 isn't my Main Axe for photography (my Hexars take up that mantle), but I take all my cameras seriously when I'm out with them, and I haven't felt the S3's AE "limitation" to be a hindrance. Remmeber, you can always bias the meter by way of the ASA/ISO dial if necessary. And I've yet to blow a shot with the S3 because I couldn't go full-manual with it.

$17.50 for a G!!! I don't even need an authorization for that one. Simply need to go hungry one afternoon. But alas, can't turn time back. I'll have to settle for 2-3 famished afternoons instead.
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This stuff isn't worth taking a vow of poverty for: you just need to be patient and search carefully (and not jump lustily at the first thing that looks half-way good). You can go good without going broke.


- Barrett
 
amateriat said:
...and not jump lustily at the first thing that looks half-way good...


- Barrett
Click to expand...

But they all look SOOOO good! "Lustily" being the key word in this context.

Kidding aside, it's the one or two tricky unpredictable light situation that keep me wishing I had a manual shutter-speed setting on my CC. Inexperience and defiance against using or learning to use a flash doesn't help either.
 
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