R4M / R4A worth it?

[Bill58]

At a whopping $745 (body only) are they worth the price? Has anybody got any experience w/ either yet?

Bill

 

[oscroft]

I love my R4A. The viewfinder is superb - even slightly brighter than a Leica M viewfinder, and with parallax-corrected frames for 21, 25, 28, 35, 50 it's a wideangle lover's dream.

 

[rxmd]

That's the kind of question to which you'll only get very subjective answers. To me, it isn't worth the four times as much money as a $175 Bessa R, with external viewfinders that I already have. As evident, others see this differently. 😉

 

[peter_n]

Bill there are a number of quite long threads about peoples' experiences with the camera here. You will easily find them through the search engine. As for me I bought mine to use with a 24/2.8 as I don't like separate finders particularly. It is a very well made camera; fit & finish are excellent. I bought mine used for $630 and I'm very happy with it. OTOH as mentioned the alternative is a $75-100 CV finder. I was not prepared to pay full price but wanted to try and if I didn't like it I would sell on. I'm not selling.