New-ish reasonable rangefinder camera?

For $100:
- FSU cameras; perhaps a gamble but can be a lot better than you might fear
- One of my favorites, Yashica Electro GTN or GX. You'll find them for $20, but need work. Expect to have an excellent $!00 camera. Auto exposure, but you just adjust film speed to vary exposure.

Good luck with your search.
 
zenza said:
Haha, fair game! I do think the Canon P is the best bang for your buck rangefinder right now. A working body for $100 is definitely possible. I paid $140 for a minty body with nice 50/1.8 last year off eBay.
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Yeah, a few years ago, I sold a full-on Canon P kit to Glass Key Photo in SF for $160. Working camera, 50/1.8 lens with hood and filter, clip-on light meter (might have been dead), reloadable metal film cassette, cable release, leather cases, and original manual. Basically everything but the original boxes.

I probably could have gotten more for it if I parted everything out, but it was too much of a hassle. I have some mild regret, but still too many cameras. :eek:
 
Try expanding your horizons and look in places other than Ebay, where camera prices nowadays are as if the cameras being offered for sale were minted in solid gold or sterling silver - many charity shops and secondhand dealers seem to have stashes of old photo gear often moldering genteelly in storage cartons in back rooms.

Our two local op shops (I live in rural Australia in an area not yet hit by Covid lockdowns so we are still free to roam about and shop and even stockpile/hoard to our hearts' content, while it lasts) occasionally ask me to come in and evaluate the mostly film cameras they are given by donors. Much of it can only charitably be called junk, but now and then a quality older camera comes along. Op shops don't offer guarantees so prices are usually reasonable - from $20 for old rangefinders, up to $50-$75 for SLRs, much cheaper for small P&Ss. All in working condition.

I see Canon GLs, small Olympus and Ricoh P&S cameras and a seemingly endless assortment of 1990s SLRs with kit zooms, all in working condition if somewhat rough looking, donated by families of deceased or elderly photographers who no longer shoot film. Anything broken or too old or decrepit to be used goes to recycling - which may be a good source for buying cameras if your local community has a recycling depot with a sales counter.

Garage or estate sales are also good places to shop - here in Ozzy many sellers are convinced their clapped-out 1980s photo relics are minted in precious metal and worth a small fortune, but usually prices are reasonable. I once bought a Retina iib in working condition for A$20 because the seller said it was kaput - the film counter had to be reset to '0' to make it work. Some Voigtlander rangefinder shutters won't fire if the cameras doesn't have film in it. As I never tire of telling everyone, some years ago I bought a Rolleicord Vb kit, dirty and dusty but in 'user' condition and mechanically spot-on, for A$95 at one such sale. I also often find filters or other small usable bits of photo gear at giveaway prices.

Go to those sales early and take a pocket full of small cash. Often as not producing a fistful of money will turn a discussion/debate/bargaining session into a sale. Be polite and avoid making bottom-feed offers for quality items - many sellers have no idea of the value of what they are offering, but a remark like "will you take two dollars for this?" will result in your being told to go jump. As the signs I used to see in many shops, "Please do not make low offers as refusal may offend".
 
As you are now looking at SLRs, I'd recommend the Nikkormat FT2 as a full manual/mechanical option that can be had for way under $100.
More modern - the Pentax SuperA - which is auto + manual.
Pentax KX is the ultimate K1000, but is around 100-200 for a decent one. Pentax MX is in the same range.
Nikon FM/FM2 is the very obvious option for manual/mechanical and thinking about it now, the one I'd recommend. I bought an FM from Goodwill, and an FM2n from craigslist and both are perfect.

Anyway, here's a thread on the Pentax SuperA:

https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=171680
 
I'm able to repair things myself, but I'm getting tired of tinkering around. I just want to shoot pictures at this point, but I understand what you're saying.

Just a little too much negotiating with sellers and tinkering around trying to fix things.

Hence why I wanted something NEW-ish, so hopefully it would work well.

Olympus XA looks interesting, I wasn't aware that was a rangefinder, and that it was fully manual, but it's from 1980. At that point, might as well go Olympus 35RC, only a few years older, which has a more classic look. Both lenses seem to look extremely sharp which is great.

It seems like an XA might fit the bill for what I'm looking for, it seems like XA1 or 2 can be had for fairly reasonable price, I'll have to ponder on it and maybe keep my eye out for a promising model.

Phil_F_NM said:
If you learn to shop in a savvy way and repair things yourself, you can get some incredible deals. Sometimes only a battery chamber needs to be cleaned, sometimes it's just a setting on a camera, sometimes it needs new door and mirror foam (all the time). You can learn which are the winners and which are cameras you should stay away from.

Phil Forrest
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Forest_rain said:
It seems like an XA might fit the bill for what I'm looking for, it seems like XA1 or 2 can be had for farely reasonable price, I'll have to ponder on it and maybe keep my eye out for a promising model.
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Only the XA is a true rangefinder. The XA1 is fixed focus, and the rest of the series (XA2, XA3, and XA4) are all scale/zone focus.
 
Just to echo what other people have said, your entry point is a Canon P. I bought mine with a Canon 50 1.8 from a dealer a couple of years ago for £200 and have had zero issues with the camera mechanically.
Buy it from a dealer and you should get a guarantee for any short term problems the camera has.
 
dourbalistar said:
Only the XA is a true rangefinder. The XA1 is fixed focus, and the rest of the series (XA2, XA3, and XA4) are all scale/zone focus.
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And they are all automatic; not manual.

If it's the budget figure that's the key then your best hope is a FED 2 without the self timer (less to go wrong). They are old cameras but tough and well designed. OTOH, there are some nasty people out there selling them and some nice people.

They (good FED 2s) do exist and there are some nice lenses to go with them like the Industar 26.

But do some research; there's cult lenses and cult cameras and that applies to all makers.

If new is the key; give up now and avoid a lot of problems and worries.

I'm sorry to offer so many downers but that's how it is at present. You have to work hard to find bargains...

Regards, David

PS And take the postage into account, and tax and duty when looking at prices. Luckily ebay lets you list things by the combined price and country of origin and, of course, shows prices of completed sales. All good tools for research.
 
They're automatic? I thought you could set the shutter speed/aperture...I'm confused now.

Seems like it's hard to find rangefinders, as they are quite popular. Will just stick to what I have for now.

David Hughes said:
And they are all automatic; not manual.

If it's the budget figure that's the key then your best hope is a FED 2 without the self timer (less to go wrong). They are old cameras but tough and well designed. OTOH, there are some nasty people out there selling them and some nice people.

They (good FED 2s) do exist and there are some nice lenses to go with them like the Industar 26.

But do some research; there's cult lenses and cult cameras and that applies to all makers.

If new is the key; give up now and avoid a lot of problems and worries.

I'm sorry to offer so many downers but that's how it is at present. You have to work hard to find bargains...

Regards, David
Click to expand...
 
David Hughes said:
And they are all automatic; not manual.
Click to expand...

Forest_rain said:
They're automatic? I thought you could set the shutter speed/aperture...I'm confused now.
Click to expand...

On the XA, you can set the aperture, but the shutter speed is automatically set. So aperture priority, with manual rangefinder focusing. All the other cameras in the series are auto exposure.
 
Forest_rain said:
They're automatic? I thought you could set the shutter speed/aperture...I'm confused now.

Seems like it's hard to find rangefinders, as they are quite popular. Will just stick to what I have for now.
Click to expand...

You set the aperture and they automatically set the shutter. So perhaps a better name would be semi-automatic but really you don't have a choice unless you trick the camera by changing the film speed manually and hope & pray you remember to change it back...

If you want a rangefinder then don't give up but start saving and doing the research I mentioned. You'll soon discover the cameras available and the prices. Spend a few pennies on a note book and use your notes to sort out what you want.

An example; I recommended the FED-2 as it a good design (wide RF base), easy to find and a tough old bird. It may not, however, be your idea of a rangefinder as it loads the old fashioned way and doesn't have a lever wind to advance the film. OTOH, they are dirt cheap for what you get and specialist like Oleg can make them as good as new for a fraction of the cost of (say) a Leica.

Now look at Leicas; they cost thousands for the M series and there's no point in buying a Leica and not using a Leica lens and they are heading towards thousands in what Leica made for the not so well heeled.

Leica make very nice lenses for the rich with F/1.4 apertures but they also made f/2.8 and f/3.5 lenses and they are usually the bargains. But here the word "bargain" is relative to the cost of a new fast one. Now many people suggest that you use other makes of lens but I think the main reason for buying a Leica is the glassware, not the body.

Regards, David

PS FWIW a cheap conventional and purely manual RF might be the Zorki 6.

PPS Your research should also cover the typical cost of a repair, because one will be needed sooner or later for any RF.
 
We are such camera snobs here that it's hard to drop back to the first part of the journey.

You WILL find a good, fully manual camera-and-lens for under $50 at a yard sale or thrift store. Just look until you find something you like. There's one in my local 'Op' shop (thrift store) that I haven't even looked at but by the case I'm expecting a 50s or 60s German fixed-lens rangefinder. These things just keep working. At the other end of the time scale, I had another charity store give me a fully electronic film camera for nothing with the purchase of a $20 item, itself well below market value. A camera like that can still be manually controlled if you wish to.

My tip for bang-for-buck in interchangable lens cameras would be a plastic SLR with full manual controls (no auto). These will almost invariably be Cosina-built and the control systems are identical to the expensive Voigtlander rangefinders. Just no rangefinder, obviously.

If it has to be a RF then FSU on an auction. I think the FED-2 is a reasonable compromise for low cost and decent function. They were designed and built to be functionally simple and are hard to completely wreck. Like any auction of old items, look for a good quality seller and accept something that isn't attractive in unimportant areas. I have a Voigtlander Bessa R with a minor glitch on the frameline switch: it won't do one action. But since you can work around this it doesn't matter. It has no serial: this camera left the factory as a 'second.' That one was cheap. I have a 1/2 price R-D1 that has a dead top dial. Keep looking, take something ugly or with an engraved name.

You will get something that you want at that price, just not a sought after brand. And you may turn over a few logs before you find it.
 
David Hughes said:
You set the aperture and they automatically set the shutter. So perhaps a better name would be semi-automatic but really you don't have a choice unless you trick the camera by changing the film speed manually and hope & pray you remember to change it back...

If you want a rangefinder then don't give up but start saving and doing the research I mentioned. You'll soon discover the cameras available and the prices. Spend a few pennies on a note book and use your notes to sort out what you want.

An example; I recommended the FED-2 as it a good design (wide RF base), easy to find and a tough old bird. It may not, however, be your idea of a rangefinder as it loads the old fashioned way and doesn't have a lever wind to advance the film. OTOH, they are dirt cheap for what you get and specialist like Oleg can make them as good as new for a fraction of the cost of (say) a Leica.

Now look at Leicas; they cost thousands for the M series and there's no point in buying a Leica and not using a Leica lens and they are heading towards thousands in what Leica made for the not so well heeled.

Leica make very nice lenses for the rich with F/1.4 apertures but they also made f/2.8 and f/3.5 lenses and they are usually the bargains. But here the word "bargain" is relative to the cost of a new fast one. Now many people suggest that you use other makes of lens but I think the main reason for buying a Leica is the glassware, not the body.

Regards, David

PS FWIW a cheap conventional and purely manual RF might be the Zorki 6.

PPS Your research should also cover the typical cost of a repair, because one will be needed sooner or later for any RF.
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What David said. All good advice.
 
In Leica's the IIIc is the cost winner but you are less than 1/2 way there. Don't fret the flash: you can get aftermarket flash systems. I have a IIIa and a clip-on flash system that works great. It also has a dead flash socket someone installed through the word "Leica"- if you want a user camera get the uncollectable ones.
 
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