Rangefinder Renaissance: your opinions?

Doug said:
Stephen, thanks for your observations, and I largely agree. But I've been told that in general the modern auto-focus SLR focusing screen is optimized for viewfinder brightness at the expense of focusing ease. Makes sense, as the ubiquitous zooms tend to be slow, dimming the viewfinder, while the AF handles the focusing. Do you find this to be true? And doesn't this undermine the ability to use manual focusing?
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I don't agree, and I'll expand on this. But, rather than have this thread hijacked regarding SLR, I'll post my response in the SLR vs RF thread. Seems more appropriate. Here is the link.

SLR vs RF thread

Brian, The N70 is a low end consumer camera and nortious for being a poor AF performer, as are many of the earlier AF bodies. Technology has taken leaps and bounds since then. I'm not surprised that you had trouble with it. My 6006, 8008, and N90's drove me nuts, and I used MF for most of my shooting with them.

The current D and F series are significantly bettter than anything in the N series, or pre-D/F series. At least 5 times faster, and rarely hunts on me. Add the fast AFS lenses, and its even quicker. Even those times it does hunt, it typically finds focus just as quickly as I would have if done manually. I have a hard time bettering the AF speed manually in 95% of the cases.
 
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Definitely a tight composition.

Back to the Renaissance issue, kudos to Gandy on coining the phrase. With regards, to the VC Bessa line-up it was high time someone marketed an affordable 35mm RF without trying to match up all the automated techno gizmos.

But with a heavy Al Gore sigh, it is a small market and I wish this boutique manufacturer of RF equipment all the success in the world.

My own renaissance has been an up and down rollercoaster which began in 1972. I do get tempted away by the latest and greatest gadetry for while. Then come back to an old reliable standby and its easy to do since some of the classic RF's tend last forever.

One final note, much of the older and more esoteric RF gear has gone down in price to the point that I'm able to pay for an item with a check rather than on credit.
 
Having had a Bessa R for over a year now, I have demonstrated to myself that it can be used for many purposes, but isn't versatile enough FOR ME to be used as my sole camera. In fact, I have found my Minolta A1 digital (bought about 6 mos. ago) to be far more useful even though it has slow autofocus (compared to an AF SLR...it's AF speed is on par or better than non-SLR digicams) and is next to impossible to focus manually.

As for focusing, it is easy to focus an RF in low light but quite difficult to focus on a moving subject (eg: my son's head). The fact is, my Minolta Maxxum 7 film SLR can focus in extremely low light, and if I activate the focus assist beam, it can focus in the dark...and it can do so quickly.

Where the Bessa shines is in its small size, relatively quiet shutter noise and unassuming appearance. In short, it is great for street shooting. However, I have found that my A1 is also extremely good for street shooting. I can set it to manual focus, aperture priority (or manual exposure), and it works quite well as a fast street shooter. It's only downside is too much image noise beyond ISO400. It is virtually silent, has a waist level finder (tilting LCD), and its small sensor gives it huge DoF even at f4.

Once these high end digicams come out with a larger sensor (noise-free at ISO800), I can't see any reason for me to use a film RF.

For those times when I need to use film, I can fall back on my Minolta film SLR. And if I really want to get retro, I can use my Nikon F's or buy an FM/FE.

In short, with the dropping cost of digital, the RF is no longer my ideal street shooter. Having said that, I still enjoy shooting with it, but I don't know how long I can use that justification to keep the camera.

...lars
 
There are several reasons why I will use film rather than digital cameras for some purposes. Firstly, there is the wide-angle lens for the Cosina range. Until full sizes digital sensors become readily available then film bodies will be needed. Secondly I always carry a camera with me. Digital compacts are just not suitable - the batteries tend to be flat when I need them. For this reason I carry a Contax T (the second smallest rangefinder after the Olympus XA). The final reason is the degree of control with a compact camera. Recently there has been a reorganisation at work and several pople are leaving. On such occasions in the past I have used a P&S. Unfortunately the autofocus would sometime focus on a distant wall between two people. With the Contax T this is not a problem (although with flash and a fastish film the depth of field makes zone focussing possible). The only draw back was the comment about me using such an old camera. I pointed out to one female colleage that if being twenty years old was old then being near forty must be ancient. As I picked myself off the floor, I realised the advantage of a camera with a titanium body shell.
 
"I pointed out to one female colleage that if being twenty years old was old then being near forty must be ancient."
:D:D:D may i use this reply for similar purposes?
 
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