My new baby (Bessa R2A) has arrived

[Apple Juice]

Hello all,

My Bessa R2A has just arrive last night !!!
What a cool little gizmo !!
This is my first foray into the rangefinder world and I confess I never understood what a rangefinder patch was until I peered into the viewfinder.
It is such a novel way of focusing that I had a great time just practising focusing last night. Time will tell if I can focus quickly and accurately with it.

The camera is heavier than it looks.
I have decided to use a wrist strap rather than the included neckstrap.
All the moving parts (i.e. shutter release, winder, etc) seem to be moving smoothly.
The 2nd hand 35mm Summicron that has been sitting on my shelf for the past few months works like a dream (I was actually worried I wouldn't know how to attach it to the camera but it turned out to be incredibly intuitive)
The viewfinder is very bright and although I wear glasses, I can comfortably see the 35mm lines clearly.

Will take my new baby out for a spin tonight !!

I have zero experience with film.
I previous only shoot colour on my digital camera and I am interested to try both colour and B&W film photography.
I usually shoot available light in relatively dark environments with ISO400 - 1600.
What brands of film do you guys recommend?

Thanks,

AJ

 

[Designer]

Congratulations! AJ,

You ordered it from oversea? 🙂

Keven

 

[thmk]

Hi AJ,

I wish you very much fun with your new tool (toy is not the right word for it 😉 ). Currently I do mostly b&w and my favourites are Kodak Tri-X for everyday shooting (developed in Kodak D76 1:1) and the Fuji Neopan 1600 for the darker times (developed in Calbe A49/ADOX ATM49 1:1). Some examples are to be found in my gallery. A lot of people also swear on the Neopan 400. I am sure you will hear from them...

Thomas-Michael

 

[Apple Juice]

No, I bought it in Hong Kong.
Grey market with no warranty.

Bought it from a Dr. Joseph Yau who has a reputation as being a honest and friendly seller. My experience with him has been pretty good so far.

 

[Apple Juice]

Thanks Thomas-Michael

I shall give the Tri-X and Fuji neopan a shot.

Its a big shock for a digital camera user to have to pay for every shot taken. 🙁
I have a 1GB compact flash card for my D70 and just shoot away like mad.
Good candid pictures often only turn out with these machine gun tactics.

Then again, taking the time to carefully compose each shot and practice the art of anticipation may improve my pictures.

 

[aizan]

try shooting with a view camera. that'll really get you in tune with the subject. =)

 

[peter_n]

Then again, taking the time to carefully compose each shot and practice the art of anticipation may improve my pictures.

AJ you already have the hang of how to use an RF! Congratulations on your new cam!! I like Fuji Neopan 400 a lot and I've just bought some Neopan 1600 to try. The Fuji B&W film is very impressive.

 

[Huck Finn]

Congratulations, AJ. I think that the R2A with the 35 Summicron should make a great combination. Enjoy!

Huck

 

[Natalia]

Congrats, AJ. Make sure you post some photos soon🙂

 

[RubenBlaedel]

the 35 mm summicron is my favorite rangefinder lens - pictures always comes out naturally and the way I expect them to - look foreward to se som great pics posted and congratulations with your entry to RFF

 

[Apple Juice]

First impressions after use

First impressions after use

Have been carrying my Bessa R2A around with me day and night.
Had decided to go for versatility and put in a roll of TriX 400.

I find the shutter release to be quite loud. Its a metallic clacking noise that I think is more noticeable than my Nikon D70. Its not a problem for taking pictures on the street or in noisy restaurants but it was definitely very noticeable in a quiet room where I was taking pictures of my colleagues. The Bessa is physically less intimidating than my SLR so people tend to pay less attention to me on the street.

I suspect I have been spoilt rotten by my dSLR where everything is automated 😛 .
I am quite slow in using the RF patch for focusing and its next to impossible to keep people who are walking on the street in focus. The RF patch can also be tricky in dim light.
I keep forgetting to advance the film winder after each shot.
I find myself concentrating on focusing properly and fiddling around with the controls rather than on composition which is the most important thing.
I'm so glad I waited for the Bessa R2A which has aperture priority automatic exposure otherwise I would be really stuck.
Although I have been missing my shots, I am have a great time playing around with the RF camera !!
Guess its practice, practice & practice for me.

As for the TriX 400, it is good during daylight (kinda overcast today) but it was inadequate for the resturants I visited in the evening. Automatic exposure had me shooting at 1/4 sec. I do not have high expectations on the quality of the photos taken and there will likely be significant blurring due to handshake. (probably didn't help that I was getting tipsy with wine 😀 )

Will post pics when I get them developed. (may be a while because there are not many photo labs in HK that accept B&W film)

Thank you all for your comments, 🙂

AJ.

 

[GeneW]

Shooting Tri-X at 800 is not a bad compromise. A little thinner in shadow detail but it gets you a few more indoor shots. The Bessa high speeds on the shutter allow you to use Tri-X 800 outdoors without overexposing.

Gene

 

[digitalox]

Can be done @ 400!

I have to admit this was with a Leica mini II which I find very easy to handhold.

 

[wlewisiii]

You might find the new Kodak BW400CN to be an interesting film to try. Shoot it at 800 and just take it to your local color film processor for developing and printing. Don't tell them anything about the speed, just let them do it as normal. It's a nice contrasty film that does well in low light (for me, at least). There are a few of my newer shots in my gallery that you can look at to see what I mean.

William

 

[Doug]

Juice, congratulations on your new rangefinder challenge! I hope you'll find it more comfortable with familiarity. To be at 1/4 sec with Tri-X, the restaurant interior must be quite dim (entirely likely) or you need a faster lens!

 

[Natalia]

Apple Juice (love that name), I'll have my R2A next week, too!

 

[spetsnaz]

Congratulations! For B&W flim, try Ilford Delta400 or Fuji Neopan1600. They're my favorites!

pop

 

[DavidK]

I'm so glad I waited for the Bessa R2A which has aperture priority automatic exposure otherwise I would be really stuck.

Glad you like the R2A! I have the R2 (no AP automatic exp) and I came from the same prior experience of being used to an auto exposure SLR. Great for grab shots, usually of startled 😱 people who've just had a whopping great SLR lens poked in their direction

The downside of that, however, is that the auto exp was often fooled in high-contrast settings, where there was bright sky and deep dark shadows. If I pointed it up too much I'd get too much sky in and BANG! massive underexposure of the thing I wanted in the foreground. The later multi-zone SLRs at least partially overcame this, but the R2A is a good old-fashioned centred-weighted meter (like my SLR).

Then I realised that in many scenes, esp indoors, the light didn't vary that much. I could take a reading, set the camera, and then shoot away. I actually ended up with a higher hit rate than blindly following the auto exp (which would get fooled indoors, for example, if I included a light bulb in the pic).

Then, on bright days when I could stop down to something decent (when the lens will work better anyway, most but not all lenses being designed not to work best when fully open) I started to use hyperfocal focussing, based around the typical distance my subjects were away. You know what it is like, walking around a market or whatever: most things will be a certain distance away.

So for a lot of my "grab" pictures I set up the exposure, set the focus, and then shoot away without changing focus or exposure. Very simple and also very very fast! B+W film has enough latitude to allow a bit of sloppiness (esp if you err on the side of over-exposure) and I get great results.

Of course, when you need it you can be more precise with the exposure and focusing, but under those situations you usually have more time to do it anyway.

And of course, you get the lovely feeling of being able to take a great picture with a camera without a microprocessor in it, and certainly without the 126 cascading menus that you need to master to drive a typical dSLR 🙂

And that is a wonderfully empowering feeling!


Enjoy the R2A!

 

[back alley]

david, i could not agree more.

when i hit the streets i take quite a few meter readings (pilot2) and then put the meter away. i set the camera (canon p & 35 or 50, mostly) and then just shoot away!
if i hit a change in light intensity i will guestimate and continue shooting.
i also use hyperfocal distance but prefer to focus on a point in my shot and then i will wait for people (mostly) to enter my pre-focussed set up.
it actually is more of a free style of shooting than an auto everything camera where i was always trying to 'out think' the camera to make adjustments.

joe

 

[Apple Juice]

1st pics

1st pics

Here are a few photos from my 1st roll of B&W
I used TriX 400.
Very pleased with the sharpness of lens despite at full aperture (that's why its called Leica 😉 )
The 1st pic was taken with shutter speed 1/4 sec, so I guess its true that you can shoot at lower shutter speeds with rangefinders compared to SLRs.

In complex lighting conditions such as bright lights and dim restaurants, I find it difficult to estimate the appropiate exposure. The narrow dynamic range of film compared to the human eye also makes things difficult.

Does anyone here know if Fuji or Ilford has a (relatively) wider dynamic range?