New to RF photography - Bessa or what?

I'm am a Bessa R user myself.

The only other rangefinders that I would consider (if I had the money) are either Leica M6/M7 or the Contax G2. I noticed that the G2 wasn't on your wish list... This camera is well worth looking at.

I'm looking at upgrading in the next year. As I already have a nice collection of CV lenses, I will either upgrade to an R2a or R3a or possibly a s/h Leica.
 
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Wiechel said:
Nope, I want TTL metering for sure, so it's gotta be a bit newer cameras for me.
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I suppose you know that the M6 "classic" has TTL metering. The M6 TTL is one of the few manual cameras (SLR or RF) which has TTL flash metering.
 
petebown said:
I'm am a Bessa R user myself.

The only other rangefinders that I would consider (if I had the money) are either Leica M6/M7 or the Contax G2. I noticed that the G2 wasn't on your wish list... This camera is well worth looking at.

I'm looking at upgrading in the next year. As I already have a nice collection of CV lenses, I will either upgrade to an R2a or R3a or possibly a s/h Leica.
Click to expand...
The Contax G2 was stricken from my list, because it is not a rangefinder. It is an autofocus camera with removable lenses (tho the lenses are very good indeed).
 
http://www.imx.nl/photosite/leica/mseries/choosem.html

that might help you out.

i decided on an m4-2 mainly because of price, ease of loading, and choice of framelines. it took many WTB to find one though.

i just got it today and put a roll through it.

i've used a bessa r since the summer, which I really enjoyed, and was great for the price, but I got tempted into leica land by my friend who used to have a iiif, and now an m2.

I thought the lack of an external meter was going to be hard to adjust to, but I almost like it better because you don't need the camera in your face to meter. You can do lots of hipshooting, etc. today i was using my friends watson 5, which he recently replaced with a gossen digisix.

also, while scanning the negs, I had A BUNCH that didn't change too much after applying "auto contrast".. oooh yeahhhhh 🙂

hope that rant helped somewhat.
 
Wiechel said:
Whoops! My bad! So, tell me, which was the first Leica M with TTL metering?
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The first was the M5. The Leitz/Minolta CL and the Minolta CLE were also M-mount with TTL metering, but they are not strictly in the M series.
 
you mean weston!

i'm watching an auction for a hexar rf body. i'll let you know how much it goes for.

one advantage of the r2 over the r2a is that it costs less and won't depreciate much for a couple years, until new models come out. =)
 
Damnit, I'm f**king worthless when it comes to making decisions. I STILL can't decide whether to go for a used R2 or a NIB R2A (the Leica thoughts set aside).

Help me or I'll toss a coin 😉. Problem is the R2 is the only one I've handled. The R2As aren't available in Sweden, so I can't try one out for size...

R2 PROS:
* Cheaper
* Doesn't need batteries to work
* Will force me to do everything manually, which is why I wanna go RF in the first place
* Less chance of quality issues? Or maybe not?

R2A PROS:
* Quieter
* Will allow quicker shooting in some conditions with AE
* May be sturdier built? I'm not sure...
 
If R2A is quieter I'd hate to hear R2 😉)))
 
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I don't think you can go wrong with either. My inclination would be to get the classic R2 and wait for a generation or two of Bessa development until they put in a longer rangefinder base before moving up ... by which time you may be shooting Leica anyway 😀

Gene
 
you're over thinking this whole thing.
both cameras are fine but the r2 has been around a bit and we know it's strong/weak points. the r2a is new and more unknown.

also. the bottom line in the process are the lenses and both cameras can take the same lenses. if you really like the rf experience but decide you want the ae you can sell it and buy the r2a.
after shooting for over 30 years, using the latest, the greatest and the near ancient i prefer no meter in the body and no auto anything functions.
hard to believe but it's actually faster that way and all the decisions have been made long before you take a photo. it's so simple it's a pleasure to shoot.

joe
 
Gene> Aw, come on! 🙂

Backalley> Of course I am overthinking it. I tend to overthink every descision I make. It is a sickness for which I have yet to find a cure. And until I do, all I can do is keep overthinking avery thing until people get pissed at me and help/force me to make a decision. 😉
 
Kidding aside, my thoughts match Joe's exactly. Or, and I'm serious this time, just toss a coin. Julius did just that with a die before he crossed the Rubicon and became Caesar.

Gene
 
Get the R2 - why? - it´s that little bit older than the "a"´s and therefore may be a bit easier to sell if you decide it wasn´t for you...turn your way of thinking around for a bit: you are unsure of no matter what camera you have on your list. Why invest more than you need to, when you are not 100% sure in the first place. ;-)

Cheers and welcome to the forum.

/Meakin
 
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