OT: The OTHER Dark Side ...

[GeneW]

The F3 arrived last week, and I've done several lens purchases and/or trades with RFFers who are helping lead me into darkness: peterc, jja, ray_g, Brian Sweeney, not to mention Uncle Bill and Jan Normandale who have picked up some of my surplus Olympus gear.

Developed my first test roll last night -- my last roll of APX100. This was one of the shots -- not great but at least interesting. I call it Lighthouse Solstice -- late afternoon winter sun shining through the lighthouse window.

I'm still amazed at how affordable good film gear is these days!

Gene

 

[peterc]

Nice shot Gene!

Peter

 

[taffer]

Hi Taffer

Getting an M3
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Leicas are not that expensive if you consider that it would cost more buying and selling gears as substitute in the ultimate search for perfection.

IMHO, most 35mm RF photographers would attempt to scratch this Leica RF itch at least once in their life.

Yet the simplest and most effective Leica combo is M3 with 50/2 cron, bought used, mechanically functional and cosmetically challenged, period.

Minty and expensive Leicas usually gets to sit on the shelf or in the box for some unknown reason(s).

My battered M3
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It's not as bad as being ran over by a bus, the shutter got jammed at 1/60 x-sync and I tried all means including getting a chopstick into the act, 😱 the jam was "fixed" at the expense of a defunct shutter release button,konked the self timer and I am also left with a loose speed dial.

The panzer is still working at all speeds with no visible damage to the curtain, only BIG PROBLEM is that the shutter fires by itself upon everytime when I wind the film advance it became sort of like it has a winder, maybe a Leicavit winder works like this. 😀

As you already know the Leica service agent in my area had suggested a resurrection at Solms for USD1200++, an amount which I could try to source for a M6 locally as an affordable alternative.

My heart tells me I should keep this M3 body for a future resurrection since I got lots of memorable photographic moments with it. Or I suppose I could try to use it my winder equipped M3 at higher speeds 1/250 & above.

Nikon & Minoltas
The Nikon SLRs are the ultimate Nippon panzers, I would sell the Minolta to a Minolta guy and add to the Nikon MFs, its better to be focused in your collection.

Hey ! 🙂

Thanks for the detailed explanation ! Your sentences as for the M3 remind me a lot what I've heard from other members (they think I ignored their subliminal messages to grab a M3, but I did not 😉 )

It's certainly something I'll try, but as with many things I guess that when the time is right and the right camera appears I'll somehow *know* it 🙂

Your M3 sounds like a real survivor, and it would be sort of sad to put it out of the service when it's been so loyal. $1200 is a lot but maybe you could ask DAG, Essex, Sherry Krauter or other service people for an estimate.

And with all that on top the beast just keeps working, she wants to be with you !

As for Minolta, well, I got that body locally in a store and the prices I see for them nowadays are dirt cheap. The glass OTH I got it cheap enough, so all variables seem to be telling me to keep that one 😉

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Gene, nice lighthouse shot ! As I told you I've been using my Nikons mainly for field work, I shoot with them with a very specific subject in mind so my kind of shooting is very different than the daily one with my RFs, I'm sure you'll soon get the rythm of the F3 for your own kind of shooting, and you'll amaze us, as always !

Oscar

 

[GeneW]

Peter, Oscar, thanks! This was taken with your old Nikkor 135/35 Peter 😀

Gene

 

[peterc]

This was taken with your old Nikkor 135/35

Glad it's working so well for you. I always liked the results I got, but with 2 135mm lenses it usually got left home to sulk while I took the 135/2.8.

Peter