Looking to step into the rangefinder world.. any advice is welcome!

[jrm27]

Hello all,

Here is another "what should my first rangefinder be?" post. But, this world is very new to me and I welcome all input as I'm researching.

First, I am not new to photography. I started on film in the mid 90's with a Minolta SRT101 that I absolutely loved. I shot that for about a decade before I moved to digital and worked my way through many a Canon. Currently, I am shooting an R6 that is fantastic. I love shooting digital for many reasons, but I severely miss shooting on film. So, I'm looking for a camera to add that won't be my primary camera, but will bring back the joy and intentionality of shooting film.

As a canon shooter I've been very interested int he QL17/19 (probably mostly out of brand loyalty and that slick film loading system.) I've also seen some interesting work out of the Minolta HiMatic 7 series (again, nostalgic brand loyalty). But, I'm looking for something small and unobtrusive that I can take traveling with me. Fixed lens is fine as I'm not looking for assembling another stable of lenses (yet). I'm comfortable shooting full manual, but I wouldn't mind a half decent light meter in camera that can point me in the right direction. This would mostly be for travel, around town, fun personal photo work.. nothing professional or super "clandestine street photography" needed. Hoping to not break the bank as well.

Are there other options I should be looking at? And, where? Ebay seems SUPER sketchy... and my local shops are not overflowing with old ilm rangefinders 😉

Thanks for the patience and any guidance you might give! I'm digging through these forums all the time, so I apologize if I'm missing things. Please feel free to point me to a different thread or forum if that is best. Thanks all!

-jrm

 

[Cascadilla]

The heyday for fixed lens RF cameras with a light meter was the 1950's through the early 1970's. There will be issues with the light meters for many of these cameras, such as dead selenium cells from earlier cameras and the need for substitutes for the mercury batteries that were standard into the 1970's but are no longer on the market. With many of these meters, the wrong battery will lead to erroneous meter readings. That said, many of these cameras from Canon, Minolta, Konica and others usually had very good lenses and are competent picture takers. If you decide that you really like rangefinders, you can then move on to Leica, Nikon, Contax, etc. with some great interchangeable lenses. I used a Minolta Hi Matic 9 many years ago that I was able to borrow when I was high school age, and it was a good camera although pretty large and heavy for what it did.

As for finding these cameras, look for eBay sellers with a lot of sales and a 98%+ favorable rating and someone who describes the camera accurately in their own words. If you see an obviously AI description, keep moving. Avoid anything listed as "untested" unless you are competent at repairing it yourself, since that is usually code for "I know it doesn't work." The manuals for most of these cameras can be found on the web so you can check out the size and weight, as well as any idiosyncrasies in loading, etc. Good luck, and post some pictures here when you find something.

 

[The Spastic Image]

Why not consider a Canon V, VI, or 7 RF camera and a Canon Leica Screw Mount lens of your choice. (35mm or 50mm).

 

[jrm27]

The heyday for fixed lens RF cameras with a light meter was the 1950's through the early 1970's. There will be issues with the light meters for many of these cameras, such as dead selenium cells from earlier cameras and the need for substitutes for the mercury batteries that were standard into the 1970's but are no longer on the market. With many of these meters, the wrong battery will lead to erroneous meter readings. That said, many of these cameras from Canon, Minolta, Konica and others usually had very good lenses and are competent picture takers. If you decide that you really like rangefinders, you can then move on to Leica, Nikon, Contax, etc. with some great interchangeable lenses. I used a Minolta Hi Matic 9 many years ago that I was able to borrow when I was high school age, and it was a good camera although pretty large and heavy for what it did.

As for finding these cameras, look for eBay sellers with a lot of sales and a 98%+ favorable rating and someone who describes the camera accurately in their own words. If you see an obviously AI description, keep moving. Avoid anything listed as "untested" unless you are competent at repairing it yourself, since that is usually code for "I know it doesn't work." The manuals for most of these cameras can be found on the web so you can check out the size and weight, as well as any idiosyncrasies in loading, etc. Good luck, and post some pictures here when you find something.

Thank you. I assumed that the light meters would be questionable at this point in their life cycles, but hopefully they'd be good enough to at least get me in close"ish". I've read that some are using modern batteries with different voltages and are compensating in their exposure calculations. But, hoping that actually works may just be wishful thinking. You make a good point that I haven't put too much thought into. Thanks for that. I appreciate the eBay advice too. I'm not too knowledgeable on opening up cameras and fixing them, so trying to find something reliable there might be a challenge!

Why not consider a Canon V, VI, or 7 RF camera and a Canon Leica Screw Mount lens of your choice. (35mm or 50mm).

Sounds like I have another group of cameras to look at! Thanks. I will say, the main reason I hd been looking at a fixed lenses was because it seemed like those cameras were all generally smaller than the interchangeable lens options. I'm also really wanting the film experience to be less about weighing which lenses to bring, which lens to grab for the day, do I need more lenses, would this look better on a 35mm, etc... and just grabbing and going. I realize that can be done with the others too... it just requires that I restrict myself to owning one lens, and that point the size difference of the body seems to be a factor. However, I'm going to check those out! Do you have a favorite among those?

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Canon P .
Less issues for stepping into RF by maintaining loyalty.
Lovely camera without questionable vintage electronics.

 

[Alpsman]

As soon as ya have a rangefinder with exchangeable lenses, you're in danger to buy exchangeable lenses. 😎

Also a question is, does it need to be a "classic rangefinder" or can it also be a "modern" point and shoot. Some of these are very useful everyday always with me cameras. They are also available with a fixfocus lens. They have lightmeter, sometimes autofokus, some can imprint the date and use batteries you can found in every shop.
For example, I am hooked on Nikon Rangefinders with a handful of lenses.
But my everyday, always & everywhere with me are two cheap point & shoot Nikon and Fuji), with autofokus, flash, motordrive, date imprint and a common battery. And if one of them breaks down - the cam is cheap. Meanwhile on one of them the battery cover isfixed with tape because the camera dropped about two meter - and it still works.